Dinka language

Dinka (natively Thuɔŋjäŋ) is a Nilotic language spoken by the Dinka people, the major ethnic group of South Sudan. There are several main dialects, including Padang, Rek, Agaar, Hol, Twic East, Twic, Athooc, and Gok, which show limited variation. The dialects are all mutually intelligible. It is the only Nilotic language which has its own Wikipedia (din.wikipedia.org). Recently Akutmɛ̈t Latueŋ Thuɔŋjäŋ (the Dinka Language Development Association) has proposed a unified written grammar of Dinka.

The language most closely related to Dinka is the Nuer language. The Luo languages are also closely related. The Dinka vocabulary shows considerable proximity to Nubian, which is probably due to medieval interactions between the Dinka people and the kingdom of Alodia.^[2]

The Dinka are found mainly along the Nile, specifically the west bank of the White Nile, a major tributary flowing north from Uganda, north and south of the Sudd marsh in South Kordofan state of Sudan as well as Bahr el Ghazal region and Upper Nile state of South Sudan.

Linguistic features[]

Phonology[]

Consonants[]

There are 20 consonant phonemes:

Vowels[]

Dinka has a rich vowel system, with thirteen phonemically contrastive short vowels. There are seven vowel qualities plus a two-way distinction in phonation. The underdots, [◌̤], mark the breathy voice series, represented in Dinka orthography by diaereses, ⟨◌̈⟩. Unmarked vowels are modal or creaky voiced.

Four phonetic phonations have been described in Dinka vowels: modal voice, breathy voice, faucalized voice, and harsh voice. The modal series has creaky or harsh voice realizations in certain environments, while the breathy vowels are centralized and have been described as being hollow voiced (faucalized). This is independent of tone.^[3]

On top of this, there are three phonemically contrastive vowel lengths, a feature found in very few languages.^[3] Most Dinka verb roots are single, closed syllables with either a short or a long vowel. Some inflections lengthen that vowel:

• /lèl/ 'isolate\2sg'
• /lèːl/ 'isolate\3sg'
• /léːl/ 'provoke\2sg'
• /lèːːl/ 'provoke\3sg'

Tone[]

The extensive use of tone and its interaction with morphology is a notable feature of all dialects of Dinka. The Bor dialects all have four tonemes at the syllable level: Low, High, Mid, and Fall.^[3]

In Bor proper, falling tone is not found on short vowels except as an inflection for the passive in the present tense. In Nyaarweng and Twïc it is not found at all. In Bor proper, and perhaps in other dialects as well, Fall is only realized as such at the end of a prosodic phrase. Elsewhere it becomes High.

In Bor proper and perhaps other dialects, a Low tone is only phonetically low after another low tone. Elsewhere it is falling, but not identical to Fall: It does not become High in the middle of a phrase, and speakers can distinguish the two falling tones despite the fact that they have the same range of pitch. The difference appears to be in the timing: with Fall one hears a high level tone that then falls, whereas the falling allophone of Low starts falling and then levels out. (That is, one falls on the first mora of the vowel, whereas the other falls on the second mora.) This is unusual because it has been theorized that such timing differences are never phonemic.^[4]

Morphology[]

This language exhibits vowel ablaut or apophony, the change of internal vowels (similar to English goose/geese):^[5]

Dialects[]

Linguists divide Dinka into five dialects corresponding to their geographic location with respect to each other:

Northeastern and western:

• Padang da Ayuel jiel (Abarlang, Nyiël, Ageer, Dongjol).
• Luäc da (Akook, Wieu, Aguer)
• Ngok de Jok (Upper Nile)
• Rut
• Thoi

Western:

• Ngók de Jok Athuorkok (Abiei)
• Ngok de Jok da Awet
• Kuel of Ruweeng (Panaru, Aloor and Paweny)

South Central:

• Aliap
• Ciëc (Jang)
• Gok
• Agar

Southeastern:

• Bor
• Twic (Twi)
• Nyarweng
• Hol

Southwestern:

• Rek
• Abiëm
• Aguók
• Apuk
• Awan
• Kuac
• Lóu
• Luäc/Luänyjang
• Malual (Malualgiėrnyang)
• Paliët
• Paliëupiny
• Twïc

These are entirely mutually intelligible.

See Ethnologue online map of Sudan for locations of dialects.

Writing system[]

Dinka has been written with several Latin alphabets since the early 20th century. The current alphabet is:

a ä b c d dh e ë ɛ ɛ̈ g ɣ i ï j k l m n nh ny ŋ t th u w o ö ɔ ɔ̈ p r y

Variants in other alphabets include:

See also[]

• Dinka people
• Nilo-Saharan languages

References[]

Other resources[]

External links[]

Dinka edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• kasahorow page on Dinka
• OpenRoad page on Dinka
• Dinka Language Institute (Australia) (DLIA) multilingual site on Dinka, including in Dinka
• PanAfrican L10n page on Dinka
• Dinka alphabet on Answer.com
• Kitap De Duɔr Prayer Book with Hymns, in Dinka, Bor dialect (1956) digitized by Richard Mammana in 2015
• din:Wikipedia:Apam këdït Wikipedia in Dinka