A study of language use and language attitudes of the Nuer immigrants at Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract

The Nuer (aka Naadh and Naath), speaking the Nuer language, are estimated to be around 740,000 in South
Sudan (1982) and about 1,160,398 in 1993. The war in South Sudan, which is due to the conflict that started in
2013, has already cost at least 50,000 lives and displaced nearly two million. It also short-circuited a
rapprochement between Khartoum and Juba that was only a few months old. The area suffers a lot from this
war. After a year, 109,000 refugees had fled to four camps in Maban County, South Sudan. Many others fled to
other areas, among which is Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan. By focusing on language use at home, public
domains and storytelling and on language attitudes, this pilot study aims at drawing a linguistic profile on the
language behaviour of the Nuer immigrants in Khartoum. It also attempts to shed light on their awareness of the
preservation of the Nuer language as means of individual and group identity in an Arabic-speaking community.
The study is guided by two main questions: do the Nuer immigrants experience a change in their language
behaviour and how this change; if it exists, would affect the maintenance of their language? The study is mainly
of a quantitative nature, adopting the descriptive-analytical method. It is essentially based upon primary data
that was collected mainly through questionnaires and interviews.