University of Gothenburg Department of Linguistics THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF TIMA LANGUAGE, THE NUBA MOUNTAINS BY Abdel Rahim Hamid Mugaddam

Nuba Mountains is linguistically complex: 40 different languages belonging to 3 language phyla, Niger-Cong, Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic Strategic location + fertile land =attractive to people from different part of the Sudan Most of the languages are endangered

Tima ethnic group Tima ethnic group lives in Southern western fringe of the Nuba Mountains Population 5000 living in 4 villages: Mariam, Kew, and Balool, and Tambo Tima people have their own language Tima, known as Domurik [do-muri:k], Domurik is spoken by about 5000 people 4000 of whom live in Tima area while 1000 live in Khartoum

Nuba Mountain languages

According to Greenberg (1963), Tima and katla form one of the five subgroups within the Kordofanian branch of Niger- Kordofanian which includes Heiban, Talodi, Rasha, and katla

Tima community believe that their ancestors deliberately changed their language, so that the neighboring Katla and Julud, who speak genetically-related languages, could no longer understand the Tima language. According to Dimmendal (to appear), Whereas lexically Katla, Juld and Tima are fairly close, the grammatical differences between them are indeed considerable.

Dimmendal believes that the structural differences between the three languages is not a result of language manipulation, but rather of another type of contact-induced change, the imposition of structural properties from a specific source language into a target language in a language shift situation. Contrary to the Tima people claim, Dimmendaal argues that the changes took place in katla and Julud.

The language committee Tima community observed signs of language shift among young generation ( use of Arabic and English more often & code switching/code mixing) Language committee was set up to safeguard the group’s language The committee contacted prof. Dimmendaal asking for technical help

Tima Multimedia documentation project Objectives Writing a trilingual dictionary (Tima/Arabic/English) A description of the phonological and syntactic structure of Tima language Multilingual documentation of non-verbal communication activities Sociolinguistic profile of Tima speakers

The Sociolinguistic survey Objectives To give an overview of the current linguistic situation in Tima villages To investigate the process of language shift among Tima speech community To examine the domains in which Tima and other languages are used To investigate language attitudes among Tima community

Method Questionnaires covered 1500 people of both sex (5 age groups from 9 to 60+) Questions on linguistic repertoire, language use, and language attitude Representatives from the 4 Tima villages have participated in the process (5 from each village) The Tima language committee has supervised the survey

people who participated in the administering of questionnaires

Picture of Western Tima primary school students

Results Multilingualism: a number of old people reported that they spoke four languages: Tima, Katla, Julud,Temein, and Arabic

Trilingualism about 70% of the sample claim trilingualism in Tima, Arabica local language/ Tima, English, Arabic 55% of the old generation (60 years and above): Tima, Arabic, local language 75% (40- 59 years): Tima, Arabic, local language 71% (20-39 years) : Tima, Arabic, English 73 % (7- 12 years): Tima, Arabic, English

Bilingualism 34% of the old people (60+ years) 20% (40-59 years) Bilingualism in Tima and Arabic (In most of the cases)

Monolinguals 4% of the old people (60+ years) in Tima with passive knowledge in Arabic 9% (40-59) in Tima with very poor Arabic 1% (20-39 years) in Arabic 1% (13-19 years) in Arabic 5% (7-12) in Arabic

Primary language 90% of the sample population use Tima as a primary language 7% use Arabic and 3% other languages Tima is used as a primary language by: 96% of the old people (60+ years) 94% (40-59 years) 89% (20-39 years) 85% (13-19 years) 86% (7-12 years)

Domains of language use Home: 90 % of the sample population use Tima exclusively in the home domain 5% of the sample use Tima and Arabic 5% of the sample use Arabic exclusively 90% (60+ years) 92% (40-59 years) 90% (20-39) 89% (13-19) 88% (7-12) Tima assumes an absolute dominance of communication in the home domain.

Outside the home: streets, schools, market, etc, The determining factor is the practical role played by language 35% only Tima 10% Tima/Arabic 11% Tima/English 23% Tima/Arabic/English 7% Arabic/English 12% Only Arabic

Use of Tima exclusively by age group 49% (60 + years) 38% (40-59 years) 28% (20-39 years) 25% (13-19 years) 33% (7-12 years) Order of patterns: Tima only, Tima/Arabic/English, Arabic only, Tima English, Tima/Arabic, English only

Old people use more Tima (40-60+ years) Younger generation use English and Arabic School boys (13-19) use English more than the remainder age groups , because English is the medium of education. Interestingly, the same group use Arabic more than the others. Generally speaking, young generation Tima individuals tend to use English and Arabic more than their old counterpart

Language attitudes Measuring people’s attitudes towards a given code may give some indications about the future of that code with regard to maintenance or shift Two questions: which language respondents wish learn reading and writing with? Is it important for Tima children to learn Tima language?

43% reported Tima 21% Tima/Arabic 10% Tima English 8% Arabic 2% Arabic/English 9% Arabic/English/Tima Taking the pattern Tim, Tima/Arabic, Tima/English, and Arabic/English/Tima together, it will be evident that about 83% of the sample would like to learn reading and writing in Tima.

English is the least reported because it is already there as a medium of instruction at all of the Tima schools The need for Tima and Arabic is emphasized Many students believe that Arabic together with English will help them in the job market

Parental attitudes About 90% of the parents believe that is very important for their children to learn to read and write in Tima 10% of the sample did not support the use of Tima in education because they believe that it does not have a role to play in the future of their children (e.g. job opportunities) This suggests that parents are very keen to maintain Tima language through education

Conclusion Tima is still used widely in the Tima area Used predominantly in the home domain Facing competition from English and Arabic Young generation used Arabic and English more often outside the home domain There a slight shift from Tima among younger generation Attitude towards Tima is extremely positive Role of Arabic and English for the future of children is recognized by parents

There is a strong wish to use Tima in the education system in Tima area The practice of having a non-governmental language committee set up by a group of tribal people to look after their language provides inspiration into the ways in which the masses can be involved in the process of language planning.