Global InformationKrongo language information
| Krongo | |
|---|---|
| Dimodongo | |
| Native to | Sudan |
| Region | Kordofan |
| Ethnicity | Krongo Nuba |
Native speakers | 54,000 (2022)[1] |
Language family | Nilo-Saharan?
|
Writing system | Latin |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kgo |
| Glottolog | kron1241 |
| ELP | Krongo |
 Krongo is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Krongo, also spelled Korongo or Kurungu and known as Dimodongo, Kadumodi, or Tabanya after local towns, is a Kadu language spoken in the South West of the Nuba Mountains[2] in South Kordofan, Sudan.
Ethnologue lists Angolo, Tabanya, and Toroji in Krongo hills; and Buram, Damaguto, Dar, Dimadragu, and Dimodongo villages.[1]
The speakers themselves refer to the language as “nìinò mó-dì”, meaning “language from home”.[3]
According to research from 1985, Krongo speakers are usually farmers and live off of cultivating crops like sorghum, beans, sesame, peanuts and corn as well as keeping animals like cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and chicken.[4]
A survey from the year 1976[5] states that other languages spoken in the surveyed region (here referred to as “Krongo” as well) are Arabic, Dinka, Hausa and very small amounts of other African languages. The most common of these is Arabic with 70% of the 443 surveyed people stating to speak the language, although most of them do not speak it as their mother language. It is rather being used as a lingua franca at the market than at home.[6]
According to the survey, there is a high rate of illiteracy among the people in the Krongo region. Many of the younger children don´t know Arabic yet – 90.3% of the people claimed to have learned it after their early childhood. The schools (khalwas) use Arabic as a language of instruction though, which is probably the reason why few of the Krongo people go to school. The majority of the people with a formal education are people who speak Arabic as their mother language and/or men.[7]
The Krongo, like other Nuba, are predominantly Muslim people.[8]
- ^ a b Krongo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ Reh, Mechthild (1985). Die Krongo-Sprache (Nìinò Mó-dì) – Beschreibung, Texte, Wörterverzeichnis (in German). Berlin: Reimer. p. 1.
- ^ Reh, Mechthild (1985). Reh, Mechthild: Die Krongo-Sprache (Nìinò Mó-dì) – Beschreibung, Texte, Wörterverzeichnis (in German). Berlin: Reimer. p. 1.
- ^ Reh, Mechthild (1985). Die Krongo-Sprache (Nìinò Mó-dì) – Beschreibung, Texte, Wörterverzeichnis (in German). Berlin: Reimer. p. 1.
- ^ Institute of African and Asian Studies University of Khartoum (1978). Language Survey of the Sudan - Southern Kordofan, The Nuba Mountains, Krongo, Selected tables No. 2.
- ^ Institute of African and Asian Studies University of Khartoum (1978). Language Survey of the Sudan – Southern Kordofan, The Nuba Mountains, Krongo, Selected tables No. 2. pp. 1–2.
- ^ Institute of African and Asian Studies University of Khartoum (1978). Language Survey of the Sudan – Southern Kordofan, The Nuba Mountains, Krongo, Selected tables No. 2, 1978. pp. 3, 4, 8, 13.
- ^ "Krongo in Sudan". Joshua Project. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
