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The section of the Nile valley known
historically as Nubia stretched from the first cataract at Aswan
, Egypt, into the Sudan just the fifth cataract near the
beginning of the great curve of the Nile. The peoples living in
this narrow strip of land, which extended some five hundred
miles along the great river, spoke languages of the category
known as Nile Nubian, a subdivision of Nubian within the larger
Eastern Sudanic subfamily. Dr. John Kennedy in " Nubian
ceremonial life ".The two major subgrouping of the Nile
'omodoyyas' extending from Daboud to Sebu'a was made up of
villages whose inhabitants were speakers of kenzi. The people
themselves were called Kenuz and in local parlance, particularly
among the Mahas speaking Nubians,the Kenuzi dialect of Nubia was
known as Motoki. Just south of the Kenuz from Wadi Sebu'a to
Korosko was a group of villages whose people were racially and
culturally Nubian, but who spoke only a dialect of Arabic. These
Nubians identified themselves as belonging to the Aleqat tribe,
South of this short break, the speakers of Nile Nubian continued
with the Mahas speakers .They began in Korosko and occupied the
banks of the Nile in an unbroken sequence southernmost Egyptian
Nubians "omodiyya" was the Mahas-speaking district of Adendan.To
the south of the Mahas-speaking district in the Sudan were the
Dongolese speakers . Their language is nearly identical to that
of the Kenuz; these two languages are linguistically so close
that they are regarded, for most purposes, as dialects of the
same language. There has been considerable speculation as to how
the populations representing these two branches of the same
language became geographically separated, but no solid evidence
is yet available. |
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Another label in common use in the area, but
whose precise meaning is somewhat nebulous, is Fadija. It was
also used by Mahas people farther south in the Sudan to
designate the northernmost group of Mahas speakers ( from about
Korosko to Ballana or perhaps Adendan ). On the other hand many
people living within this particular area seemed to use the term
descriptively and neutrally to designate this northern group of
Mahas speakers. Those farther south ( from about Wadi Halfa to
the area of Dongolese speakers) called themselves the " Mahas"
as a name for their ethnic group, in addition to speaking the
language of the same name. Therefore I believe that "fadija"
does not primarily designate a dialect , but more meaningfully
refers to an ethnic subgroup .As far as I know. evidence is not
available upon which to base either cultural or linguistic
distinctions of conclusive fineness. Nevertheless, utilizing the
people' own usage, I will call the group of Mahas speakers in
Egypt (i.e north of the second cataract) the fadija and I will
reserve the term Mahas for their language .The group in the
Sudan calling themselves the Mahas also speak this language .A
final language references that should be mentioned is the word
"rotan." this is the general colloquial term in use in the
region for all the Nubian languages. The Arabic meaning is
"non-Arabic language". However, the Nubian themselves use rotan
as the most broad category for their own language, i.e as a word
embracing both Kenzi and Mahas. All Nubians speak fluent Arabic
as a second language. Most can communicate in Arabic. |
