Knowra Nubian languages Nubian languages Nubian languages are a group spoken by Nubian communities, chiefly in Sudan and Egypt. They belong to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan languages.
Nilo-Saharan languages : A proposed language family encompassing languages spoken across parts of north-central and eastern Africa. Nubian languages are classified within this broad, disputed family.
Old Nubian : A medieval Nubian language known from texts written between roughly the eighth and fifteenth centuries. It is the earliest extensively documented stage of Nubian.
Nubian writing systems : The alphabets and orthographies used to write Nubian languages, including Latin, Arabic, and revived Old Nubian-based systems. Nubian communities use competing scripts in publishing and literacy.
Beja language : An Afroasiatic language spoken chiefly in Sudan, Eritrea, and Egypt. Beja is geographically adjacent to Nubian but belongs to a different language family.
Eastern Sudanic languages : A branch of the proposed Nilo-Saharan family containing languages of northeastern Africa. Nubian languages are placed within this branch.
Nubian alphabet : A writing system used for Old Nubian, based mainly on the Greek alphabet with Coptic and Meroitic signs. Its inscriptions and manuscripts preserve the medieval language.
Nubian language revitalization : Efforts to sustain and expand the transmission, teaching, and public use of Nubian languages. Language maintenance responds to declining intergenerational transmission in some communities.
Arabic language : A Semitic language widely spoken across the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic has strongly influenced Nubian vocabulary and language use without being Nubian.
Nobiin : A Nubian language spoken along the Nile in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the group's major Nile Valley languages.
Makuria : A medieval Christian kingdom in Nubia, centered on the Nile in present-day Sudan. Old Nubian flourished in the cultural and political world of this kingdom.
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