South Sudan is the youngest nation in Africa and I am a proud citizen of this wonderful republic. It consists of sixty-four tribes all with their unique cultures and customs. some tribes have common cultural practices and have passed down their unique lifestyle through generations. One of the many defining mediums of south Sudanese tribes is their language.
Language plays an important role in our daily life, though many are not well versed with English as a national language in the country. we use mother tongue to exchange information, trade goods, solve problems and many other things. of course, this is a broad topic to cover in one blog post. South Sudan has 60 languages most of which (I’m not sure) are still in use. Most spoken languages in the country are Nuer(Thok Nath), Dinka(Thong Jieng), zande, and bari (Kuku Mandari). Other languages have little to no trace of existence in the intellectual community.
Though many of these languages are not on the public eye, they are used on a daily bases by their respective ethnic groups in the country. A case example comes from the lost Ethiopian languages such as Gafat, Mesmos, and Wayto Language. These languages have been lost to time due to a number of factors such as urbanization and lack of support. South Sudanese languages that are buried beneath ignorance may face the same fate and I fear (If not preserved/supported) will be lost to time and ignorance.
The question becomes, how do I support these our mother tongues? Nowadays everyone uses technology, even in remote places there is always at least one phone or computer. By creating useful applications that keeps the language in question at the hand of its users can keep the mother tongue alive. Other ways is to write literary content and learning to make these languages available to the ethnic group and to the rest of the world.
Your identity is your culture, language and livelihood.
Mamuch John
So I turn this to you, do you think ethnic groups’ mother tongues should be preserved and supported or perhaps you have a different opinion on the matter. Leave a comment below and don’t forget to share with friends and family.
Wooow wonderful I agreed with you ..”if you don’t know where you come from than how will you know where you are heading to “this a call for those who don’t know their language,,language play a very important rule in our community as well as the communication which the important part of human being ..
Indeed, communication is key in passing information from one person to another. Now that our country is only 39% literate, we should trust our mother tongues to also play a role in communication. Subjects like awareness of diseases need to be understood fully by our people.