Nubians and the Nubian Language in Contemporary Egypt: A Case of Cultural and Linguistic Contact

98 Pages·1991·16.175 MB·

by  Aleya Rouchdy

NUBIANS AND THE
NUBIAN LANGUAGE IN
CONTEMPORARY EGYPT
STUDIES IN SEMITIC
LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
EDITED BY
J. H. HOSPERS
Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature and Archeology of
the Near East in the University of Groningen
xv
ALEYA ROUCHDY
NUBIANS AND THE NUBIAN LANGUAGE
IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT
A CASE OF CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC CONTACT
y' s
' / 6 8'
NUBIANS AND THE
NUBIAN LANGUAGE IN
CONTEMPORARY EGYPT
A CASE OF CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC CONTACT
ALEYA ROUCHDY
^ s
/68^'
E.J. BRILL
LEIDEN • NEW YORK • K0BENHAVN • KOLN
1991
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for performance and durability of the Com­
mittee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rouchdy, Aleya.
Nubians and the Nubian language in contemporary Egypt: a case of
cultural and linguistic contact / by Aleya Rouchdy.
p. cm.—(Studies in Semitic language and linguistics, ISSN
0081-8461: 15)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-09197-1 (pbk.)
1. Nubian languages—Social aspects. 2. Languages in contact—
Egypt. 3. Nubians—History. I. Title. II. Series.
PL8571.R68 1989
496’. 5—dc20 90-19286
CIP
ISSN 0081-8461
ISBN 90 04 09197 1
© Copyright 1991 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or any other means without written permission from the publisher
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use is granted by E. J. Brill provided that
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
nobichiassathabin djoro in kitabi agaddemetidjiri
inagari nubi malleka inga agadimatitcher
I present this book to all my Nubian Friends

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................................................ ix
Abbreviations ........................................................................................ xi
Preface ..................................................................................................... xm
SOCIOHISTORICAL REMARKS ................................................................ 1
1. Historical Overview ................................................................ 1
2. Conclusion ................................................................................ 9
Nubian in Sociolinguistic Perspective............................................ 11
1. Historical Overview ........... 11
2. The Process of Borrowing ..................................................... 29
3. Summary and Conclusion ..................................................... 32
Postscript ................................................................................................ 38
Preface to the Lexicon ......................................................................... 40
Lexicon: Fadicca and Matoki ............................................................ 44
Appendices ............................................................................................ 68
Maps ........................................................................................................ 73
Bibliography ........................................................................................... 76
Index ....................................................................................................... 84

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The field work for this study was conducted during sabbatical year in
Egypt (1978-79) and during the winter of 1985-86 under grants from the
American Research Center in Egypt and the Social Research Center.
The grants supplemented my sabbatical salary from Wayne State
University. This assistance is gratefully acknowledged.
I am especially grateful to Mohamad Fikiri of the Social Research
Center at the American University in Cairo, whose constant support,
advice, and assistance in arranging meetings with Nubian speakers
made my field work much easier. I am also indebted to the other
members of the Social Research Center, and particularly to Dr. Leila
Shukri, the Center’s Director. I must also single out Mr. Mohyeddin
Sherif, a speaker of Fadicca from Abu Simbel and Cairo, and Mr. Abdo
Mirghani, a speaker of Matoki from Sayyal and Cairo, without whom
this work could not have been accomplished. I also want to thank the
members of the Nubian Club and the Society Genena Wa Shibaak in
Cairo, among whom are the writers Mahmoud Shourbagi, Nour Gaasir,
and Zakiya Muhammad Ahmad. I am also grateful to Mr. Mutwalli
Badr, Sheikh Abdel Gelil Ali, the late Mr. Youssif Sumbag and his
family, and to Dr. Bahr of Ein Shams University, all of whom provided
insights into Nubian grammar. My thanks also go to Zeinab Gamal of
the American University in Cairo, General Wahba Salih, Mr. al
Kaashif, Mr. Hasan Fakhr Eddin and the famous Haj Taha of the Nubian
of the village of Dar isslam, as well as to Haj Abdel Waahid, Abdel Wahab
Goma, and to my assistant Amal Agab. I am grateful to Fouad Dan-
darawi and to the members of his family in Cairo, and Abu Simbel, with
whom I stayed and whose generosity and warmth I will always
remember. My special thanks go to all the Nubian speakers who par­
ticipated in this study and whose names I cannot include here. Their
warmth and generous cooperation made my research pleasurable and
productive.
I also wish to express my special gratitude to my former colleague
Jane Hill, whose study of language death in Tlaxcalan Nahuatl intro­
duced me to the work of Nancy Dorian, whose work in turn inspired my
initial research on Nubian. Parts of this research were summarized in
two articles that appeared in Dorian’s volume Investigating Obsolescences:
Studies in Language Death (Cambridge Press, 1989). She made a number
of invaluable suggestions regarding these articles; however, all respon-
sability for the shortcomings in this text is mine.
X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It remains to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues and
Mohamed Sawaie and Kenneth Brostrom for their critical readings of
the first draft of the present work and for their valuable comments.
Finally I want to thank my son, Amr Hafez, who retained his sense of
humor while reading the entire manuscript, and to my husband Hani
Fakhouri for his illuminating suggestions and constant support during
my research in Egypt and later while I was preparing the manuscript.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the College
of Liberal Arts, Wayne State University for the publication of this
manuscript, without which this volume would not have been possible.