The Nubian languages are spoken in southern Egypt and in the Sudan. They belong to the Nubian group of Eastern Sudanic branch of Chari Nile.
While Voegelin and Voegelin (1970), citing Welmers, report that the five "languages" of the Nubian branch have around one million speakers, they do not suggest a specific figure for Nubian itself. Shinnie (personal communication, 1985) states that "the latest information given suggests that for River Nubian in the Sudan, there were about 250,000 speakers. The number in Egypt (though not known) is perhaps the same." Grimes (1996) gives figures of 280,000 for "Kenuzi-Dongola" and 545,000 for Nobiin (see dialect survey, below).
Nubian is a regional language.
There is no standardized orthography for Nubian. It has been written in both Latinized and Arabic scripts.
At the very least, two sets of materials will be required for Nubian, one for Kenuz/Dongolawi and one for Mahas.
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