Dinka
Sign in to saveAlso known as Dinka language
Nilotic dialect cluster spoken by the Dinka people, the major ethnic group of South Sudan
Key facts
- Native to
- South Sudan
- Ethnicity
- Dinka
- Native speakers
- 4.2 million (2017)
- Language family
- Nilo-Saharan ? Eastern Sudanic Southern Eastern Nilotic Western Dinka–Nuer Dinka
- Writing system
- Latin
- Official language in
- South Sudan
- Iso 639 2
- din
- Iso 639 3
- din – inclusive code, Individual codes:, dip – Northeastern (Padang), diw – Northwestern (Ruweng), dib – South Central (Gok, Agar, Ciec, and Aliab), dks – Southeastern: (Bor, Nyarweng, Hol, Twi), dik – Southwestern (Rek & Twic)
- Glottolog
- dink1262
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 5 more facts
- number of speakers, writers, or signers
- 1365900
- Wikimedia language code
- din
- native label
- Jieng
- P10369
- whisky
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Article
Dinka (natively Thuɔŋjäŋ, Thuɔŋ ë Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ or simply Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) is a Nilotic dialect cluster spoken by the Dinka people, a major ethnic group of South Sudan. There are several main varieties, such as Padang, Rek, Agaar, Ciec, Malual, Aliab, Bor, Hol, Nyarweng, Twic East and Twic Mayardit, which are distinct enough (though mutually intelligible) to require separate literary standards. Jaang, Jieng or Muonyjieng is used as a general term to cover all Dinka languages. Recently Akutmɛ̈t Latueŋ Thuɔŋjäŋ (the Dinka Language Development Association) has proposed a unified written grammar of Dinka.
The language most closely related to Dinka is the Nuer language. The Luo languages are also closely related. The Dinka vocabulary shows considerable proximity to Nubian, which is probably due to medieval interactions between the Dinka people and the kingdom of Alodia.