2009/03/23 by Bert Remijsen, Caguor Adong Manyang · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Ethnic group #Geography #Ethnology #Variety (cybernetics) #History #Sociology #Anthropology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0025100308003605
openalex publication_date 2009/03/23 · openalex created_date 2022/05/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Dinka is a Western Nilotic language within the Nilo-Saharan family. There are over two million speakers (Gordon 2005). The Dinkas live along the banks of the White Nile and its tributaries in Southern Sudan. There are also communities elsewhere within Sudan, in particular in the capital Khartoum, and abroad. Cows play a key role in the Dinka economy, and also in the sociocultural system. Four major dialect areas are commonly distinguished: Padang, Rek, Agar, and Bor. The variety of Dinka represented here – Luanyjang or, as in Roettger & Roettger (1989), Luac – is part of the Rek dialect group. The term Luanyjang ‘Luac Dinka ’ refers in the first place to a section within the Dinka ethnic group, and by extension also to their variety of the Dinka language. The main Luanyjang town is Wuncuei, located about 170 kilometers east of the city of Wau. Luanyjang has around 15000 speakers according to Ethnologue (Gordon 2005), although the current number is likely to be much higher.