Language in the Sudan: from Multilingualism to Multilingualism

The republic of the Sudan has long been a country of unique linguistic and
cultural diversity. Over 42 million people speaking more than
80 languages with their accompanying cultures coexisting in the
country. The languages of the Sudan belong to three of the African
languages families, namely, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo Saharan, and Niger
Kordofanian. These languages are distributed geographically in such a
way that covers the different parts of the country: Northern Sudan, Eastern
Sudan, The Blue Nile, The Nuba Mountains, and Darfur. While Arabic
dominates all domains of communication playing the role of the only
lingua franca in the Sudan, other Sudanese languages are used only within
the home domain and/or between speakers of the same language in
intergroup interaction. The hegemony of Arabic has been reinforced by
the language policies adopted by the successive governments in the Sudan
right from independence up to the ousted authoritative regime of Omar
Al-Bashir. All language policies in the country stipulated Arabic as an
official language while the remainder Sudanese languages have been
granted a symbolic status as national languages with no viable role in
context such as education, administration, and the media. As a result,
language-related problems were at the very center of the armed conflicts in
different parts of the Sudan. This chapter is going to give a comprehensive
description of the present status and use of Sudanese languages and their
implications to the future of multilingualism in the Sudan