Nobiin language - Definition

Nobiin is a Nubian language spoken along the banks of the Nile river in southern Egypt and northern Sudan by approximately 295 000 people. Many Nobiin speaking Nubians were forced to relocate in 1963-1964 due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam at Aswan, Egypt, to make room for Lake Nasser. Nowadays, Nobiin villages are found north of Aswan on the west bank of the Nile. Additionally, many Nubians have moved to large cities like Cairo and Khartoum.

Nobiin is one of the few African languages having a written history that can be followed over the course of more than a millenium. Old Nubian, preserved in a sizable collection of mainly early Christian manuscripts, is considered ancestral to Nobiin.

References

• Werner, Roland (1987) Grammatik des Nobiin (Nilo-Saharan Studies vol. 1). Hambürg: Helmut Buske Verlag. ISBN 0932-1993