Nubian languages

The Nubian languages (Arabic: لُغَات نُوبِيّة, romanized: lughāt nūbiyyah) are a group of related languages spoken by the Nubians. In the past, Nubian languages were spoken throughout much of Sudan, but as a result of Arabization they are today mostly limited to the Nile Valley between Aswan (southern Egypt) and Al Dabbah. In the 1956 Census of Sudan there were 167,831 speakers of Nubian languages. Nubian is not to be confused with the various Nuba languages spoken in villages in the Nuba mountains and Darfur.

Not to be confused with Nubi language, and the Nubia language of Papua New Guinea.
Nubian Languages
EthnicityNubian
Geographic
distribution		Egypt, Sudan
Native speakers
200,000–1 million (cited 1977)
Linguistic classificationNilo-Saharan?
Subdivisions
  • Central
  • Northern
  • Western
ISO 639-2 / 5nub
Glottolognubi1251

More recent classifications, such as those in Glottolog, consider that Nubian languages form a primary language family. Older classifications consider Nubian to be a branch of the Nilo-Saharan phylum, a proposal that has been losing support among linguists due to a lack of supporting data.

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