Nilotic
The Nilotic peoples are people indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. Among these are the Burun-sp ...
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...
. There are several main varieties, Padang, Rek, Agaar, Bor, Hol, Twic East, Twic, which are distinct enough (though mutually intelligible) to require separate literary standards. Jaang, Jieng or Monyjieng is used as a general term to cover all Dinka languages. 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 Nuer language (Thok Naath) ("people's language") is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gambela). The language is very similar to Dinka and A ...
. The
Luo languages
The dozen Luo, Lwo or Lwoian languages are spoken by the Luo peoples in an area ranging from southern Sudan to western Ethiopia to southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...
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
Alodia, also known as Alwa ( grc-gre, Aρουα, ''Aroua''; ar, علوة, ''ʿAlwa''), was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of t ...
.
The Dinka are found mainly along the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
, specifically the west bank of the White Nile, a major tributary flowing north from
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
South Kordofan
South Kordofan ( ar, جنوب كردفان ') is one of the 18 wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km² and an estimated population of approximately 1,100,000 people (2000).Sudan as well as
Bahr el Ghazal Bahr el-Ghazal (Arabic بحر الغزال , also transliterated ''Bahr al-Ghazal'', ''Baḩr al-Ghazāl'', ''Bahr el-Gazel'', or versions of these without the hyphen) may refer to two distinct places, both named after ephemeral or dry rivers.
Chad ...
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
Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...
series, represented in Dinka orthography by diaereses, . Unmarked vowels are modal or
creaky voice
In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) refers to a low, scratchy sound that occupies the vocal range below the common vocal register. It is a special kind of phonation in which ...
d.
Four phonetic phonations have been described in Dinka vowels:
modal voice
Modal voice is the vocal register used most frequently in speech and singing in most languages. It is also the term used in linguistics for the most common phonation of vowels. The term "modal" refers to the resonant mode of vocal folds; that is ...
harsh voice
Harsh voice, also called ventricular voice or (in some high-tone registers) pressed voice, is the production of speech sounds (typically vowels) with a constricted laryngeal cavity, which generally involves epiglottal co-articulation. Harsh voic ...
. The modal series has creaky or
harsh voice
Harsh voice, also called ventricular voice or (in some high-tone registers) pressed voice, is the production of speech sounds (typically vowels) with a constricted laryngeal cavity, which generally involves epiglottal co-articulation. Harsh voic ...
realizations in certain environments, while the breathy vowels are centralized and have been described as being hollow voiced (faucalized). This is independent of tone.
On top of this, there are three phonemically contrastive
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
s, a feature found in very few languages.
Most Dinka verb roots are single, closed syllables with either a short or a long vowel. Some inflections lengthen that vowel:
* 'isolate\2sg'
* 'isolate\3sg'
* 'provoke\2sg'
* '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.
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.
Morphology
This language exhibits vowel
ablaut
In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut (, from German '' Ablaut'' ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).
An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its ...
or
apophony
In linguistics, apophony (also known as ablaut, (vowel) gradation, (vowel) mutation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, internal inflection etc.) is any alternation wit ...
, the change of internal vowels (similar to English ''goose/geese''):
Dialects
Linguists divide Dinka into five languages or dialect clusters corresponding to their geographic location with respect to each other:
Northeastern and western:
* Padaŋ de Ayuël jiel (Abiliang, Nyiël, Ageer, Döŋjɔl).
* Luäc (Akook, Wieu, Aguer)
* Ŋɔŋ de Jok (Upper Nile)
* Rut
* Thoi
Western:
* Ŋɔŋ de Jok Athuorkok (Abiei)
* Ŋɔŋ de Jok de Awet
* Kuel de Ruweeng (Panaru, Aloor ku Paweny)
South Central:
* Aliap
* Ciëc (Jang)
* Gɔ̈k
* Agaar
* Apääk de Yirol west.
Southeastern:
* Bor
* Twic (Twi)
* Nyarweng
* Hol
Southwestern:
* Malual-Jiɛrnyaaŋ (Abiëm, Paliëët, Aroyo, Paliëupiny ku Pajok)
*Luänyjäŋ
*Twic Bol
Rek
* Aguɔɔk
* Apuk
* Awan Cän ku Awan Mɔ̈u
* Kuac Ayɔɔk
*Abiëm Mayar
*Abiɔŋ Ayɔɔm
*Nöi Ayii
*Nyaŋ Aköc
*Atok Buk
*Ler Akën
*Awan Parek
*Lɔn Ariik
*Lɔn Paɣer
*Kɔŋgör Arop
*Apuk Padɔc
*Muɔk Aköt Wut
*Yär Ayiɛɛi
*Apuk Jurwïïr
*Thɔny Aduɔɔl
*Luäny Malek
*Aköök Deŋ
*Thïïk/Thïŋ Majɔk
*Kɔŋ-ŋör Akuëcbɛ̈ny
*Pakɔɔr
*Adöör Mabior
*Bäc
These would be largely mutually intelligible if it were not for the importance of tone in grammatical inflection, as the grammatical function of tone differs from one variety to another.
See Ethnologue onlin map of Sudan for locations of dialects.
Writing system
Dinka has been written with several
Latin alphabets
The lists and tables below summarize and compare the letter inventories of some of the Latin-script alphabets. In this article, the scope of the word "alphabet" is broadened to include letters with tone marks, and other diacritics used to repres ...
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: