Pronunciation [t̪uɔŋ.ɟa̤ŋ] | Ethnicity Dinka people | |
Native speakers (1.4 million cited ca. 1982–1986; some figures undated) Language family Nilo-Saharan?Eastern SudanicNiloticWestern NiloticDinka–NuerDinka | ||
Dinka, or Thuɔŋjäŋ, is a Nilotic dialect cluster spoken by the Dinka people, the major ethnic group of South Sudan. There are five main varieties, Ngok, Rek, Agaar, Twic Mayardit and Bor, which are distinct enough to require separate literary standards and thus to be considered separate languages. Jaang, Jieng or Moinyjieng is used as a general term to cover all Dinka languages. Rek is the standard and prestige dialect.
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The closest non-Dinka language is Nuer, the language of the Dinka's traditional rivals. The Luo languages are also closely related.
The Dinka are found mainly along the Nile, specifically the west bank of the White Nile, a major tributary flowing north from Uganda, north and south of the Sudd marsh in southwestern and south central Sudan in three provinces: Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Southern Kurdufan.
Consonants
There are 20 consonant phonemes:
Vowels
Dinka has a rich vowel system, with at least thirteen phonemically contrastive vowels. The underdots ([◌̤]) indicate "breathy" vowels, represented in Dinka orthography by diaereses (⟨◌̈⟩):
On top of this, there are three phonemically contrastive vowel lengths, 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:
Voice quality is also a factor, with four different phonetic types present: modal voice, breathy voice, faucalized voice, and harsh voice in its vowels. Of these, only modal and breathy are phonologically contrastive.
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 or apophony, the change of internal vowels (similar to English goose/geese, though this is historically an umlaut):
Dialects of Dinka
Linguists divide Dinka into five languages or dialect clusters corresponding to their geographic location with respect to each other:
Northeastern and western: Padang da Ayuel jiel (Abarlang, Nyiël,Ageer, Dongjol). Luäc da (Akook,Wieu,Aguer), Ngok de Jok (Upper Nile), Rut, Thoi,Ngók de Jok(Abiei) Ngok of Ruweeng(Panaru, Aloor and Paweny) Awet and Kuel.
South Central: Aliap, Ciëc, Gok, and Agar
Southeastern (Bor): Bor (Bor Super, Bor proper, Bor South, Bor Asili), Hol, Nyaarweng, and Twï
Southwestern: Rek, Abiëm, Aguók, Apuk, Awan, Kuac, Lóu, Luäc/Luänyjang, Malual (Malualgiėrnyang), Paliët, Paliëupiny, Twïc
See Ethnologue online map of Sudan for locations of dialects.
Writing Dinka
Dinka has been written with several Latin alphabets 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 yVariants in other alphabets include: