Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Nuer language

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Native to
  
South Sudan, Ethiopia

Ethnicity
  
Nuer

Region
  
Upper Nile state, Gambela Region

Native speakers
  
(890,000 cited 1982–2007)

Language family
  
Nilo-Saharan?Eastern SudanicNiloticWestern NiloticDinka–NuerNuer

Dialects
  
ThiangWestern JikanyEastern JikanyNyuongDoorLou

The Nuer language (Naath) is a Nilo-Saharan language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gambela). Nuer is one of eastern and central Africa's most widely spoken languages, along with the Dinka language. The language is very similar to the languages of Jieng and Chollo.

Contents

Nuer language has a Latin-based alphabet. There are also several dialects of Nuer, although all have one written standard. For example, final /k/ is pronounced in the Jikany dialect, but is dropped in other dialects despite being indicated in Nuer orthography.

Nuer communities

There are different dialects spoken by Nuer groups living in various locations in South Sudan. Some of the Nuer people live in Western Ethiopia. They are called Gajaak, Gajiok, and Lou. The Nuer of the Nasir region are called Gajiok, and those in Waat are called Lou. There are also Gaweer and Jikueichieng. In Gajaak there is Chie Chaany, Chie Reang, Chie Waw, Chie Nyinjani, and Thiang.

Nuer-speaking Sudanese refugees have formed a significant community in Omaha, Nebraska, United States

There are also seven counties inhabited by the others groups of Nuer in the western part of the Upper Nile state. These are the counties of:

  • Guit County: Inhabited by Jikany kuec cieng community in the eastern Bentiu
  • Rubkona County: Inhabited by Leek community in the northern Bentiu
  • Koch County: Inhabited by Jagei community in the central Bentiu previously known as Lich
  • Mayom County: Inhabited by Bul chol Geah community in the western part of the state.
  • Mayiandit County: Inhabited by Haak community in the far south western part of the state
  • Leer County: Inhabited by Dok community in the southern part of the state.
  •  : Inhabited by Nyuong community in the far southern part of the state.

    • Sample phrases

    Nuer:  Naath dial diethɛ kɛ a lɔr kä päärkɛ kɛ ciaŋ malä a mäni cuŋkiɛn. Tekɛ kɛ ca̱r kɛnɛ nhök ti de lät kɛ raan kɛ dämaan a gɔa.

    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.

    (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

    Writing system of Nuer

    The alphabet of Nuer uses 39 distinct letters, shown below in capitals and lowercase styles. Or majuscules and minuscules

    The Nuer Language uses a modified version of Latin script for their Written language. The writing system was adopted in 1928 with minor changes being added over the history of the language. Both the Dinka and the Nuer agreed that their languages were so different that they could never share written languages, so they came up with a common one following these principles.

  • final Interdental consonants would always be represented as th.
  • all voiceless Alveolo-palatal consonants would be represented as c.
  • the finalized Nuer alphabet consists of the following characters, which are equivalent to the phonemes of the Nuer language: d, k, l, m, n, p, t, w, g, j, r, y, ŋ, ny, th, dh, nh, ɤ, c, a, e, i, o, u, ö, ɛ, ɔ

    • Language families

    The Nuer language belongs to the following language families, going from smallest to largest.

  • Dinka-Nuer languages
  • Western Nilotic languages
  • Nilotic languages
  • Kir–Abbaian languages
  • Eastern Sudanic languages
  • Nilo-Saharan languages

    • References

    Nuer language Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA