Old Nubian Words and Phrases

The Nubian language belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family of African languages. It is spoken by about a million people in Egypt and the Sudan. In 1977 there were about 500,000 speakers of one of its dialects in Kordofan in Sudan, and another 175,000 speakers in the country’s Northern Province. The Old Nubian language was written in the Coptic script, with the addition of three letters taken from the ancient Meroitic alphabet. Christian religious texts were translated into Nubian from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. I’ve decided to give an idea of what the language and its religious literature was like by posting here a few Biblical and other religious phrases with a translation and the individual words and elements of the language’s grammar that make them up.

Subject marker added to the final consonant of a word: -i
Definite article ‘the’, -l.
Ngod, ‘Lord’.
Ngod.i.l., ‘the Lord’.
Istauros, ‘Cross’.
Istauros.i.l., ‘the Cross’.
Particle added to indefinite nouns, such as ‘a man’, ‘a dog’, etc, to make them the focus of a sentence: -lo.
Parthenos, (from Greek), ‘Virgin’.
Tu, ‘stomach.
Dzunt.ung, ‘to become pregnant’.
Parthenos.i.l.lo tu.lo dzunt.u.ng.arr.a -‘(Behold) a Virgin shall be with child’ (Matthew 1.23).

-n: shows the genitive.
Angelos – ‘angel’.
Ngod.in angelos, ‘the angel of the Lord’.

Ted – ‘Law’,
Tidzkanel, ‘fulfilment’
Ted.in tidzkanel, ‘the fulfilment of the Law’.

-U – relational marker linking adjective to noun. Adjectives are always placed before the noun.
Ngok, ‘glory’.
Istauros.u ngok.ko – ‘the glorious cross’.
-U is also used as a relative pronoun.
Till, ‘God’
Ngod.u till, ‘the Lord God’.
Ngiss, ‘holy’.
Parthenos.u ngiss.u Maria ‘The holy Virgin Mary’.

Ogidz – ‘man’,
On/ un – ‘to love’
Ogidzdz.u tillil unil, ‘a man whom God loves’.

-Ka: marker of oblique case.
Tan – ‘his’
Windz – ‘star’
Ngal – ‘to see’
Kin – to come’
Tan windz.i.ka masal.(n).osk.i.lo nga.s.in kas.s.o.si.n, ‘We have seen his star in the east and have come’.

-ketal – from
Aul – ‘saviour’.
Kim.m.a sion.i.a ketal aul.el ‘from Zion the Saviour will come’.

I’ve taken the above examples from the notes I made a long time ago from a book on the various languages of the world, written for librarians. The statistics for the numbers of speakers in Kordofan and North Province, Sudan, come from Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World (London: Routledge and Keegan Paul 1975)

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7 Responses to “Old Nubian Words and Phrases”

  1. kurdistan Says:

    Hi, I’m kurd Iran
    I think you’re kurd
    kurd from Sudan
    State kurdufun
    I heard that kurd Sudan forget to Approve language
    I want to invite you to come to my blog and tell tactical fit
    Thanks and good luck.
    http://www.kurd3.blogfa.com

    • beastrabban Says:

      Thank you for your appreciation, Kurdistan. I am, however, English, but with an interest in the ancient cultures of the Near East. Best of luck with your blog, however.

  2. Dino Says:

    I was simply looking to say goodbye in ancient Nubian/Egyptian, are you able to help with that?

    • Alaaldin Khairy Says:

      hi dino, i am a nubian from sudan. however in nubian language we say (arti ak-onown) which means goodbye
      arti = god
      ak = you
      onown = with
      is like when tell some one “god with you”
      we usually say it when leaving someone “artiakonow” or “artiakonown”

  3. hassan Says:

    can u learn Nubian language online

    • beastrabban Says:

      I should think you might be able to, though I haven’t looked myself. Try googling ‘ancient Nubian’ and see what happens.

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