The Daju languages are spoken in isolated pockets by the

Daju people The Daju people are a group of seven distinct ethnicities speaking related languages (see Daju languages) living on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border and in the Nuba Mountains. Separated by distance and speaking different languages, at presen ...

across a wide area of

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

. In Sudan, they are spoken in parts of the regions of

Kordofan Kordofan ( ') is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan. In August 2005, West Kordofan State was abolished and its territory divided between N ...

and

Darfur Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...

, in Chad they are spoken in Wadai. The Daju languages belong to the

Eastern Sudanic In most classifications, the Eastern Sudanic languages are a group of nine families of languages that may constitute a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Eastern Sudanic languages are spoken from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania. N ...

subfamily of

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributari ...

.Ethnologue report for Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Western, Daju languages
retrieved May 21, 2011

Languages

The Daju languages are sub-classified as follows, following Stevenson (1956). * Daju ** Eastern *** Shatt in the

Shatt Hills Shatt may refer to: *the Shatt people *the Shatt language *the Shatt al-Arab The Shatt al-Arab () is a river about in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Govern ...

southwest of

Kadugli Kaduqli or Kadugli ( ' Sudanese pronunciation: ) is the capital city of South Kordofan State, Sudan. It is located south of El-Obeid, at the northern edge of the White Nile plain in the Nuba Mountains. It contains Hilal Stadium. Hist ...

. (The name "Shatt" is also applied to other unrelated languages of the area.) ***

Liguri The Ligures or Ligurians were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named. Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were also known in antiquity as Celto-Liguria ...

(also known as Subori) in the Nuba Hills,

** Western *** Daju Mongo in Dar Daju,

***

Sila Sila may refer to : Places * Sila Region, Chad ** Sila Department, Chad, part of Sila Region * La Sila, a mountainous area of Calabria, Italy ** Sila National Park * Sila, Numidia, a former ancient city and bishopric, now Bordj-El-Ksar in Alge ...

Dar Sila Dar Sila is the name of the wandering sultanate of the Dar Sila Daju, a multi-tribal ethnic group in Chad and Sudan. The number of the people in this group exceeds 50,000. They speak the Sila language, a Nilo-Saharan language. Most members of this ...

***

Nyala The lowland nyala or simply nyala (''Tragelaphus angasii'') is a spiral-horned artiodactyl antelope native to Southern Africa. The species is part of the family Bovidae and the genus '' Tragelaphus'' (formerly placed in the genus ''Nyala''). It ...

around

***

Beigo Beigo (Baygo, Baigo, Bego, Beko, Béogé, Beygo) is an extinct Daju language once spoken in Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Cha ...

(extinct) in southern

***

Njalgulgule Nyolge or Nyagulgule (Njalgulgule) is a Daju language of the Western Daju, spoken in a single village in South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the nort ...

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

on the

Sopo River The Sopo River is a river in South Sudan's state of Western Bahr el Ghazal. Course The Sopo river rises on the border with the Central African Republic, and flows in a generally northeast direction past the town of Sopo. to join the Boro Rive ...

Proto-Daju has been partially reconstructed by

Robin Thelwall Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), includi ...

(1981). In his judgement, the Eastern Daju languages separated from the others perhaps as much as 2,000 years ago, while the Western Daju languages were spread more recently, perhaps by the Daju state which dominated

from about 1200 AD until scattered after the death of Kasi Furogé, the Daju king, and replaced by the

Tunjur __NOTOC__ The Tunjur (or Tungur) people are a Sunni Muslim ethnic group living in eastern Chad and western Sudan. In the 21st century, their numbers have been estimated at 175,000 people. History Based on linguistic and archaeological evidence, ...

. The principal phonetic difference between the two branches is the reflex of proto-Daju *ɣ, reflected as Western *r and Eastern *x.

Grammar

The typical verb root in Daju is a monosyllable of the form (C)VC(C). The

perfective The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole, i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...

takes a prefixed ''k-''; the

imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ...

, a prefixed ''a(n)-''. The verb takes person suffixes, exemplified in Shatt (for the verb "drink" in the imperfective): Suffixes on nouns serve to mark

singulative In linguistics, singulative number and collective number (abbreviated and ) are terms used when the grammatical number for multiple items is the unmarked form of a noun, and the noun is specially marked to indicate a single item. This is the ...

(''-tic, -təs''),

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

, and

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

forms. The typical word order is subject–verb–object in most Daju languages, with exceptions such as Sila, and possessed–possessor.

References

* R. C. Stevenson. "A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba Mountains languages, with particular reference to Otoro, Katcha and Nyimang." ''Afrika und Übersee'' 40, 1956-7. * Thelwall, Robin. 1981. "Lexicostatistical Subgrouping and Reconstruction of the Daju Group" in ed. Thilo C. Schadeberg &

Lionel Bender Marvin Lionel Bender (August 18, 1934 – February 19, 2008) was an American linguist. Life Bender was born August 18, 1934, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He travelled throughout the world, particularly in Northeast Africa, and was an accompli ...

, ''Nilo-Saharan: Proceedings of the First Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Leiden, September 8–10, 1980''. Foris: Dordrecht. * Thelwall, Robin. 1981. ''The Daju Language Group''. Boston, Spa: British Library Document Supply Centre. Doctoral dissertation, Coleraine: New University of Ulster.

External links

Nuba Languages and History
Robin Thelwall
Language Map of Sudan
Huffman, Steve {{Authority control Language families Southern Eastern Sudanic languages

Languages

Grammar

See also

References

External links