Dinka language

Dinka, or Thuɔŋjäŋ, is a Nilotic dialect cluster spoken by the Dinka people, the major ethnic group of South Sudan. There are five main varieties, Ngok, Rek, Agaar, "Dinka Leekrieth and Bor, which are distinct enough to require separate literary standards and thus to be considered separate languages. Jaang, Jieng or Moinyjieng is used as a general term to cover all Dinka languages. Rek is the standard and prestige dialect.

The closest non-Dinka language is Nuer, the language of the Dinka's traditional rivals. The Luo languages are also closely related.

The Dinka are found mainly along the Nile, specifically the west bank of the White Nile, a major tributary flowing north from Uganda, north and south of the Sudd marsh in southwestern and south central Sudan in three provinces: Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Southern Kurdufan.

Linguistic features

Phonology

Consonants

There are 20 consonant phonemes:

Vowels

Dinka has a rich vowel system, with at least thirteen phonemically contrastive vowels. The underdots ([◌̤]) indicate "breathy" vowels, represented in Dinka orthography by diaereses (⟨◌̈⟩):

Padang

Padang (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈpadaŋ]) is the capital of the province of West Sumatra in Indonesia. It is the largest city on the western coast of Sumatra. Before Indonesia's independence, Padang was one of the major cities in the Dutch East Indies and nowadays the fifth largest city in Sumatra behind Medan, Batam, Palembang and Pekanbaru. It has an area of 695 square kilometres (268 sq mi) and the population of 876,678 in 2013.

Padang is one of the cleanest big cities in Indonesia. Up to 2009, Padang has received the "Adipura" (cleanest and greenest city) award in the category of large city 17 times and the "Adipura Kencana" award 3 times.

Padang is exactly at the antipodes of Esmeraldas, Ecuador.

History

Since the 16th century Padang has been a trade centre. During the 16th and 17th centuries pepper was cultivated and traded with India, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In 1663 the city came under the authority of the Dutch and a trading post was built here in 1680. The city came under British authority twice, the first time from 1781 to 1784 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and again from 1795 to 1819 during the Napoleonic Wars. Afterwards the city was transferred back to the Netherlands. Up to approximately 1780 the most important trade product was gold, originating from the gold mines in the region. When the mines were exhausted, the emphasis turned to other products such as coffee, salts and textiles.

Padang people

Padang is an ethnic group in Sudan, a subgroup of the Dinka. They speak Padang, a Dinka language. Many members of this ethnicity are Christians. The population of this ethnicity exceeds 100,000.

References

Padang (disambiguation)

Padang may refer to:

Places

In Central African Republic

In Indonesia:

In Malaysia:

In Singapore:

Other uses