Exploring the sociolinguistic profile of Tima in

the Nuba Mountains of Sudan

Abdelrahim Hamid Mugaddam
and
Ashraf Kamal Abdelhay

1. Introduction
This paper discusses some of the defining features of the sociolinguistic
situation of Tima in the Nuba Mountains situated within the larger national
cultural order of Sudan. It attempts to answer two key questions: What is the
nature of the verbal repertoires of the individuals in the community?
Whether, and how, does Tima speech play a role in the production of an
imagined sense of solidarity against the monoglot standard ideology of the
State. The socioeconomically supported nationalist regime of language has
significantly led to differentially distributed and valued sociolinguistic
repertoires. We argue, however, that it has paradoxically resulted in the
increasing maintenance of the long subjugated linguistic practices in many
parts of the Sudan, including the Tima of the Nuba Mountains. The sources
of the data for the study are a linguistic survey triangulated with
ethnographic observation and historical documentation of metapragmatic
activities in Tima and Khartoum. The paper is structured into four parts: the
first part is an introduction, the second part reviews the conceptual
framework. The third part presents the findings of the linguistic survey, and
it engages in a detailed discussion of the ongoing role of a translocal
language planning body (Tima Language Committee) in the ideological
enregistration of Tima speech with a new sociolinguistic profile. The paper
concludes with an agenda for further research.

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

2. Conceptual background: the ideological value of sociolinguistic

variation
Diversity as social meaning of linguistic variation has been the central
attention of a number of interrelated research paradigms including
quantitative sociolinguistics (e.g., Labov 1966), ethnographic sociolinguistics
(e.g., Hymes 1974), interactional sociolinguistics (e.g., Gumperz 1968,
1982), linguistic anthropology in the semiotic mode (e.g., Silverstein 2003),
and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1989). Labovian sociolinguistics is
primarily concerned with the revealing of the mechanisms of linguistic
change by focusing on the statistical correlation between socioeconomic
variables (e.g., class and age) and patterns of linguistic variability (Aijn
Oliva and Serrano 2012; Labov 1971, 1972a, 1972b; Meyerhoff 2006).
Awareness of the socially ordered variation, which is a product of contact
aided by a globalised political economy, is largely expected to result in the
maintenance or the loss of (stereotyped) linguistic variants (for a discussion
see Duchene & Heller 2007; Mufwene 2004; Nettle & Romaine 2000). In his
classic study of Marthas Vineyard, Labov (1972b) found that individuals use
non-standard variants of certain phonological variables to mark their social
identity as locals. Using the social network theory to study patterns of
variation in Belfast, Lesley Milroy (1987) showed that persons who conduct
their everyday social life within dense, multiplex sociolinguistic networks
are more likely to maintain their normatively local form of speech.
A classic account by Trudgill (1972) of the urban dialect of Norwich which
focused on variation along the dimension of sex showed that men might
deploy more local-sounding, non-standard features since such a usage was
believed to carry covert prestige as strategy of constructing working-class
solidarity. LePage and Tabouret-Kellers (1985) study of the language
situation in the Caribbean reconceptualised choices in a persons repertoire
as acts of identity. Integrating the quantitative and ethnographic
perspectives in the study of the social order in a Detroit suburban high
school, Eckert (2000) framed linguistic variation as social practice: social
in the sense that individuals embody norms, class-related ideologies, and
trajectories, and practice in the sense that it is through semiotic actions that
different social categories of identification are created and reasserted. In
other words, individuals varied linguistic repertoires perform the sociolinguistic order:
The social life of variation lies in the variety of individuals ways of
participating in their communities their ways of fitting in, and of
making their mark their ways of constructing meaning in their
own lives. It lies in the day-to-day use and transformation of

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

linguistic resources for local stylistic purposes, and its global

significance lies in the articulation between these local purposes and
larger patterns of ways of being in the world. (Eckert 2000: 1-2)
Ethnographic sociolinguistics in the Hymesian tradition is a significant
multidisciplinary perspective that takes diversity/variation as its starting
point (Hymes 1974, 1996; Blommaert 2010). For Hymes (1974, 1996),
human history can be conceptualised as the history of diversity. The twin
foundational theoretical principles of this paradigm is that all human
societies have sociolinguistic systems, yet every linguistic system is sociologically structured and patterned in specific way. And the exact nature of
the functional organisation of linguistic forms in a society or any communicative event can only be understood through empirical and comparative
inquiry. In this research tradition, the sources of inequality are the ways in
which verbal forms are normatively and institutionally valued, stratified and
distributed and access to them is controlled. Its package of conceptual and
analytic toolkit developed from sociology and linguistics by Hymes and
others includes, social stratification, norms, values, ideologies, performance,
communicative competence, repertoires, genres, styles of speaking, speech
events and speech acts (for definitions see Blommaert 2005, 2010; Gumperz
and Hymes 1972; Hymes 1972, 1974, 1996; Saville-Troike 2003).
For Hymes (1996: 33), a repertoire comprises a set of ways of speaking.
Ways of speaking, in turn, comprise speech styles, on the one hand, and
contexts of discourse, on the other, together with relations of appropriateness
obtaining between styles and contexts (emphasis in original). The principle
of appropriateness focuses on the ranking and valuational orientations or
attitudes towards linguistic resources in the persons or groups repertoires. It
is the socioeconomic conditions which is the ultimate source of explanation
and transformation of the structured hierarchy and inequality in use and
access to the specialised communicative repertoires. The notion of voice
(Bakhtin 1981) in this paradigm is seen as a matter of access to the adequate
sociolinguistic resources in society. More important, the focus here is not on
language but on communication in situated events (on communication as
an integrated practice see Harris 1998). The ethnographic focus on the
organisation of communicative events in terms of productive/interpretive
repertoires, genres and registers problematises the very notions of language,
dialect, bilingualism, and literacy, to name a few, as objects that pre-exist
discourse (see Blommaert 2005; Blackledge and Creese 2010; Heller 2007;
Makoni and Pennycook 2006, Street 1984). Focusing on the micro-level
detail of interaction, interactional sociolinguists suggested that interlocutors
make inferences as the conversation continues relying on what Gumperz
(1992, 1995) called contextualisation cues (e.g., intonation) that are largely

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

patterned and conventionalised (for a discussion see Collins 2007; for an

illustration of this paradigm see Rampton 1995).
The work of the linguistic anthropologist Silverstein (1998, 2003) on orders
of indexicality and enregisterment addresses semiotic variation and
historical processes through which the use of particular linguistic variants
ideologically come to index a particular social categorisation. The
framework shows how registers conceptualised in the broader sense as
linguistic variants with particular social non-referential meanings emerge
(e.g., standard and non-standard forms of usage) (Silverstein 2003: 212).
According to this model, any sociolinguistic phenomenon comes in
dialectical and ordinal degrees of 1st-order indexicality, 2nd-order
indexicality, etc. Silverstein (2003: 193-194) stated that any n-th order
indexical presupposes that the context in which it is normatively used has a
schematization of some particular sort, relative to which we can model the
appropriateness of its usage in that context. For a linguistic variable to
function as a 2nd-order indexicality it has to be mediated by a cultural
schema (or local ethnometapragmatic ideology) for the enregisterment to be
meaningful (Silverstein 2003: 212). This requires ideological engagement
with the social value of the variant (e.g., it is association with class) and
discursive or metapragmatic activities through which users become aware of
the variation. The variants of the variable have become enregistered in
some verbal repertoires, and their deployment become entailing (creative) of
the context: they can be semiotically used to conduct sociolinguistic work in
relation to social class, locality, gender, etc. When a 2nd-order index becomes
ideologically transparent, or stereotypical in Labovs (1971) sense, it would
dialectically erase (Irvine and Gal 2000) the 1st-order reality on the ground.
Thus cultural values (e.g., good/bad, normal/deviant) associated with
linguistic forms are notoriously ideological since they emerge in microcontextual interactions as straightforward naturalisations or essentialisations
(Silverstein 2003: 202). However, the 1st-order normative linguistic forms
can under specific folk metapragmatic ideology be invested with a potential
2nd-order indexical meaning: for any indexical phenomenon at order n, an
indexical phenomenon at order n+1 is always immanent (Silverstein 2003:
212). Silverstein (1979: 193)) conceptualised language ideologies as any
sets of beliefs about language articulated by the users as a rationalisation or
justification of perceived language structure and use. In this sense,
linguistic scientific statements dressed in an n-th indexical order are
ideological to the core.
Drawing on Silversteins work, Agha (2003) examined the processes of
enregisterment which led to the historical emergence of the English
Received Pronunciation (RP), once a regional sociolect spoken by a few, as a

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

recognisable standard-register emblematising a particular social status. Agha

(2003: 231) defined enregisterment as processes through which a
linguistic repertoire becomes differentiable within a language as a socially
recognized register of forms (see also Slotta 2012). Johnstone (2011,
Johnstone & Kiesling 2008), using Silverstein and Aghas conceptual
apparatus, showed in a series of detailed studies how a Pittsburgh speech,
once unobserved, has become, as a result of geographical and social
mobility, ideologically enregisterd as a local dialect (Pittsburgese) linked to
a place and its people. Fergusons (1957) diglossia suggested that intensive
institutional work is involved in the relative stability of the ideological
meaning of linguistic variation in Arabic (as an illustration see Suleiman
2003, 2004; Haeri 2000, 2003). Other conceptual metaphors developed by
sociologists and cultural theorists which are appropriated in multimodal and
critical discourse analysis of the social organisation of linguistic variation are
Bourdieus (1991) symbolic power, Gramscis (1971) hegemony, and
Foucaults (1984) orders of discourse (for a discussion see Blommaert 2005;
Joseph 2006; Fairclough 2001; Kress 2003).
3. A historical note about the Nuba Mountains
The Nuba Mountains (Jibal al-Nuba in current Arabic discourse, or Dar Nuba
in classic literature) are administratively part of the State of Southern
Kordofan of the Sudan (for a review of an earlier history of the region see
Spaulding 1987; see map1). Most of the Nuba communities are settled
farmers and they share the geography of Southern Kordofan with Baggara
(Baggara is a collective reference to cattle-herders, e.g., Messeria and
Hawazma, relationally regarded as Arab/Arabised). The hilly region covers
an area of 88,000 km2 (around 30,000 square miles) within the savanna rain
belt. It is located between longitudes 29 and 3130'E and latitudes 10 and
1230'N (Baumann 1987; Komey 2010; Stevenson 1984). Topographically,
the region is made up of a pattern of long mountain ranges separated by
stretches of plains and valleys (for more information about the physical
character of the region see Nadel 1947; Komey 2010).
Though the term Nuba is generally used as a reference to the inhabitants of
the region, it should be noted that the Nuba are not a single homogeneous
speech community (for a review of the etymology of the word Nuba see
Stevenson 1984). Rather the area is populated by communities with socially
diverse practices (note that the current public discourse differentiates the
1

We are grateful to Thilo Schadeberg for providing this map.

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

Nuba of the Nuba Mountains from the Nubian/Nobiin of the most northern
Sudan near Egypt)2. According to Nadels (1947) classic study, there are
more than fifty ethnic groups/tribes in the region with various religious and
cultural practices (e.g., Islam, Christianity; see also Thelwall & Schadeberg
1983). The 1955 population census estimated the Nuba with 572,935 people
(6% of the total national population (Komey 2010; Thelwall 1978). The last
population census in 2009 suggested 1,406,404 as the total population of the
Nuba Mountains (Komey 2010). It should be remarked that in the
postcolonial period figures by official population censuses are suspect since
the Nuba and other marginalised groups (e.g., particularly in then southern
region) believed that the
counting
technology
was
manipulated in the service of
the political interests of central
governments.
The historical-linguistic literature
lists
around
fifty
languages identified largely
with two different phyla:
Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan
(Greenberg
1966).
Among
these languages Tima is
enregistered as an endangered
language.
The
Nuba
Mountains have engaged in
armed conflicts particularly
with the current Al-Beshirs
Islamist
regime
(National
Congress Party, NCP) which
seized power in June 1989 (for
a review of the Islamist
movements in Sudan see
Gallab 2008; Ibrahim 1999).
Omer Al-Beshirs regime has
actively pursued a top-down
homogenising
policy
of
Arabicisation and Islamisation
The representation of the peoples in the Nuba Mountains as a single
monolithic unit is, using Aghas term, a product of historical enregistration
(see Abdelhay 2010).
2

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

(see Abdelhay et al. 2011; Sharkey 2003, 2008; Miller 2003; Taha 1990).
This power-invested political programme has been rejected by the Nuba
peoples. Arabic in its various interactional forms is part of the the repertoires
of the majority of Nuba communities, however, they do not ideologically
view themselves as Arab. The late Nuba leader Yusuf Kuwa Mekki was
reported to have said: despite all the talk about my Arabism, my religion,
my culture, I am a Nuba, I am black, I am an African3 (on the history of
Arabs in Sudan see Hasan 1967). The situation in the Nuba Mountains, and
other parts of the Sudan, demonstrates an exploitative form of the centreperiphery relation within the larger scale of the modern nation-state
(Abdelhay et al. 2011; Sharkey 2003; Komey 2010).
Due to political instability in the Sudan over the past three decades, many
peoples from the Nuba Mountains (and other parts of Sudan) have moved to
major urban centres such as Khartoum and al-Jazzeera region (Miller & AbuManga 1992; Mugaddam 2006a, 2006b). These sociopolitical conditions
have shaped the sociolinguistic repertoires of the Nuba peoples including, in
our case, the Tima individuals. In 2005, the NCP representing the
government of the Sudan signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)
with the southern rebels represented by the Sudan Peoples Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Since many Nuba people were/are an ally to
the SPLM, the CPA dedicated a separate peace protocol to settle the conflict
in the State of Southern Kordofan (including the Nuba Mountains) and Blue
Nile. The protocol is entitled The Resolution of Conflict in Southern
Kordofan and Blue Nile States, originally signed on 24th May 2004 (see
CPA 2005). For our purpose, the peace protocol stipulated: The diverse
cultural heritage and local languages of the population of the State shall be
developed and protected (CPA 2005: 73).
4. Exploring the sociolinguistic status of Tima in the Nuba Mountains
and beyond
The social group under discussion is concentrated in a number of villages on
Jebel Tima in the Nuba Mountains, about 15 kilometres southwest of the
Katla region (Dimmendaal 2003). These four villages are Mariam, Balool,
Kew, and Tambo. According to a recent estimation made by Dimmendaal
(2009), Tima is spoken by approximately 5000 people, with around 6000
speakers live in the Khartoum area. The people are identified by their
neighbouring communities with various group-defining labels including
3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13351773, accessed 30/7/2011.

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

Tima, Tamanik or Yibwa. Historically, the group self-identifies as Umurik

(sg. Kumurik), and it refers to its area and speech as Lumurik and Dumurik
respectively4. However, the term Tima is currently used by the community
in reference to its communal identity and language.
This study is intended to provide a general picture of the local sociolinguistic
system in the Tima area, with a broad focus on the place of Tima in the
repertoires of the community. A situated view of Tima as part of the
individuals and communal repertoires and its patterns of use can shed a
significant light on the questions related to language endangerment and
revitalisation. Besides, since the whole project derives it legitimacy from the
people themselves or their representatives (a group of persons from the
community contacted the Institute of African and Asian Studies to help them
develop education materials), the engagement of the community in the
linguistic was visible in every phase of the study. To understand the social
value of Tima in relation to other linguistic forms we draw on data elicited
by a survey questionnaire and direct observation of some communicative
events (e.g., a wedding; TV watching).
4.1 The survey questionnaire
The questionnaire was intended mainly to derive some information about
the structure of the repertoires in terms of the nature of the semiotic
resources available to Tima individuals and the attitudes associated with
them (for reports on previous surveys see Thelwall 1978; Hurreiz & Bell
1975). The first part of the questionnaire aimed at capturing metadiscoures
in relation to the use of the communicative forms, and whether they are
socially patterned according to the dimensions of age, sex, the village in
which a person lives, and parents ethnic background. Since questionnaires
by their nature of design cannot produce enough and precise information
about the entire range of the communicative events which constitutes the
community, we tried to elicit data by focusing on broad domains of linguistic
use (e.g., home). And this is the focus of the second part of the
questionnaire. Indeed a domain such as home may itself comprise multiply
patterned semiotic events in which a linguistic form of Tima may variedly
figure.
Our purpose here is to detect any social patterns in relation to linguistic use
and orientations. The third part of the questionnaire attempts to elicit more
4

http://www.mpi.nl/DOBES/projects/tima/people, accessed 8 August 2011.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

closely responses in relation to attitudes with a focus on literacy. For

example, informants were asked about the linguistic variety they would like
to learn to read and write, and the ones they would like their children to
learn. Two caveats should be added here. Firstly, although the questions on
literacy may reductively conceptualise the social phenomenon in terms of
writing and reading, the purpose is to uncover, if any, the effect of the
monoglot (Silverstein 1996) ideology which equates language with
writing. Our observation attests to the fact that various forms of literacy
were displayed in the landscape and some are embodied by the youth (e.g.,
T-shirts with English texts). Since we are aware that metaphors such as
language dialect and rutana may have ideological connotations in the
community (they do in the larger Khartoum and other urbanised centres),
every question about the social value of a linguistic variety is phrased in
terms of the three variants (i.e., language/dialect/rutana). Since space
limitation does not allow for a full exposition of the whole questionnaire
responses, our analysis is inevitably selective. Yet, we maintain that the
analysis can shed significant light on the nature and structure of
multilingualism in the society viewed not in terms of monolingualism
multiplied (see Heller 2007) but in terms of verbal repertoires (in its
productive and/or interpretive modes.
4.2 Participants
The informants of the present study numbered 1,189 persons in total and
were selected from five age groups: 7-12 years (239 informants), 13-19 years
(212 informants), 20-39 years (240 informants), 40-59 years (238
informants), and 60+ (260 informants). The persons were selected in order
to have a representative sample of the four Tima villages Balool, Kew,
Mariam and Tambo (287 informants for each village). Although the
construct informant may imply a particular interactional position within
the participation framework of the questionnaire event, we should note that
some individuals occupied multiple social roles: e.g., informant, research
assistants and/or organiser. The survey was organised by the Tima Language
Committee (TLC) in the area (more on TLC below). Five research assistants
from each of the four villages were employed to help in the administration
of questionnaires. They were briefed on the aims of the survey and trained
on how to conduct it. The work went quite well under the close supervision
of both the TLC and the researcher. The data collection process took about a
week during which the research assistants showed a high level of
commitment and enthusiasm. One of the most important results of the

10

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

survey is the fact that the whole Tima community became more aware that a
serious step towards standardising the group's speech has been taken.
4.3 Analysis
The questions in the first part of the questionnaire were intended to elicit
information about whether the linguistic varieties in the community are
organised in accordance to any specific social variables. It also aimed at
detecting whether the linguistic variables a person knows and the knowledge
of their use are ordered according to any specific ideological scheme (e.g.,
Good vs. Bad). Table 1 summarises the responses in terms of the variable
dimension of age. One of the key questions asked is: Which language/
dialect/rutana do you think you speak better than any other?
Table 1. Linguistic repertoire among the Tima speech community by age
Tima
Arabic
Other*
7-12 years
207 86.61%
31 12.97%
1 0.42%
13-19 years
182 85.85%
19
8.96%
11 5.19%
20-39 years
214 89.17%
23
9.58%
3 1.25%
40-59 years
225 94.54%
11
4.62%
2 0.84%
60+ years
250 96.15%
06
2.31%
4 1.54%
total
1078 90.66%
90
7.57%
21 1.77%
*Other = English, Katla, Julud, Tabag, Tulushi

100%
239
212
240
238
260
1189

Informants were also asked about which linguistic forms they believe they
use in the home domain. Table 2 provides a bird-eye view of language
distribution according to the variable dimension of home. As can be read
from the figures, more than 90% of the respondents stated that they used
Tima exclusively in the home domain. Use of Tima in this way appeared to
have been generally consistent across the different age group. The least
percentage (88.7%) of Tima use in the home domain was registered by the
youngest age group (7-12 years). Use of Arabic exclusively was reported by
only 4.6%, and by 5.04% together with Tima. Table 2 also suggests that the
use of Arabic in the home domain declines by age. Younger group members
have indicated that they used Arabic more than older community members.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

11

Table 2. Language use in the home domain by age

7-12 years
13-19 years
20-39 years
40-59 years
60+ years
total

Tima
212
190
216
220
234
1072

Tima+Arabic
9 3.8%
11 5.2%
15 6.3%
11 4.6%
16 6.2%
62 5.2%

88.7%
89.6%
90.0%
92.4%
90.0%
90.2%

Arabic
18 0.4%
11 5.2%
9 1.3%
7 0.8%
10 1.5%
55 1.8%

100%
239
212
240
238
260
1189

Table 3 is based on responses to questions targeting information about usage

outside the home domain (e.g., school). Only 35.4% of the respondents
indicated that they used Tima exclusively in communicating outside the
home domain. The remaining respondents (about 64%) reported usage
ranging from Tima together with English and Arabic to Arabic and English,
and other linguistic varieties exclusively in the same domain. The Table also
shows that 20% of the population surveyed have already adopted Arabic and
English exclusively in interacting outside the home (151 informants for
Arabic and 87 informants for English). A close look at the Table reveals that
less than 36% of the elderly people use Tima exclusively outside the home
domain. Table 3 also indicates that use of Arabic and English in general is
quite common among the younger generation in Tima area.
Table 3. Language use outside home by age
7-12 y.
13-19 y.
20-39 y.
40-59 y.
60+ y.
total

Tima

T+A

T+E

80
33.5%

18
7.5%

40
16.7%

45
18.8%

31
13.0%

25
10.5%

239
100%

68
28.3%

28
11.7%

20
8.3%

74
30.8%

32
13.3%

18
7.5%

240
100%

128
49.2%

36
13.9%

54
25.5%

91
38.2%

8
3.8%

32
13.5%

52
24.5%

11
4.6%
15
5.8%

T+A+E

51
24.1%

61
25.6%
39
15.0%

421
122
138
270
35.4% 10.3% 11.6% 22.7%

34
16.0%

29
12.2%

25
9.6%

151
12.7%

E+other

13
6.1%

14
5.9%
17
6.5%
87
7.3%

total

212
100%

238
100%
260
100%

1189
100%

T=Tima; A=Arabic; E=English; other=Katla, Julud, Tabag, Tulushi

12

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

The third part of the questionnaire attempts to generate data in relation to

social attitudes towards literacy. Measuring peoples attitudes towards a
given variety may give some indications of the future of that variety with
regard to maintenance and levelling/shift. The two questions asked were
structured around which linguistic variety the respondents wish to learn
reading and writing with and whether parents find it necessary for their
children to be schooled. Table 4 and 5 give a summary of respondents
answers.
Table 4. Attitudes to literacy in some linguistic varieties
Tima
7-12
13-19
20-39
40-59
60+
total

T+A

T+E

E+A

T+A+E total

93
38.9%

49
20.5%

32
13.4%

31
13.0%

8
3.3%

6
2.5%

20
239
8.4% 100%

107
44.6%

67
27.9%

17
7.1%

14
5.8%

11
4.6%

4
1.7%

20
240
8.3% 100%

23
8.9%

4
1.5%

88
41.5%

119
50.0%
143
55.0%

43
20.3%

48
20.2%
46
17.7%

24
11.3%

19
8.0%
27
10.4%

15
7.1%

18
7.6%

550
253
119
101
46.3% 21.3% 10.0%
8.5%

3
1.4%

7
2.9%

9
4.3%

8
3.4%
0
0.0%

30
212
14.2% 100%

19
238
8.0% 100%
17
260
6.5% 100%

33
27
106
1189
2.8% 2.3%
8.9% 100%

T=Tima; A=Arabic; E=English

Table 5. Attitude to literacy in Tima by age
20-39 years
40-59 years
60+ years
total

216
220
234
1072

Yes

90.0%
92.4%
90.0%
90.2%

15
11
16
62

No

6.3%
4.6%
6.2%
5.2%

9
7
10
55

total
1.3%
0.8%
1.5%
1.8%

Note that Table 5 covers only answers given by those whose age ranges from
20 to 60+ (Parents or potential parents). Table 5 also indicates that more
than 90% of the parents or potential parents surveyed believed that it was
important for their children to read and write in the Tima language.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

13

4.3 Discussion
In the introduction we have posed two questions in order to have a broad
view of the local sociolinguistic order in the area of Tima: What is the nature
and structure of the verbal repertoires of individuals in the community?
Whether, and how, does Tima (in whatever -lect) play a role in the
production of an imagined (Anderson 1991) meaning of the community. As
to the first question, a questionnaire was designed to to have an idea about
the range of the sociolinguistic varieties available to individuals. The
instrument also attempted to elicit some information as to whether there is
any generally detectable patterns in relation to their usage according to
dimensions such as age and some domains of use. The questionnaire also
targeted the elicitation of attitudinal formulations towards the linguistic
varieties. A close discussion of the nature of the dominant language ideology
in the community will be made when we discuss the work of a community
language planning body (Tima Language Community, TLC) in response the
second question. In what follows we first comment on the findings on the
survey questionnaire and then proceed to discuss the objectives of the TLC.
The first remark about the results is that individuals in the Tima community
have polyglot repertoires with ordered linguistic varieties: Tima, Arabic,
English, Tulushi, Julud, to mention some of the reported. In other words,
verbal repertoires are varied and this variation is socially patterned
according to the aspects of their usage. The linguistic variety of Tima
predominates in the domain of home, while other varieties such as English
and Arabic are more visible outside the domain of home. The findings also
point to a regular decline in the reported usage of Tima by the youth
corresponded with an increase in Arabic and English. This can be due to the
general observation that the youth make use of these resources to index
particular social identities (e.g., T-shirts with English texts are observed to
be worn by some youths). Besides, the younger age group are exposed
extensively to other linguistic forms such as English and other linguistic
varieties (e.g., Amharic) through the regional media (e.g., televised local and
international football matches), in the streets, markets and schools (English
is the only medium of instruction in the two schools of the community).
However, we cannot risk the generalisation that the youth does not have at
least interpretive repertoires in Tima. Such a generalisation depends on
further studies with qualitative methodologies. Further, although the
majority of the older generation has productive and interpretive repertoires
in Tima and Arabic, their predominant usage of Tima is largely shaped by
the nature of their social networks.

14

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

The reported attitudes towards some linguistic varieties (Arabic, English,

Tima, Julud, Katla, etc.) indicate that these communicative forms are
indexical resources. In other words, they are assigned social meanings by the
respondents (e.g., Tima is selected as a suitable medium of education). The
fact that there is some inconsistency in the selection of Tima as a medium of
instruction points to the existence of multiple language ideologies within the
Tima community. Further, among other linguistic varieties (other than Tima,
English and Arabic), Katla and Julud appear to be part of the repertoires of
the majority of the people in the area. The historical linguistic explanation is
that the three linguistic forms, Tima, Katla, and Julud are genetically related
and thus there is a vast area of similarity among them, especially at the
lexical level. However, a more plausible sociolinguistic account is that Tima,
Julud and Katla populations are geographically and socially (e.g., by
intermarriage) so close to each other, a situation which facilitates social
interaction among the three communicative groups. This is supported by the
fact that a considerable number of those surveyed have indicated that they
socialise more often with people from Julud and Katla. To summarise the
answer to the first question, Tima community has a sociolinguistic system
with multiple, but generally patterned, linguistic varieties. Individuals
repertoires are varied as a result of their social biographies. Let us now move
to answer the second question (whether Tima is perceived to have any
specific ideological value within this cultural system, and if so by whom) by
discussing TLC with a focus on its metapragmatic activities.
The emergence of the TLC is itself evidence of the fact that linguistic
variation is taken very seriously in the context of Sudan (i.e., it is socially
meaningful). Our argument is that TLC is a language-making body set up by
the locals to enregister in the local imagination a particular communicative
form (Tima as standard language) linked to a particular social value (the
entire community). That is, as a result of the metadiscurisve activities of this
body, Tima may potentially come to be imagined in new terms: as a
language linked to a place with specific social configuration (a united
community of four villages). What we want to show is some of the historical
moments and stages in the construction of standard language called Tima
language through complex metapragmatic processes not just at the local
scale but at other significant higher scales as we will show later. Some of the
metadiscurisve processes involved in the production of physical artefacts (i.e.
a curriculum) has certainly united individuals with different discursive
histories: linguists living in Khartoum and outside Khartoum, European
linguists, members of the TLC who live in community and outside the
community, all in coordination with those living in the Tima community. It
is evident that TLC has been operating with a particular ideological scheme

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

15

which is relatively compatible with professional linguists: for a particular

local communicative form to be used in the educational system of a
particular locality it has to be armed with textual artefacts such as
dictionaries and an educational syllabus. In a word, the task is that a register
of Tima has to be indexically elevated to the status of language in a
national sociolinguistic context where the language-dialect opposition has
serious consequences.
Our starting point is that a group of individuals belonging to the community
approached the Institute of African and Asian Studies of the University of
Khartoum (IAAS). The persons complained that their childrens proficiency
in Tima is declining, and stated that they want their children in the
community to be educated in Tima and not Arabic or English. In other
words, they believed that Tima is a threatened language by bigger
languages such as English and Arabic. They met with Gerrit Dimmendaal
who was a visiting Professor at the time for technical help. The TLC was
founded in 2002 immediately after their meeting with Dimmendaal. The
committee comprised 12 members in Khartoum and 12 members in Tima.
Each branch has a female in its membership5. Five members from the TLC
are tasked with the coordination with a team of professional linguists. The
linguistic team was set up to work with the locals in the development of
orthography and educational materials.
As mentioned above, Tima is not the original reference to what the people
speak in the area. The historical name of what populations do with language
was Dumurik: Dumurik simply meant speech (klam in Arabic)6. In the
local cultural system, the metaphor Dumurik was neither tied to specific part
of the community nor its use had any specific ideological values in the way
the use of terms such as language or rutana could index in other
hegemonic cultural orders (e.g., Khartoum). The name Tima which was
originally used by the Arabised tribes referred only to the village of Tambo,
which is presently one of the constituents of the larger community (the other
three constituent villages are Mariam, Balool, and Kew). Now the
It was not the first encounter between community and pofessional linguists.
The group reported that they had already had an experience with SIL which
resulted in the development of two textbooks in Tima. Although evaluations
such as good/bad books in relation to previously produced textual artefacts
are ideological statements, for our purpose they are indicative of the fact
that the TLC actively and explicitly exercises some epistemic control rather
than being a mere receiver of institutional products.
6
We are grateful to Hamid Kafi and Gertrud Schneider-Blum for information
on the historical meaning of the term Dumurik. We also thank Suzan
Alamin for the linguistic analysis of the term Dumurik.
5

16

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

community and its TLC are using the term in its extended referent (to cover
the four villages and their populations). Most important, viewed from the
perspective of the Tima people, the construct Tima as a name of their
linguistic variety indexes positive meanings (e.g., a marker of identity).
However seen from the lens of the monoglot ideology of the State and its
media, Tima is a rutana (a pejorative metaphor for less-than-languageproper varieties in Sudan), and the rutanat are seen by nationalists and
Islamists as an unnecessary threat to the national unity of the country (on a
review of the Sudans identity crisis see Elnur 2009; Deng 1994; Garang
1992; Idris 2005; Lesch 1998). For example, the ruling regimes journalist
Hussein Khojali, an editor and owner of a newspaper and a TV station, has
recently gone public (in an article dated 11 August 2011) and called for a
public battle against these linguistic varieties:
I wish the day will come when Rutanat of the Halfawis, Dongolawis,
Masaleiti, Zaghawas, and Hadandwas become a thing of the past
and that the dhad language will become the common language of
the land. The tongue of him who they wickedly point to is notably
foreign, while this is an Arabic tongue, pure and clear. This is a
serious intellectual battle that should be openly fought in favour
of a centralised culture. I say battle because we are fed up with
trifling articles that are far from convincing anybody. Yes I am for
the Arabic language and to those who envy us for our noble pursuit,
I say God forgive you!"7
The above (institutional) position provides a very clear definition of the
stratifying nature of the sociolinguistic regime at the national scale. The
above statement, motivated by a particular ideological scheme (one
centralised culture and one language), associates Arabic with particular
social meanings (pure, clear, common language) while other communicative forms are viewed by the contrasts of these ideological values. Rothman
and Iverson (2010: 34) stated that the concept of one-language-one-nation
rallies the masses together inasmuch as it provides an indexical source of
pride and commonality (emphasis in original). For the Nuba, and other
social groups in Sudan, this Herderian principle of nationalism has been a
source of social subjugation. This cultural system of valuation which has
http://arabic-media.com/newspapers/sudan/alwan.htm (accessed 26 Feb.
2012). We thank Zuhair Osman for translating the original Arabic statement:
7

..
.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

17

been in place since independence has become the centripetal benchmark

against which identities and linguistic resources are scaled and ordered. The
national education system in significant parts of the Sudan (the former
southern region excluded) and for a long temporal span, has centrally
contributed to the essentialisation of the indexical values of local linguistic
practices as rutanat. The popularised ideology here is that since local
linguistic varieties lack a writing system, they cannot be used as media of
instruction. However, in this centralising sociolinguistic system, a local
linguistic variety even with textual cannon (e.g., orthography) can still not
count as a language. As an effect and function of this hegemonic cultural
order which is largely inscribed in the Arabicisation and Islamisation polices
spearheaded by the current power holders, local linguistic varieties do not
qualify as languages (note the Arabic-language indexical correlation in the
above quoted position; for a detailed discussion of the ideological policies of
Arabicisation in Sudan see Abdelhay et al. 2011). Since the rutanat + social
negativity correlation has been regularly enregistered, circulated through
mass-mediated channels of publication communication, and largely
institutionalised, it has become a commonplace particularly in the central
Sudan (first-order indexicality in Silversteins sense). The result is a
relatively fixed vertical and distributional sociolinguistic regime at the
national level in which local communicative varieties have ideologically
become associated with pejorative indexicalities.
Most important, as can be seen in the above quote, the standard monoglot
ideology has essentialised the link between Arabic with Islam. In other
words, for the Arab-Islamist power holders Arabic has become a first-order
index of a particular social orientation (for a discussion on the relation
between Islam and ethnicity in Sudan see Miller 2003; OFahey 1996;
Sharkey 2003). Viewed from this ideologically rationalised socioeconomic
system, the resisting Muslim groups in the Nuba Mountains (e.g., Tima) do
not qualify as Muslims. As we write the Nuba Mountains region is engaged
in an armed conflict with the ruling regime. This State-supported nationalist
standard language ideology has significantly resulted in differentially
distributed and valued sociolinguistic repertoires. It should be noted that the
British colonial policies actively tried to create a monolithic sense of the
Nuba by actively isolating them from the Arabised groups (Abdelhay 2010;
Salih 1990; on colonial linguistics see Errington 2001, 2008). Awareness by
isolated groups or individuals of the social meaning of their practices
(diversity) was an effect of mobility/contact (e.g., wars) with the outside
populations particularly during the late years of the colonial period and
strongly during the postcolonial period. The regular interactional encounters
brought to the observation of the individuals from the region not just that

18

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

they had or ought to have birthdays but most importantly they were Nuba.
Observe the following biographical fragment from an interview conducted in
2001 by the Dutch Journalist Nanne op t Ende with the late Nuba leader
Yusuf Kuwa (for the full interview see http://www.occasionalwitness.com/,
accessed 23 Feb. 2012):
Op t Ende: Mr. Kuwa, when were you born?
Kuwa: Well, in those days our people didn't care about birthdays,
but my mother said I was born when my father came back home
from the war of Tullushi. And the war of Tullushi was in 1945. It
was the last battle between the British and the Nuba people. My
father had been a noncommissioned officer during World War II.
He fought in many places: in Ethiopia, in El Alamein and so on.
Op t Ende: Before that [before joining Khartoum University in
1975], you had no idea of the diversity and the different customs
and?
Kuwa: It is one of the funniest things: when you were in the Nuba
Mountains, you just knew your own tribe. We for example were
Miri. So if we were asked: "Who are the Nuba?" we would try to
say: "The other tribesbut not us." Only when we came out of the
Nuba Mountains, to the north or south or west, we learned that
we are all Nuba.
However, the discursive and coercive socioeconomic circumstances
particularly from 1989 onwards (politically manufactured hunger and wars)
paradoxically has led the subjugated groups as the Nuba to stick to their
linguistic guns, so to speak, as part of the struggle against the hegemonic
regime in Khartoum (for a discussion of the history of the Nuba struggle see
Rahhal 2001). It is against this brief sociolinguistic backdrop the emergence
of TLC that the significance of its semiotic work can be adequately understood. To recap the observation, the TLC was set up to resemiotise (to give a
new social meaning to) Tima in the translocal verbal repertoires as a
standard language linked to a particular form of social identity (Tima as a
community composed of four villages). In other words, the sociolinguistic
plan is to recreate Tima with new indexicalities to which people can
positively orient.
The significant point to keep in mind is that both the awareness to
standardise Tima and the text-artefacts produced so far do not pre-exist the
metadiscourses (e.g. Tima is threatened) being verbally circulated at the
(trans-) local scale. TLC itself dialectically reproduces itself through the same
set of standardising discourses. The production of the textual artefacts by

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

19

TLC and a team of linguists turn Tima into a semiotic resource for social
actions ( e.g., some Tima members are receiving certified literacy training in
Tima at IAAS). In what follows we will try to analyse some of the datable
metapragmatic activities with the aim to show that the current synchronic
situation is just a moment in an ongoing, complex series of historical
trajectories to enregister Tima as standard language and not just a rutana.
In other words, the following sketched narrative of events should be
interpreted as historical points in the emergence of a contextually integrated
local symbolic form as a denotationally bounded standard language (and
not a rutana) indexically linked to a particular community of speakers
(Tima community) in a particular place (the Tima of the Nuba Mountains).
One of the significant metadiscurisve genres which primarily involve talking
about Tima is a series of regular linguistic planning meetings in the
community. In these organised community meetings, members of the TLC
update the local community (usually the middle-aged and elderly) of workin-progress in relation to the development of literacy materials. Professional
linguists, if they happen to be in the area, participate in the Tima-language
meetings. For example, the encounter which we attended comprised mainly
men across the age range of 25-75. Remarkably the dominant communicative medium through which the semiotic encounter was conducted was
Arabic (viewed dialectally). On one occasion during the meeting a member
of the community (lets anonymously call him Nasr) intervened with a
contribution using (a form of) Tima. To be sure, Arabic is part of Nasrs
repertoire because his contribution was a dialogical reaction to the
convenors briefing and also because we came to know that he could
communicatively conduct himself in Arabic quite well. The substance of
Nasrs comment turned out to be a reminder of a past event in which a
linguist came to the area to document Tima. The locals helped the linguist
with the required data, and the linguist left with a promise to return with
materials which can be used for educational purposes. The professional
linguist unfortunately was never seen again. The convenors and one of the
linguists assured Nasr that in this project the locals are not only data
providers but partners with expertise in the project of literacy development
(more on expertise below).
For our purpose, three points are in order about the above encounter. First,
the majority of the people in the Tima area meaningfully deploy the
linguistic resources in their verbal repertoire. Secondly, some members such
as Nasr intertextually mobilise elements of their discursive biographies in
support of their views. Nasrs comments were indicative of his structured
position within the narrated participation frame of unequal power relations:
they were mere subjects in our traditional technical vocabulary. Further,

20

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

the Tima community language-oriented meetings as metadiscurisve events

(i.e., involve explicit talk about Tima) play a considerable role in investing
Tima with potential positive indexicalities: for example, as un-stigmatised
language; a marker of the communal identity linked not to a village but to
the whole Tima community, and a medium of education in the making. It is
evident that these social values require to be validated through regular
semiotic work in a variety of genres. Here we should note that the
emergence in the Tima community of what the Milroys (1985) called the
tradition of linguistic complaint is a significant enregistering discourse of
Tima with the above ideological values.
It is observable that the communicative value of Tima vis--vis Arabic and
English as a consequence of concentrated upscaling (Blommaert 2006)
labour particularly among the elderly and middle-aged people is gaining
ground at the local sociolinguistic regime of the community. As we have
shown above, the majority of the mobile Tima individuals indexical
repertoires are shaped by a postcolonial history of subordination in relation
to the monoglot ideology of the ruling regimes in Khartoum. The question of
whether the youth could orient to Tima in the same way as their seniors
could only be answered empirically. Yet, it may be argued that they are
aware of such indexical orientations: Tima as a linguistic form can be used
by their parents to do semiotic work in relation to communal membership
vis--vis hegemonic languages such as Arabic. However, it is equally evident
that the potential social value of Tima as, for example, the school language
may not stand the test of other hegemonic cultural orders as that of the
Khartoum. Tima does not have a fixed social load once and for all: its
functional value changes according to the sociolinguistic system in which it
is deployed.
Another key metadiscurisve event which takes place in the community is the
relatively regulated encounter of data collection by professional linguists in
collaboration with the community members. Here the community people are
centrally engaged in the construction of empirical materials. For example, a
number of people from the various sectors of the society varied along the
dimensions of age and sex volunteered to take part in the event of language
documentation (see photograph). The metadiscourses about the importance
of Tima in such relatively formatted occasions are locally circulated through
direct face-to-face encounters. The constructed empirical materials, which
are now used in the development of educational materials, are expected to
help in the circulation and stabilisation of the indexical values of Tima
across time.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

21

Before closing let us briefly comment on the professional linguistic expertise

vis--vis the expertise of the Tima community members. It cannot be denied
that the two forms of knowledge-making practices are motivated by unequal
distribution of power. For example, generally in relation to educational
matters, the institutional voice of the professional linguist is more hearable
than that of the community members on the ground. However, in some
contexts, the locals can strategically deploy their semiotic repertoires as an
indexical strategy to assert their epistemic authority in relation to that of the
linguist. The following transcribed interaction that took place in the Tima
community is an instance of how the locals can manipulate their discursive
repertoires to do sociolinguistic work in relation to power:
Tima person: takhasus?
Specialisation?
Linguist:
takhasus lughuwiyyat.
Specialisation is linguistics.
Tima person: lugha nubiyya walla lugha ma katr?
A Nubian language or, there are many languages?
The Linguist: lughuwiyyat sudaniyya.
Sudanese linguistics.
Tima person: uhm
Uhm
Linguist:
takhasus fi lught sudaniyya.
Specialisation is in Sudanese languages.
Tima person: wa inta inta bititkalam lugha bita tuloshi?
And you do you speak the Tuloshi language?
Linguist:
la la.
No no.
Tima person: wa kayf inta takun dictr?
And how then are you a doctor?
It is worth noting that one of the sources of coherence in the above
interaction is the ideological assumption that there are enumerable named
languages linked to places/communities (e.g., Tulushi language, many
languages). Since some of the locals with a particular discursive biography
subscribe to this ideological scheme, they are language-makers (Harris
1980), just like us!

22

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

5. Conclusion and agenda for further research

This paper has set out to achieve two related objectives: to explore the
nature of the sociolinguistic repertoires in the Tima community of the Nuba
Mountains situated within the larger periphery-centre scale of the nationstate, and the potential ideological function of Tima speech in the
production of a particular value of identity vis--vis the standard monoglot
ideology of Arabicisation. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative sources of
data, the study has generally shown that the surveyed individuals in the
community have varied forms of verbal repertoires. The elicited
metadiscurisve comments on forms such as Arabic and Tima indicate that
the individuals are aware of their potential indexicalities. The study has also
shown that most of these sociolinguistic varieties are normatively patterned.
English (in varied forms) predominately features in the school curriculum.
Tima speech has strong presence at home. Arabic, English and other varieties
seem to dominate in the public landscape. The study has also demonstrated
that the majority of the youth do not orient to Tima in the same way their
elderly do. The prolonged historical struggle of the Nuba peoples and its
attending effects of displacement have resulted in the production of multiple
language ideologies and increasing visibility of linguistic varieties such as
English in the community. However, the study has argued that the same
socio-political conditions have motivated the Tima community to standardise
a particular form of its speech. The ongoing metapragmatic work by the
Tima Language Community is enregistering the Tima speech with a
particular social value: as the language of the entire Tima community.
Since the work of the TLC has been formed recently and its activities are still
taking root, and since as we write the region of Nuba Mountains (of which
Tima is a part) is engaged in an armed struggle against the ruling regime, we
suggest the following items for a future research agenda in order to have a
close understanding of the full sociolinguistic complexity of Tima in the life
of the people:
(i) Specific and detailed linguistic-ethnographic studies of the full range of
the communicative events in the Tima community are much needed to make
any conclusive statements about the nature of the social functioning of Tima
in the society.
(ii) A follow-up study of the metapragmatic activities of the TLC is required
in order to understand some of the historical processes through which Tima
speech is assigned collective soical meanigns at various translcoal scales
(e.g., in Khartoum vs. Tima community).

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

23

(iii) Using a bottom-up phenomenological perspective, classroom interactions in the community are required to be investigated to understand how
Tima is used by teachers and students.
(iv) Since a number of linguistic forms (e.g., Arabic, English) are visible (or
hearable) in the landscape of the community, the exact nature and structure
of these resources in the public space need to be thoroughly studied.

People who administered the survey questionnaire in Tima (2007)

References
Abdelhay, Ashraf. (2010). The politics of writing tribal identities in the
Sudan: The case of the colonial Nuba policy. Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development, 31(2), 201213.
Abdelhay, Ashraf, Busi Makoni, Sinfree Makoni & Abdelrahim Mugaddam.
(2011). The sociolinguistics of nationalism in the Sudan: the politicisation
of Arabic and the Arabicisation of politics. Current Issues in Language
Planning, 12 (4): 457501.
Agha, Asif (2003). The social life of cultural value. Language &
Communication, 23: 231273.

24

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

Aijn Oliva, Miguel, and Mara Serrano. (2012). Towards a comprehensive

view of variation. Language and Communication, 32: 8094.
Anderson, Brog. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and
spread of nationalism (2nd ed.). London: Verso.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. (1981) The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Baumann, Gerd. (1987.) National integration and local integrity: The Miri of the
Nuba Mountains in the Sudan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blackledge, Adrian, and Angela Creese. (2010). Multilingualism: A critical
perspective. London: Continuum.
Blommaert, Jan. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Blommaert, Jan. (2006). Sociolinguistic scales. Working Papers in Urban
Language and Literacies 37, 1-15.
Blommaert, Jan. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalisation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Polity
Press.
Collins, James. (2007). Indexicalities of language contact in an era of
globalization: Engaging John Gumperz legacy. Working Papers in Urban
Language & Literacies, 1-12.
Deng, Francis. (1995). War of visions: Conflict of identities in the Sudan.
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2009. Tima. In Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (ed.), Coding
participant marking, pp. 331-353. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Elnur, Ibrahim. (2009). Contested Sudan: The political economy of war and
reconstruction. New York, NY: Routledge.
Errington, Joseph. (2001). Colonial linguistics. Annual Review of
Anthropology, 30: 1939.
Errington, Joseph. (2008). Linguistics in a colonial world: A story of language,
meaning, and power. Oxford: Blackwell.
Fairclough, Norman. (2001). Language and power (2nd edn). Harlow. Pearson
Education.
Ferguson, Charles. (1959). Diglossia. Word 15: 325340.
Foucault, Michel. (1984) The Order of Discourse. In Michael Shapiro (ed.),
Language and politics (pp. 108-138). New York. New York University Press.
Gallab, Abdullahi. (2008). The first Islamist republic: Development and
disintegration of Islamism in the Sudan. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Garang, John. (1992). The call for democracy in Sudan (2nd ed), edited and
introduced by M. Khalid. London: Kegan Paul International.
Gramsci, Antonio. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks (translated and
edited by Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith). New York: International Publishers.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

25

Greenberg, Joseph. (1966) Languages of Africa (2nd ed.). The Hague:

Mouton.
Gumperz, John. (1968). The speech community. In D. Sills (Ed.),
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, (vol. 9, pp. 381386). New
York: Macmillan and Free Press, New York.
Gumperz, John. (1982). Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Gumperz, John. (1992). Contextualization and understanding. In A. Duranti
and C. Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive
phenomenon (pp. 229-252). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, John. (1995). Mutual inferencing in conversation. In: I. Markov.,
C. Graumann, and K. Foppa (eds.), Mutualities in dialogue (pp. 101 123).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, John, & Dell Hymes (eds), The ethnography of communication. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
asan, Ysuf Fal. (1967). The Arabs and the Sudan: from the seventh to the
early sixteenth century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hassan, Salah. (2010). Darfur and the crisis of governance in Sudan: A left
perspective. South Atlantic Quarterly, 109(1), 95116.
Haeri, Niloofar. (2000). Form and ideology: Arabic sociolinguistics and
beyond. Annual Review of Anthropology, 29: pp. 61-8.
Haeri, Niloofar. (2003). Sacred language, ordinary people: Dilemmas of
culture and politics in Egypt. Palgrave MacMillan.
Harris, Roy. (1980). Language-Makers. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Harris, Roy. (1998) Introduction to integration linguistics. Oxford:
Pergamon.
Heller, Monica. (Ed) (2007). Bilingualism: A social approach. New York:
Palgrave.
Hurreiz, Said, & Herman Bell (Eds.). (1975). Directions in Sudanese linguistics
and folklore. Khartoum: Khartoum University Press.
Hymes, Dell. (1972). Models of the interaction of language and social life. In
John Gumperz and Hymes , Dell (eds), Directions in sociolinguistics: The
ethnography of communication (pp. 35-71). New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Hymes, Dell. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hymes, Dell. (1996). Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality: Toward an
understanding of voice. London: Talyor and Francis.
Ibrahim, Abdullahi. (1999). A theology of modernity: Hasan al-Turabi and
Islamic renewal in Sudan. Africa Today, 46(3/4): 195222.
Jahalla, Kamal. M (2001). The Linguistic situation in Al-Fashir City.
Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Khartoum.

26

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

Johnstone, Barbara. (2011). Indexicality and experience: Exploring the

meanings of /aw/-monophthongisation in Pittsburgh. Language and
Communication, 31: 1-15.
Johnstone, Barbara, & Scott Kiesling. (2008). Indexicality and experience:
Exploring the meanings of /aw/-monophthongization in Pittsburgh.
Journal of Sociolinguistics 12/1, 2008: 533.
Idris, Amir. (2005). Conflict and politics of identity in Sudan. New York, NY:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Irvine, Judith, & Suzan Gal. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic
differentiation. In Paul. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies,
polities and identities (pp. 3583). Oxford: James Currey.
Kress, Gunther. (2003). Literacy in the new media Age. New York: Routledge.
Komey, Guma. (2010). Land, governance, conflict and the Nuba of Sudan.
Oxford: James Currey.
Labov, William. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City.
Washington, DC.: Centre for Applied Linguistics.
Labov, William. (1971). The study of language in its social context. In
Joshua. Fishman (ed.), Advances in the sociology of language, (vol. 1. pp.
152216). Mouton & Co, The Hague.
Labov, William (1972a). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, William. (1972b). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Lesch, Ann. (1998). The Sudan contested national identities. Oxford: James
Currey.
Makoni, Sinfree, & Alastair Pennycook (Eds.). (2007). Disinventing and
reconstituting languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Mahmoud, Ushari. (1983). Arabic in Southern Sudan: History and Spread of a
Pidgin-Creole. Khartoum: FAL Advertising Co.
Meyerhoff, Miriam. (2006). Introducing sociolinguistics. New York: Routledge.
Miller, Catherine. (2003). Linguistic policies and the issue of ethno-linguistic
minorities in the Middle East. In Usuki Akira & Kato Hiroshi (Eds.), Islam
in the Middle Eastern studies: Muslims and minorities (JCAS Symposium
Series 7, pp. 149174). Osaka: The Japan Centre for Area Studies (JCAS),
National Museum of Ethnology.
Miller, Catherine, & Al-Amin Abu-Manga. (1989). Language Change and
National Integration: Rural Migrants in Khartoum. Khartoum: Khartoum
University Press.
Milroy, Lesley. (1987). Language and social networks (2nd edition). Oxford:
Basil Blackwell.
Milroy, James, & Lesley Milroy. (1985). Authority in language: Investigating
language prescription and standardisation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

The sociolinguistic profile of Tima

27

Mufwene, Salikoko. (2004) Language birth and death. Annual Review of

Anthropology, 33: 201-222.
Mugaddam, Abdelrahim. (2006a). Language maintenance and shift in Sudan:
The case of ethnic migrant groups in Khartoum. The International Journal of
the Sociology of Language, 181: 123-136.
Mugaddam, Abdelrahim. (2006b). Language status and use in Dilling City,
the Nuba Mountains. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development,
Vol. 27. No.4: 290-303.
Nadel, Siegfried. (1947). The Nuba: An anthropological study of the hill tribes in
Kordofan. London: Oxford University Press.
Nettle, Daniel, and Susan Romaine. (2000). Vanishing Voices: The extinction of
the world's languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rahhal, Suleiman. (ed) (2001). The right to be Nuba: The story of a Sudanese
peoples struggle for survival. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press.
Rampton, Ben. (1995). Crossing: Language and ethnicity among adolescents.
London: Longman.
Rothman, Jason, and Michael Iverson. (2010). Independent normative
assessments for bi/multilingualism, Where art thou? In Madalena CruzFerreira (ed.), Multilingual norms (pp. 33-51). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Salih, Kamal. (1990). British policy and the accentuation of inter-ethnic
divisions: The case of the Nuba Mountains region of Sudan, 19201940.
African Affairs, 89(356): 417436.
Sharkey, Heather. (2003). Living with colonialism: Nationalism and culture in
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. California: University of California Press.
Sharkey, Heather. (2008). Arab identity and ideology in Sudan: The politics
of language, ethnicity, and race. African Affairs, 107(426), 2143.
Silverstein, Michael. (1979). Language structure and linguistic ideology. In
P. Clyne, W. Hanks, & C. Hofbauer (Eds.), The elements: A parasession on
linguistic units and levels (pp. 193247). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.
Silverstein,
Michael.
(1996).
Monoglot
standard
in
America:
Standardisation and metaphors of linguistic hegemony. In Donald Brenneis
& Roland. Macaulay (Eds.), The matrix of language: Contemporary linguistic
anthropology (pp. 284306). Oxford: Westview.
Silverstein, Michael. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of
sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication 23: 193229.
Slotta, Jim. (20012). Dialect, trope, and enregisterment in a Melanesian
speech community. Language and Communication, 32 113.
Spaulding, Jay. (1987). A premise for precolonial Nuba history. History in
Africa, 14: 36974.
Stevenson, Roland. (1984). The Nuba people of Kordofan province: An
ethnographic survey. Khartoum: Graduate College, University of Khartoum.

28

Abdelrahim Mugaddam & Ashraf Abdelhay

Suleiman, Yasir. (2003). The Arabic language and national identity: A study in
ideology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Suleiman, Yasir. (2004). A war of words: Language and conflict in the Middle
East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taha, Abdelmageed. (1990). The Arabicisation of higher education: The case
of Khartoum University. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development, 11(4): 291305.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the
Republic of Sudan and the Sudans Peoples Liberation Movement/Sudan
Peoples Liberation Army. (2005). http://www.sd.undp.org/doc/CPA.pdf
Thelwall, Robin. (ed) (1978). Aspects of language in the Sudan. Ulster: New
University of Ulster.
Thelwall, Robin, and Thilo C. Schadeberg, (1983). The linguistic settlement
of the Nuba Mountains. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 5: 219-232.
Trudgill, Peter. (1972). Sex and covert prestige: Linguistic change in the
urban dialect of Norwich. Language in Society, 1: 179-195.
Saville-Troike, Muriel. (2003). The Ethnography of communication: An
introduction (3rd edition). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.