The Nuer language is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia. The language is very similar to Dinka and Atuot. Nuer language has a Latin-based alphabet. There are also several dialects of Nuer, although all have one written standard. For example, final is pronounced in the Jikany dialect, but is dropped in other dialects despite being indicated in Nuer orthography.
Phonology
Front
Central
Back
High
i
u
Close-mid
e
o
Open-mid
ɛ
ə
ɔ
Near-low
Low
ɑ
Dialects
Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Nuer.
Eastern Jikany
Abigar
Western Jikany
Cien
Lou
Nyuong
Thiang
Bul Chol
Gawaar
Laak
Jagei
Laak
Leek
Dok
Haak
Nuer communities
There are different dialects spoken by Nuer groups living in various locations in South Sudan. Some of the Nuer people live in Western Ethiopia. They are called Jikany Nuer. The Nuer of the Upper Nile State are also called Jikany, and those in Jonglei State Lou, Gawaar, Thiang and Laak. There are also seven counties inhabited by the other groups of Nuer in the western part of the Upper Nile Province currently known as Unity State Bentiu. These counties include:
Guit County: Inhabited by Jikany kuec cieng community in the eastern Bentiu
Mayom County: Inhabited by Bul Chol Geah community in the western part of the state
Rubkona County: Inhabited by Leek community in the northern Bentiu
Koch County: Inhabited by Jagei community in the central Bentiu
Mayiandit County: Inhabited by Haak Bakol-kuoth community in the far south-western part of the state, they are also known as Gatbakol-kuoth.
Leer County: Inhabited by Dok community in the southern part of the state.
Payinjiar county:Inhabited by Nyuong community in the far southern part of the state.
Nuer: Naath dial diethɛ kɛ a lɔr kä päärkɛ kɛ ciaŋ malä a mäni cuŋkiɛn. Tekɛ kɛ ca̱r kɛnɛ nhök ti de lät kɛ raan kɛ dämaan a gɔa. English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Writing system of Nuer
The alphabet of Nuer uses 39 distinct letters, shown below in uppercase and lowercase styles. A line under a vowel, like a̱, means that it is pronounced with breathy voice. The vowels ä, u, and final i are always breathy. A doubled vowel, like in the wordraan, means that vowel is long. Nuer does have tone, but tone-based contrasts are not common.
History
The Nuer Language uses a modified version of Latin script for their written language. The writing system was adopted in 1928 with minor changes being added over the history of the language. Both the Dinka and the Nuer agreed that their languages were so different that they could never share written languages, so they came up with a common one following these principles.
final interdental consonants would always be represented as th.
the finalized Nuer alphabet consists of the following characters, which are equivalent to the phonemes of the Nuer language: d, k, l, m, n, p, t, w, g, j, r, y, ŋ, ny, th, dh, nh, ɤ, c, a, e, i, o, u, ö,
