Historical and Sociological Aspects of Juba Arabic

October 3, 2013, University of Juba

Early steps to Juba Arabic, 1899–1964:

Towards a sociolinguistic history of a lingua franca in Southern Sudan

Shuichiro Nakao (agarbattii@gmail.com)

Kyoto University/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Introduction
● Aims: (1) to map the archival resources on the early Arabic pidgins recorded around
South Sudan into a historical linguistic time-line, and
(2) to incorporate this linguistic history into the social history of Juba,
in order to explain the development and spreading process of Juba Arabic.
● Researches: Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (Grant Number 23･6924)
(1) Fieldworks on Juba Arabic (Juba and Melbourn, during 2009–2013)
(2) Fieldworks on the early history of Juba (Juba, during 2012–2013)
(3) Archival works on early history of Arabic pidgins and Juba area (London and
Durham, in 2013)

1. A brief history of Juba

● Construction of Juba (oral sources, Mills, L. R. 1981, People of Juba, University of Juba)
○ 1921: Nugent Memorial Intermediate School of Church Missionary Society
○ 1927–1928: Construction by the colonial authority began
○ 1929: Relocation of Rejaf District Headquarters (from Rejaf to Juba)
○ 1930: Relocation of Mongalla Province Headquarters (from Mongalla to Juba)
● Richardson, J. N. (1933) “Bari Notes,” Sudan Notes and Records 16: 181–186.
○ Prior to the construction, Juba “contained some 36 homes under a certain Magara as headman”
(Bekat clan) around Hai-Gabat. (The location still holds the sacred rocks called Pita and Kaku,
known as the wife and child of Jebel Körök)
● Merchants from/through the north, for example:
○ Northern Sudanese Arabs (e.g. ͑Akkāsha brothers)
○ Lebanese/Syrians (e.g. Hajjār family)
○ Greeks/Cypriots (lived around Hai-Jalaba)
● Malakian population (oral source, Mills 1981)
○ Collected from Mongalla and Rejaf as public workers for the condominium government
(Public Work Department, Sudan Railways, Sudan Defence Force (Equatoria Corps), Sudan
Medical Services, police, drivers, night-watchmen, merchants, etc.)
○ First settled in Buruseki (around airport), and later moved to Borkoroŋo (the current Malakia)
○ Population increase was carefully controlled (by the district commissioner R. C. Cooke)
○ Most of them lived in and around Malakia (e.g. Hai-Kosti, Keli-Balak) until around 1950s

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● Population growth of Juba

○ End of Anglo-Egyptian Condominium
Population: 10600 in 1955/1956 (First population census of the Sudan)
○ First civil war and Addis Ababa Agreement
Addis Ababa Agreement (1972, Article 33): “Juba shall be the Capital of the Southern Region
and the seat of the Regional Executive and Legislature.”
Population: 57,000 in 1972, and 84,000 in 1979 (Mills 1981)
○ Second civil war and Comprehensive Peace Agreement
Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan (2011, Article 50:4): “The City of
Juba shall be the National Capital of South Sudan and the seat of the National Government.”
Population: 250,000 in 2005, and 406,000 in 2009 (JICA, 2009, Juba Urban Water Supply and
Capacity Development Study Final Report), cf. 230,000 in 2008 census

2. Early Arabic pidgins

● The origin of Arabic pidgins?
○ Previous studies have attributed the pidginization of Arabic to the zarība-system and jihādīya
army during the Ottoman-Egyptian period (e.g. Mahmud, U. A. 1983, Arabic in the Southern
Sudan, Khartoum: PAL Advertising and Printing Co. Ltd.,).
○ However, a few available resources on the Arabic variety of old jihādīya (those who migrated
northward) are not quite evident for the pidginization process.
○ Direct contacts between native population in Southern Sudan (e.g. Baḥr al-Jabal) and
merchants from the North in the Ottoman-Egyptian period (Danāgla, Ja ͑alīyīn, Copts, etc.)
can also be supposed, though we have scarce documental attestation.
● Tentative criteria for identifying “Arabic pidgins” of Southern Sudan
○ Morphological reduction Juba Arabic: ána já le íta. biníya dé kwês.
Khartoum Arabic: ana jī-t lē-k. al-bitt di kuways-a.
○ Loanwords from African languages such as Bari, Bangala and Luganda
korófo ‘edible leaf,’ dáŋgá ‘bow,’ báŋgírí ‘jaw,’ labolo ‘banana,’ gúgu ‘granary’ ... < Bari
makáko ‘monkey,’ potopóto ‘mud,’ pondú ‘cassava leaf,’ bambé ‘sweat potato’ ... < Bangala
kibira ‘forest,’ mukúŋgu ‘subchief,’ surukáli ‘sultan’s army,’ ... < Luganda

2.1. An earliest attestation

● Wtterwulghe, Georges-François (1899) Vocabulaire à l’usage des fonctionnaire se rendant dans les
territoires du district de l’Uele et de l’Enclave Redjaf-Lado, Bruxelles.
○ Vocabulary of Bangala, “Arabic,” Zande, Mangbetu with French
○ berowe ‘go,’ nessyt ‘forget’ mâ qalam lâ ‘don’t say no,’ mâ sowchy deh ‘don’t do this’
○ korfai ‘leaf ’ kibri ‘forest’

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2.2. “Nilotic Arabic,” as spoken by Nubis and Southern Sudanese chiefs

● Jenkins, E. V. (1909) An English-Arabic Vocabulary with Grammar & Phrases: Representing the
Language as Spoken by the Uganda Sudanese in the Uganda and British East Africa Protectorates,
Kampala: Uganda Company.
○ He was an examiner of “Lower Standard Nilotic Arabic Examination” in the colonial board.
○ ana shūf ‘I see,’ ana shūf kalass ‘I saw,’ ana ma bidūru ‘I don’t like him.’
○ karraffa ‘leaf,’ lobolo ‘banana,’ kibera ‘thick forest,’ torjū/tarajū ‘drive out, expell,’
fūtukū ‘hoof,’ gūgū ‘granary,’ patta ‘wrestling’
● Meldon, J. A. (1913) English-Arabic Dictionary of Words and Phrases used by the Sudanese in Uganda,
London (manuscript, SOAS MS.53704)
○ ana bikasar ‘I am breaking,’ ana kasar khalas ‘I broke’
○ dangah ‘bow,’ kibrah ‘forest’
● Owen, H. B. and G. J. Keane (1915) An abbreviated Vocabulary in Hindustani, Luganda, Lunyoro,
Swahili, Nubi designed for Uganda Medical Service. Bukalasa: White Fathers’ Printing Press.
○ Medical vocabulary, contains no record of (clearly) African loanwords.
○ ana rua ‘I go,’ ana bi rua ‘I will go,’ ana rua khalas ‘I have gone,’ ana kan rua ‘I went’
● Rejaf Language Conference (10/4/1928)
○ Decisions were made on educational language policy in the Southern Sudan as follows:
(1) Elementary education should be in the vernacular in the lower grades.
(2) English should be the language for higher education.
(3) The teaching of lingua franca is not necessary.
○ “… In this connection a discussion took place on the use and spread of Arabic in the area,
during which the following points arose: / Several speakers drew attention to the undesirability
of the spread of this language. / It was pointed out that the agencies fostering the spread of
Arabic were: (i) Government offices (ii) Soldiers and policemen (iii) Arab traders”
● J.G.M, (24/6/1928) Memorandum. Arabic and the Southern Sudan (in the file titled “Spread of
the Arabic language in the Southern Sudan,” FO141/624, National Archive, UK)
○ “Mater fi sanada katir kalashi; nas bita Beledi Moru iso Duru katir kalashi. Kamani Bara
Yei ma mile katir. Lakini sana alifato zamani mator bita Uwa ma anzili katir ze matar fi
sanada kani Bara Yei ma mila. Alishani matar ma anzeli katir. Kabiri bita Mudiria
Mongalla egi Ombari fi Amadi alashani sof Beledi bita Uwa, kolo ma nas, bita Uwa ma
markaze bita Uwa.”
○ “It was taken from the blackboard in a little police school in Amadi, where the teacher was a
Chiefs court clerk. It was far better than many examples I saw in various Chiefs courts
registers where the records are kept in Nilotic Arabic, some of which were to me almost
entirely unintelligible.” (bold by the presenter)

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2.3. “Bimbashi Arabic” and “Mongallese”

● Tucker, A. N. (1934) The linguistic situation in the Southern Sudan, Africa 7 (1): 28–39.
○ “… This Southern Arabic (or, as it is sometimes called, ‘Mongallese’ or ‘Bimbashi Arabic’),
should form an interesting study for the philologist. Its groundwork is the Arabic of the early
Egyptian troops, quartered at places like Wau, Malakal, and the Lado Enclave. Hence it
contains many words unknown to Sudanese Arabic.” (bold by the presenter)
○ “… the complicated Northern grammar has been completely superimposed by a pidgin
process. Any remnant of grammar left is more English than Semitic, the British finding it
much easier to string Arabic words together in an English sentence-order than to attempt a
Northern construction which quite probably would be unfamiliar to his hearers.”
○ “Not that this doggerel Arabic is confined to a few. With the opening of roads and the
protection given to travellers, it has spread throughout the Southern Sudan, its pronunciation
varying from tribe to tribe. It had―and still has in some areas―a great prestige as being the
language best calculated to win favour with the police…”
● Orlebar, J. (1981) Tales of Sudan Defence Force, Privately Published.
○ “Bimbashi Arabic is to classical Arabic what pigeon English is to the Queen’s English,
limited in scope, eloquent in initiative, colourful, ungrammatical, simple, wonderfully
understandable and magnificently effective. The Arabic as spoken by the non-Arab companies;
the Equatorial Corps was delightfully bimbashic.” (bold by the presenter)
○ “… He stopped at one Nafar, who was industriously stirring his lousy shorts in a tin of boiling
water, and after some careful thinking addressed him thus: “Ya sol, enta aus akil banteloon
bitaa enta?”, “La, genaaabuk”, grinned the happy warrior, “Banteloon bitaa ana aus akil ana.””
● Sandison, P. J. (1942?) Pidjin Arabic for Sudan Defence Force, Cairo(?): The Printing and Stationery
Services M.E.F. 417/KAPP/12-44.
○ “What follows is NOT Arabic. It is a jargon based on Arabic, which makes possible the
communication of simple commands and ideas to Arab speakers.”
○ “Only the sounds of the English language are used. Arabic has sounds not occurring in
English, but they have been replaced with the nearest English equivalent…”
○ ána shoof húwa halás ‘I saw him,’ ána bi shoof húwa ‘I see him,’ ána rah shoof húwa ‘I will
see him,’ ána mush ídrab húwa halás ‘I did not hit him.’
○ No loanwords from African languages are recorded.
○ “A British officer saw an Equatorial Corps soldier boiling his shorts and said to him:
“énta awz ákil pantaloán bita énta?”
“la sa-átak” he replied “al pantaloán bitá ána awz ákil ána.””
● Mason, M. (1928) Deserts Idle. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
○ Similar Arabic pidgin was also used by travelers/hunters on safari in the Southern Sudan.

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○ el abiad auz shûf afiyal ala-shan dûgi-hum bundûkia.

‘The white man wants to to find some elephants to shoot.’
ana ta’abân wa mush auz rua foq el sicca bita afiyal.
‘I am very tired and do not like running on the tracks of elephants.’

3. Juba Arabic
● Emergence of the term
○ Cook, C. L. (1955) Languages in the Southern Provinces of the Sudan, Bible Translator 5: 122–7.
“Traffic between the Southern Provinces and the Northern Provinces led long ago to the
attempt to use Arabic in administering the South, and a very debased type of spoken Arabic,
the ‘Mongallese Arabic’ of the Mongala Province, was widespread amongst those men who
had any dealings with the administration.” (bold by the presenter)
○ Basic facts about the Southern provinces of the Sudan (The central office of information, Khartoum
1964: 32): “The inhabitants of the 3 Southern Provinces have between them about 50
languages wich are mutually unintelligible in addition to their numerous dialects. But most of
them conveniently use a form of pidgin Arabic (better known as Juba Arabic) witch is
understood by Southerners irrespective of their tribal differences.” (bold by the presenter)
● Characteristics of Juba population (cf. Section 1)
○ Migrants to around 1950s: population increase was at minimum, most lived around Malakia
○ Migrants since around 1960s: population influx took place after each of the civil wars
● Relaxification (Lexical renovation)
○ Modern Sudanese Colloquial Arabic replaced ‘archaic’ features of former Arabic pidgins; these
are retained in elder Malakians’ variety of Juba Arabic.
○ H. J. (Dinka-Bor/Pojulu, b.1924)
bakân (vs. mahâl) ‘place,’ bendére (vs. álam) ‘flag,’ berníta (vs. tegíya) ‘hat,’
bishêsh (vs. birâ) ‘slowly,’ dilwákti (vs. hása)‘now,’ nangáratu (vs. anáfa) ‘nose,’
ísma (vs. ísim) ‘name,’ alishan ê (vs. ashan shunú) ‘why/what for,’ ána ándi (vs. índu) ‘I have’
○ Cf. Jenkins (1909)
bakān/maheil ‘place,’ bandeira ‘flag,’ borneita ‘hat,’ bisheish ‘slowly,’ delwakhti/assa ‘now,’
nangārātū ‘nose,’ asma/isma ‘name,’ ali shanei ‘what for/why,’ ana andi ‘I have’
● Cultural development
○ Popular songs, Theaters (cf. Miller, Catherine 2003 Juba Arabic as a way of expressing a
Southern Sudanese identity in Khartoum, Proceedings of the 4th AIDA meeting, pp. 114–122.)
○ Language game/Rondók: “sûk sukê, sukê táki gí gumê” (since around 1970s?)
● Publication (by missionary)
○ African Inland Church (1979) Taratil: Hymns in Southern Sudanese Arabic, Juba: Nile Printing
Press. → incorporated into Shukuru Yesu.

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● Earliest linguistic studies

○ Bell, Herman (1975) Pidgin Arabic and the language survey of the Sudan, paper presented at
International Conference on Pidgins and Creoles, Honolulu.
○ Nhial, Abdon Agaw Jok (1975) Ki-Nubi and Juba Arabic: A Comparative Study. In H. Bell and
S. H. Hurreiz (eds.) Directions in Sudanese Linguistics and Folklore, Khartoum: Khartoum
University Press, pp. 81–93.
○ Mahmud, Ushari (1979) Linguistic Variation and Change in the Aspectual System of Juba
Arabic, Georgetown University: Ph.D. thesis.

Conclusion
● Early steps of Arabic pidgins (since around 100 years ago)
○ Arabic pidgin that is relevant to Juba Arabic had emerged by 1899 at latest, though its linguistic
structure was different from contemporary Juba Arabic.
○ Until around 1950s, the sociolinguistic situation surrounding Arabic pidgins was quite different
from that of today; Arabic pidgins were termed such as “Nilotic Arabic,” “Bimbashi Arabic,”
“Mongallese,” and the main speech community was those who were in touch with colonial
administrations (including British officers), and traders. (The variety of Arabic pidgin spoken
by British might be slightly different from that of natives.)
● Early development of Juba Arabic (since around 50 years ago)
○ Considering the fact that the urban population in Juba was controlled, and that the Juba Arabic
variety spoken by elder Malakian retains archaic features of early Arabic pidgins, it was after
1960s that Juba Arabic consolidated as a contemporary distinctive language-system, and the
speech community widely expanded along with the influx of urban population.
○ Though Juba Arabic has been imposed on heavier contact with modern Khartoum Arabic
(under northern Arab-Islamic regime), it has never absorbed into KA, and even
linguistic-cultural development took place as opposed to Northern culture.
● Remnant problems
○ Most of the archival resources presented here are concentrating on Baḥr al-Jabal area;
How was the situation in Baḥr al-Ghazāl, Upper Nile, and the remnant areas of Equatoria?
○ Acquisition patterns by earlier/later migrants to Juba (more and more fieldworks needed)
○ Spread of Juba Arabic out of Juba, especially rural areas (central-rural interaction?)