Nyala language (Sudan)

Daju, Dar Fur
Bekke
Native to	Sudan
Region	West Darfur, South Darfur, South Kordofan
Ethnicity	Dar Fur Daju
Native speakers	110,000 (2022) [1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Southern Eastern? Daju Western Daju, Dar Fur
Dialects	Nyala Lagowa
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	daj
Glottolog	darf1239

Linguistic map of the non-Arab peoples of Darfur.

Nyala, also known as Dar Fur, Darfur Daju, Daju Darfur, Beke, Dagu, Daju Ferne and Fininga, is an Eastern Sudanic language of Sudan, one of three closely related languages in the area called "Daju" (the other two being the Daju Mongo language and the Sila language). It is spoken near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province by the Dar Fur Daju people. There are two divergent dialects: Nyala and Lagowa.

The Lagowa dialect of South Kordofan is spoken in Dar el Kabira, Jebel Miheila, Lagawa, Nyukri, Silecce, Tamanyik, and Warina area villages (Ethnologue, 22nd edition).

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ
Fricative		( f )	s	ʃ		h
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill			r
Approximant		w	l	j

• /p/ can also be realized as [f]
• /r/ can be heard as a trill [r] or a flap [ɾ] in free variation.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

• Vowels /o, u/ can also be realized as [ɒ, ʊ]. ^{[2] [3]}

References

1. Daju, Dar Fur at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Thelwall, Robin (1981). Lexicostatistical subgrouping and lexical reconstruction of the Daju group. In T. Schadeberg and L. Bender (eds.), Nilo-Saharan: Dordrecht: Dordrecht/Cinnaminson: Foris. pp. 167–184.
3. Thelwall, Robin E.W. (1981). The Daju Language Group. Systematic Phonetics, Lexicostatistics and Lexical Reconstruction. School of Humanities of the New University of Ulster. pp. 22–40.