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Nubian language
The Nubian language group, according to the most recent research by Bechhaus-Gerst[?] comprises the following varieties:
- Nobiin (previously called Mahas)
- Dongolawi and Kenzi. Kenzi is spoken north of Mahas[?] in Egypt while Dongolawi is spoken south of Mahas around Dongola[?]. With population displacement due to the Aswan High Dam there are communities of Nubian speakers in Lower Egypt and in Eastern Sudan (Khashm el-Girba[?]). Apart from these two distinct varieties spoken along the Nile, three other varieties existed.
- Midob in and around the Malha volcanic crater in North Darfur.
- Birgid - originally spoken north of Nyala around Menawashei[?] until the 1970s. The last surviving aged speakers were interviewed by Thelwall[?] at this time. And some equally aged speakers on Gezira Aba just north of Kosti on the Nile south of Khartoum and interviewed by Thelwall in 1980.
- Hill Nubian - a group of closely related dialects spoken in various villages in the northern Nuba Mountains - in particular Dilling, Debri, and Kadaru.
- Old Nubian[?] is preserved in at least a hundred pages of documents, mostly of a Christian religious nature, written using a modified form of the Coptic (Greek) script. These documents range in date from the 8th to the 15th century A.D.. Old Nubian is currently considered ancestral to modern Nobiin.
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