Nubian languages

Not to be confused with Nubi language, and the Nubia language of Papua New Guinea.
Nubian
Geographic
distribution		Egypt, Sudan
EthnicityNubian
Native speakers
200,000–1 million (cited 1977)[1]
Linguistic classificationNilo-Saharan?
Proto-languageProto-Nubian
Subdivisions
  • Central
  • Northern
  • Western
Language codes
ISO 639-2 / 5nub
Glottolognubi1251

The Nubian languages are a group of related languages spoken by the Nubians. Nubian languages were spoken throughout much of Sudan, but as a result of Arabization they are today mostly limited to the Nile Valley between Aswan (southern Egypt) and Al Dabbah. In the 1956 Census of Sudan there were 167,831 speakers of Nubian languages.[2] Nubian is not to be confused with the various Nuba languages spoken in villages in the Nuba mountains and Darfur.[3]

More recent classifications, such as those in Glottolog, consider that Nubian languages form a primary language family. Older classifications consider Nubian to be a branch of the Nilo-Saharan phylum, a proposal that has been losing support among linguists due to a lack of supporting data.

  1. ^ Rouchdy, Aleya (1980). "Languages in Contact: Arabic-Nubian". Anthropological Linguistics. 22 (8): 334–344.
  2. ^ "Language and ethnic statistics in 20th century Sudanese censuses and surveys". Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  3. ^ Thelwall, Robin (3 February 2002). "Nuba Language and History". Nuba Survival. 1 (3). Retrieved 17 August 2022.