Dinka (natively , or simply ) is a

Nilotic The Nilotic peoples are peoples Indigenous people of Africa, indigenous to South Sudan and the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan and the Gambela Region of Ethiopia, while also being a large minority in Kenya, Uga ...

dialect cluster A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

spoken by the

Dinka people The Dinka people () are a Nilotes, Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, South Sudan, Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal (region of South Sudan), Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nil ...

, a major ethnic group of South Sudan. There are several main varieties, such as Padang, Rek, Agaar, Ciec, Malual, Apaak, Aliab, Bor, Hol, Nyarweng, Twic East and Twic Mayardit, which are distinct enough (though mutually intelligible) to require separate literary standards. Jaang, Jieng or Muonyjieng 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

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. The Dinka are found mainly along the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

, specifically the west bank of the

White Nile The White Nile ( ') is a river in Africa, the minor of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the larger being the Blue Nile. The name "White" comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. In the stri ...

, a major tributary flowing north from

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It 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 ...

, north and south of the

Sudd The Sudd (, Nuer: Baki̱ec, Dinka: Toc) is a vast swamp in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile's '' Baḥr al-Jabal'' section. The Arabic word ' is derived from ' (), meaning "barrier" or "obstruction". The term "the sudd" has come to ref ...

marsh in

South Kordofan South Kordofan ( ') is one of the 18 States of Sudan, wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km2 and an estimated population of approximately 2,107,623 people (2018 est). Kaduqli is the capital of the state. It is centered on t ...

state 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 ...

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 term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defi ...

. 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 s ...

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 ...

, breathy voice,

faucalized voice Faucalized voice, also called hollow voice or yawny voice, is a vocal quality of speech production characterized by the vertical expansion of the pharyngeal cavity due to the lowering of the larynx. It is termed ''faucalized'' because of the st ...

, 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. On top of this, there are three phonemically contrastive

vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many ...

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\' * 'isolate\' * 'provoke\' * 'provoke\'

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 phonetically low only 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 ) 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 relate ...

or apophony, 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 (Abyei) * 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 Mawien *Lɔn Paɣer *Kɔŋgör Arop *Apuk Padɔc *Muɔk Aköt Wut *Yär Ayiɛɛi *Apuk Jurwïïr *Thɔny Amɔ̈u *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 represe ...

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: A dedicated Dinka script was created by Aleu Majok Aleu.

Sample Text

Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

Dinka:'' '' English:'' ''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

References

Other resources

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Nilerian Dinka Alphabetkasahorow page on DinkaOpenRoad page on Dinka
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070328220456/http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Dinka PanAfrican L10n page on Dinkabr>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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dinka Language Western Nilotic languages Languages of South Sudan Languages of Sudan