Language Situation

Abstract

The approximately 29 million inhabitants of Africa’s largest country, Sudan, speak at least 135 distinct languages belonging to three different language families, Afroasiatic, Niger–Congo, and Nilo–Saharan (compares Figures 1 and 2). Sudan’s current political boundaries were established at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In 1899, the country was placed under the jurisdiction of Britain as well as Egypt in nominal recognition of the historical claims of the khedive of Egypt, though reserving supreme civil and military authority to an offical nominated by the British colonial government. This so-called ‘Condominium Period,’ which lasted until the country’s independence on January 1, 1956, was preceded by the Turco–Egyptian period, which