Kenzi | |
---|---|
Mattokki | |
Native to | Egypt |
Region | Nile River |
Native speakers | 35,000 (2023) [1] |
Coptic script (Old Nubian variant) Latin alphabet Arabic alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xnz |
Glottolog | kenu1243 |
ELP | Kenuzi |
Kenzi, also known as Kenuzi, Kunuz, or Mattokki, is a Nubian language of Egypt. It is spoken north of Mahas in Egypt. It is closely related to Dongolawi or Andaandi, a Nubian language of Sudan. [2] The two have historically been considered two varieties of one language. More recent research recognizes them as distinct languages without a "particularly close genetic relationship." [3] With population displacement due to the Aswan High Dam there are communities of speakers in Lower Egypt. Recent linguistic research on the Kenzi language has been conducted by Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz. [4]
Kenzi is currently a threatened language that has about 35,000 native speakers worldwide. [5] Ethnologue reports that the use of Kenzi is decreasing as the language is spoken by adults only and that all speakers are shifting to Egyptian Arabic. [1] Most speakers of Kenzi live in the city of Kom Ombo in the Aswan Governorate of Egypt. [6]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | t | c | k | ||
voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | ||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
Fricative | f | s | ʃ | h | ||
Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
Lateral | l | |||||
Approximant | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː | |
Mid | e eː | o oː | |
Open | a aː |
Kanuri is a dialect continuum spoken in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as by small minorities in southern Libya and by a diaspora in Sudan.
The Nubian languages are a group of related languages spoken by the Nubians. In the past, Nubian languages were spoken throughout much of Sudan, but as a result of Arabization they are today mostly limited to the Nile Valley between Aswan and Al Dabbah. In the 1956 Census of Sudan there were 167,831 speakers of Nubian languages. Nubian is not to be confused with the various Nuba languages spoken in villages in the Nuba mountains and Darfur.
Nubians are a Nilo-Saharan ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of civilization. In the southern valley of Egypt, Nubians differ culturally and ethnically from Egyptians, although they intermarried with members of other ethnic groups, especially Arabs. They speak Nubian languages as a mother tongue, part of the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages, and Arabic as a second language.
Sudanese Arabic, also referred to as the Sudanese dialect, Colloquial Sudanese or locally as Common Sudanese refers to the various related varieties of Arabic spoken in Sudan as well as parts of Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Chad. Sudanese Arabic has also influenced a number of Arabic-based pidgins and creoles, including Juba Arabic, widely used in South Sudan, as well as Ki-Nubi, spoken by the Nubi communities of Kenya and Uganda.
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