Juba Arabic (Arabi Juba)
A ‘less indigenous’ language of South Sudan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.35596Keywords:
Juba Arabic, South Sudan, language planning and policy, indigenous languagesAbstract
This article explores the official discourse behind the regimentation of the linguistic situation of South Sudan and assesses its impact on local linguistic practices against the backdrop of a sociolinguistic survey and interviews with government officials. After a presentation of the language situation of the country, the article focuses on Juba Arabic and its unrecognized status as the only lingua franca of South Sudan. The Constitution of the country nominally recognizes and enshrines the language diversity of the country, but does not come to grips with the existence of Juba Arabic, an Arabic-based pidgincreole which is the only unifying language of a vast portion of the country and the first language of the capital.
References
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Bonfiglio, T. P. (2010) Mother Tongues and Nations: The Invention of the Native Speaker. Berlin: de Gruyter. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781934078266.
Ferdinand, E., Mading, M., Marshall, J. and Spronk, T. (2008). Technical Findings of MoEST Principles, Practice and Planning of Multilingual Education Workshop. Covering States of Central, Eastern and Western Equatoria. Retrieved from: http://southsudanhumanitarianproject.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/formidable/ELIZAB1.pdf.
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Jørgensen, N., Karrebæk, M. S., Madsen, L. M. and Møller, J. S. (2011) Polylanguaging in superdiversity. Diversities 13(2): 23–38.
Kloss, H. (1967) ‘Abstand Languages’ and ‘Ausbau Languages’. Anthropological Linguistics 9(7): 29–41.
Léglise, I. and Migge, B. (2007) Language and colonialism: Applied linguistics in the context of creole communities. In M. Hellinger and A. Pauwels (eds) Language and Communication: Diversity and Change. Handbook of Applied Linguistics 297–338. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Manfredi, S. (2017a) Arabi Juba: Un pidgin-créole du Soudan du Sud. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.
Manfredi, S. (2017b) The construction of linguistic borders and the rise of national identity in South Sudan: Some insights into Juba Arabic (árabi júba). In R. Bassiouney (ed.) Identity and Dialect Performance: A study of Communities and Dialects 138–163. London: Routledge.
Miller, C. (2009) Enjeux des dénominations de l’arabe en Afrique sub-saharienne. In C. de Féral (ed.) Le nom des langues III: Le nom des langues en Afrique sub-saharienne: pratiques, dénominations, catégorisations / Naming Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa: Practices, Names, Categorisations 233–254. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.
Miller, C. (2014) Juba Arabic as a written language. In S. Manfredi and M. Tosco (eds) Arabic-based Pidgins and Creoles. Special issue of Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29(2): 352–384.
Ricento, T. (2005) An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Oxford: Blackwell.
Rubio-Martín, R. (2003) Language rights: Exploring the competing rationales. In W. Kymlicka and A. Patten (eds) Language Rights and Political Theory 52–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spronk, T. (2014) Addressing the challenges of language choice in the implementation of mother-tongue based bilingual education in South Sudan. Multilingual Education 16(4): 1–10. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13616-014-0016-z.
Tosco, M. (2017) On counting languages, diversity-wise. In I. Micheli (ed.) ATrA 3, Cultural and Linguistic Transition Explored: Proceedings of the ATrA Closing Workshop, Trieste, May 25-26, 2016 234–245. Trieste: EUT.
Tosco, M. and Manfredi, S. (2013) Pidgins and Creoles. In J. Owens (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics 495–519. London: Oxford University Press.
Versteegh, K. (1993) Levelling in the Southern Sudan: From Arabic creole to Arabic dialects. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 99: 65–97. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1993.99.65.
Winford, D. (1997) Creole formation in the context of contact linguistics. Journal of Pidgin and Creoles Languages 12: 131–151. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.12.1.06win.
Abdelhay, A. (2007) The Politics of Language Planning in the Sudan: The Case of the Navaisha Language Policy. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
Abdelhay, A., Makoni, B. and Makoni, S. (2011) The Naivasha language policy: The language of politics and the politics of language in the Sudan. Language Policy 10: 1–18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-011-9192-9.
Abdelhay, A., Makoni, B., Makoni, S. and Mugaddam, A. H. (2011). The sociolinguistics of nationalism in the Sudan: The politicisation of Arabic and the Arabicisation of politics. Current Issues in Language Planning 12(4): 457–501. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2011.628079.
Blommaert, J. (2007) Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural Pragmatics 4(1): 1–19. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/IP.2007.001.
Blommaert, J. and Rampton, B. (2011) Language and superdiversity. Diversities 13(2): 1–22.
Bonfiglio, T. P. (2010) Mother Tongues and Nations: The Invention of the Native Speaker. Berlin: de Gruyter. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781934078266.
Ferdinand, E., Mading, M., Marshall, J. and Spronk, T. (2008). Technical Findings of MoEST Principles, Practice and Planning of Multilingual Education Workshop. Covering States of Central, Eastern and Western Equatoria. Retrieved from: http://southsudanhumanitarianproject.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/formidable/ELIZAB1.pdf.
García, O. and Wei, L. (2014) Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765.
Handman, C. (2009) Language ideologies, endangered-languages linguistics, and Christianization. Language 85(3): 635–639. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0154.
Irvine, J. T. and Gal, S. (2000) Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. V. Kroskrity (ed.) Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.
Jørgensen, N., Karrebæk, M. S., Madsen, L. M. and Møller, J. S. (2011) Polylanguaging in superdiversity. Diversities 13(2): 23–38.
Kloss, H. (1967) ‘Abstand Languages’ and ‘Ausbau Languages’. Anthropological Linguistics 9(7): 29–41.
Léglise, I. and Migge, B. (2007) Language and colonialism: Applied linguistics in the context of creole communities. In M. Hellinger and A. Pauwels (eds) Language and Communication: Diversity and Change. Handbook of Applied Linguistics 297–338. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Leonardi, C. (2013) South Sudanese Arabic and the negotiation of the local state, c. 1840–2011. Journal of African History 54(3): 351–372. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853713000741.
Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F. and Fennig, C. D. (eds) (2016) Ethnologue: Languages of the World (19th edition). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
Makoni, B., Abdelhay, A. and Makoni, S. (2013) A very ‘oily’ sociolinguistics of the ‘New’ Sudan: Old wine in new bottles. In N. Kamwangamalu, R. B. Baldauf Jr. and R. B. Kaplan (eds) Language Planning in Africa: Cameroon, Sudan, and Zimbabwe 175–212. London: Routledge.
Manfredi, S. (2015) ‘One tribe, one language’: Ethnolinguistic identity and language revitalization among the Laggorí in the Nuba Mountains. In B. Casciarri, M. Assal and F. Ireton (eds) Multidimensional Change in Sudan (1989–2011): Reshaping Livelihoods, Conflicts and Identities 281–301. Oxford: Berghahn.
Manfredi, S. (2017a) Arabi Juba: Un pidgin-créole du Soudan du Sud. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.
Manfredi, S. (2017b) The construction of linguistic borders and the rise of national identity in South Sudan: Some insights into Juba Arabic (árabi júba). In R. Bassiouney (ed.) Identity and Dialect Performance: A study of Communities and Dialects 138–163. London: Routledge.
Miller, C. (2009) Enjeux des dénominations de l’arabe en Afrique sub-saharienne. In C. de Féral (ed.) Le nom des langues III: Le nom des langues en Afrique sub-saharienne: pratiques, dénominations, catégorisations / Naming Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa: Practices, Names, Categorisations 233–254. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.
Miller, C. (2014) Juba Arabic as a written language. In S. Manfredi and M. Tosco (eds) Arabic-based Pidgins and Creoles. Special issue of Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29(2): 352–384.
Ricento, T. (2005) An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Oxford: Blackwell.
Rubio-Martín, R. (2003) Language rights: Exploring the competing rationales. In W. Kymlicka and A. Patten (eds) Language Rights and Political Theory 52–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spronk, T. (2014) Addressing the challenges of language choice in the implementation of mother-tongue based bilingual education in South Sudan. Multilingual Education 16(4): 1–10. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13616-014-0016-z.
Tosco, M. (2017) On counting languages, diversity-wise. In I. Micheli (ed.) ATrA 3, Cultural and Linguistic Transition Explored: Proceedings of the ATrA Closing Workshop, Trieste, May 25-26, 2016 234–245. Trieste: EUT.
Tosco, M. and Manfredi, S. (2013) Pidgins and Creoles. In J. Owens (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics 495–519. London: Oxford University Press.
Versteegh, K. (1993) Levelling in the Southern Sudan: From Arabic creole to Arabic dialects. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 99: 65–97. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1993.99.65.
Winford, D. (1997) Creole formation in the context of contact linguistics. Journal of Pidgin and Creoles Languages 12: 131–151. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.12.1.06win.
Published
2019-02-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Manfredi, S., & Tosco, M. (2019). Juba Arabic (Arabi Juba): A ‘less indigenous’ language of South Sudan. Sociolinguistic Studies, 12(2), 209-230. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.35596
