Dinka (Thuɔŋjäŋ)
Dinka is a member of the Western Nilotic branch of Nilo-Saharan languages. It is
spoken mainly in southern Sudan by about 2-3 million people, who call them
selves Dinka (Jiëŋ). There are five major dialect divisions:
Agar, Bor, Padaŋ and Rek, which are more or less mutually intelligible.
The Rek dialect is considered the standard or prestige variety.
There are also speakers of Dinka in Egypt, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands,
UK and USA.
A number of methods for writing Dinka using the Latin alphabet
were developed by missionaries during the 19th and 20th centuries. Information about
the language first appeared in Die Dinka-Sprache in Central-Afrika by
Johannes Chrysostomus Mitterrutzner, which was publised in 1866. The current
Latin orthography is derived from the alphabet developed for the southern Sudanese
languages at the Rejaf language conference in 1928.
Dinka alphabet
Dinka pronunciation
Notes
- Vowels without accents can be either clear or creaky
- Long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel letters, e.g. aa, ee, etc
Sample texts in Dinka
Jɔ̈ɔ̈l wäär nyuuc wädït
Aacä ye teet.
Të cɔk kek ɣa luöi ruëëny
Ka cä ye dhuk nhom keek
Rin jäl aye wut theek
Yen aye ɣɛn keek theek
Na cïk röt ye theek
Ke aköl le ɣɛn ye gäm keek
piny abï ɣo dak ɣo keek.
Source: http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/african/dinka/sample.html
Raan thök eben aye dhëëth ka lau nhöm
kua thöŋ nhiim eyithiic, kua thɛ̈kic,
kua ci yëknhiethku puou, ku bik cëŋ ka ke ye mith etik.
Translation
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)
Links
Information about the Dinka language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinka_language
http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/african/dinka/
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~agamlong/index.en.html
http://www.sil.org/silewp/abstract.asp?ref=2004-003
http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Dinka
Dinka-English dictionary (PDF)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/Language data/Comparative Dinka lexicon converted.pdf