Languages of Sudan
This article may require Arabic, English | |
Regional | Beja, Nubian, Fur |
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Vernacular | Sudanese Arabic |
Minority | Masalit, Zaghawa, Languages of the Nuba Mountains |
Foreign | Hausa, Fula, Kanuri, English |
Signed | Sudanese sign languages |
Keyboard layout |
Part of Culture of Sudan |
Languages |
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Cuisine |
Sport |
Languages
Most languages spoken in Africa fall into four
The most widely spoken language in Sudan is
Modern Standard Arabic, derived from classical Arabic, is used by the educated in travel outside the country.[1] Then there are at least two kinds of colloquial Arabic in Sudan—that spoken in roughly the eastern half of the country and known as Sudanese or Omdurmani colloquial Arabic, and that spoken in Western Sudan, closely akin to the colloquial Arabic spoken in Chad.[1] There are other colloquial forms.[1]
Modern Standard Arabic is in principle the same everywhere in the Arab world and generally permits communication among educated persons whose mother tongue is one or another form of colloquial Arabic.[1] It has been the language used in Sudan's central government, the press, Sudan television, and Radio Omdurman.[1] The latter also broadcast in classical Arabic.[1] One observer, writing in the early 1970s, noted that Arabic speakers (and others who had acquired the language informally) in western Sudan found it easier to understand the Chadian colloquial Arabic used by Chad Radio than the Modern Standard Arabic used by Radio Omdurman.[1] This may also be the case elsewhere in rural Sudan, where villagers and nomads speak a local dialect of Arabic.[1]
Niger-Kordofanian is first divided into Niger–Congo and Kordofanian.
The designation of a Nilo-Saharan superstock has not been fully accepted by
Many other languages are spoken by a few thousand or even a few hundred people.[1] Sudan also has multiple
Language policies
Under the 1998 constitution, only Arabic was the official language.
The new policy for higher education announced by the Sudanese government in 1990, however, dictated that Arabic would be the language of instruction in all institutions of higher learning (see Education in Sudan).[1] This policy was reversed by provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 that were incorporated into Sudan's Interim National Constitution.[1] These provisions established both Arabic and English as official working languages of the national government and as the languages of instruction in higher education.[1] The constitution declared further that "all indigenous languages of the Sudan are national languages and shall be respected, developed, and promoted", and it allowed any legislative body below the national level to adopt any other national language(s) as additional official working language(s) within that body's jurisdiction.[1] These changes began working their way into public life and into secondary and higher education.[1]
Literacy and education
The literacy rate is 70.2% of total population, male: 79.6%, female: 60.8%.[6]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8444-0750-0. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Though published in 2015, this work covers events in the whole of Sudan (including present-day South Sudan) until the 2011 secession of South Sudan.)
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link - ^ "Languages of Sudan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ "بجا". المعرفة (in Arabic). Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ Karen Andrae, 2009. Language for inclusion (Sign language in Sudan)
- ^ Leclerc, Jacques. L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, "Soudan" Archived 2012-10-23 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The World Factbook". cia.gov. Retrieved 13 August 2015.