| Nuer | |
|---|---|
| Thok Naath | |
| Native to | South Sudan,Ethiopia |
| Region | Greater Upper Nile,Gambela Region |
| Ethnicity | Nuer |
Native speakers | 1.7 million (2007–2017)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nus |
| Glottolog | nuer1246 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
TheNuer language (Thok Naath,[2] "people's language") is aNilotic language of theWestern Nilotic group. It is spoken by theNuer people ofSouth Sudan and in westernEthiopia (region ofGambela). The language is very similar toDinka andAtuot.[3]
The language is written with aLatin-based alphabet. There are several dialects of Nuer, although all share one written standard. For example, final/k/, is pronounced in theJikany dialect but is dropped in other dialects despite being indicated in the Nuer orthography used by all.
A phonological analysis has yet to be done. The following consonants may therefore not all be distinct.[4]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t̪ | t | c | k | |
| Voiced | b | d̪ | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Flap | ɾ̪ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l̪ | j | h | |||
Voicing is not distinctive at the end of a stem, regardless of whether it's at the end of a word or utterance. Consonant clusters due to suffixes tend to be simplified.
Dental consonants are writtenth dh nh in the practical orthography./h/ is writtenɣ.
Vowels may be long or short, modal orbreathy voiced. The latter are written with an underscore in the practical orthography, except foru andä/ə̤/, where there is no modal-voiced vowel to contrast.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i iː i̤ i̤ː | ṳ ṳː | |
| Close-mid | e eː e̤ e̤ː | o oː o̤ o̤ː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː ɛ̤ ɛ̤ː | ə̤ ə̤ː | ɔ ɔː ɔ̤ ɔ̤ː |
| Near-low | (æ æː æ̤ æ̤ː) | ||
| Low | aː a̤ː |
{æ} is rare. (Curly brackets indicate the set ofæ vowels.) Final{i} is always breathy voiced. There does not appear to be a distinction between shorta andə. Breathy{o} is pronounced[ʊ] or[ɵ].
Faust & Grossman did not find strong evidence for lexical or grammatical tone, with a few exceptions such as the 1sg suffix/ə̌/ and the plural suffix/nǐ/~/ǐ/, which have a rising tone.
Nuer nouns inflect for twonumbers, singular and plural, and threecases, nominative, genitive and locative.[5] At first glance the inflection is wholly non-systematic and resists description in terms ofparadigms: just two suffixes/-kʌ̤/ and/-ni̤/ are used in sixteen different patterns across the stock of nouns, together with different selections from around sixty stemalternations,[6] a situation that Baerman called "paradigmatic chaos".[7] Further research has identified more constraints and regularities governing Nuer nominal inflection.[5]
There are various methods of plural noun formation in the Nuer language. Generally speaking, plural nouns are formed from singular nouns with the addition of plural markings, and tone changes. Countable nouns, collective nouns, and mass nouns take markings to show a singular state. This means that every noun in the Nuer language can potentially appear in a singular or plural form. Loan words also follow this process.[8]
The most readily identifiable plural formation processes are: suffixation, vowel insertion, phonation, vowel quality change, final consonant alteration, vowel deletion, glide insertion, tone change, vowel lengthening, vowel shortening, suppletion, and zero or null formation, among other processes when the entire language is taken into account.[8]
The most basic plural suffix is the suffix -ni̱. This suffix is used after words that end in sounds other than [l] and [r]. Words that end in [l] and [r] take the suffix -i̱. However, apart from this suffix there are other methods to form plural nouns.[8]
Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Nuer.
There are different dialects spoken by Nuer groups living in various locations inSouth Sudan. Some of the Nuer people live in Western Ethiopia. They are called Jikany Nuer. The Nuer of the Upper Nile State are also called Jikany, and those in Jonglei State Lou, Gawaar, Thiang and Laak.
There are also seven counties inhabited by the other groups of Nuer in the western part of the Upper Nile Province currently known as Unity State Bentiu. These counties include:
Among the 120,000 people at the United Nations Protection of Civilians Site Bentiu, Nuer is the preferred language for radio and news.[9]
Nuer-speaking Sudanese refugees have formed a significant community inOmaha, Nebraska,United States.
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 theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights)[10]
The alphabet of Nuer uses 39 distinct letters, shown below inuppercase (majuscule) andlowercase (minuscule) styles.[11]
| Majuscules | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | A̱ | Ä | B | C | D | Dh | E | E̱ | Ë | Ɛ | Ɛ̱ | Ɛ̈ | G | Ɣ | H | I | I̱ | J | |
| K | L | M | N | Ŋ | Nh | Ny | O | O̱ | Ö | Ɔ | Ɔ̱ | P | R | T | Th | U | W | Y | |
| Minuscules | |||||||||||||||||||
| a | a̱ | ä | b | c | d | dh | e | e̱ | ë | ɛ | ɛ̱ | ɛ̈ | g | ɣ | h | i | i̱ | j | |
| k | l | m | n | ŋ | nh | ny | o | o̱ | ö | ɔ | ɔ̱ | p | r | t | th | u | w | y | |
A line under a vowel, like a̱, means that it is pronounced withbreathy voice. The vowels ä, u, and final i are always breathy. A doubled vowel, like in the wordraan (person), means that vowel islong.[12] Nuer does havetone, but tone-based contrasts are not common.[4]
The writing system was adopted in 1928 with minor changes being added over the history of the language.[13] Both theDinka and theNuer agreed that their languages were so different that they could never share written languages, but they did come up with several common principles.[14]
