Editing Nobiin language (section)

{{Short description|Nubian language of northern Sudan and southern Egypt}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2009}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Nobiin
| ethnicity = [[Nubians]]
| altname = Halfawi, Mahas 
| nativename = {{lang|fia-Latn|Nòbíín}}  {{lang|fia-Copt|Ⲛⲟⲩⲃⲓⲛ}}  {{lang|fia-Arab|نُـٰوبين}}
| states = [[Egypt]], [[Sudan]]
| region = Along the banks of the [[Nile]] in southern Egypt and northern Sudan
| speakers = {{sigfig|685,000|2}}
| date = 2023–2024
| ref = <ref>{{e28|fia}}</ref>
| familycolor = Nilo-Saharan
| fam2 = [[Eastern Sudanic languages|Eastern Sudanic]]
| fam3 = [[Northern Eastern Sudanic languages|Northern Eastern]]
| fam4 = [[Nubian languages|Nubian]]
| fam5 = [[Nubian languages|Northern]]
| ancestor = [[Wiktionary:Appendix:Proto-Nubian reconstructions|Proto-Nubian]]
| ancestor2 = [[Old Nubian]]
| script = [[Coptic script]] ([[Old Nubian]] variant) <br /> [[Latin alphabet]] <br /> [[Arabic alphabet]]
| iso3 = fia
| glotto = nobi1240
| glottorefname = Nobiin
| notice = IPA
}}

'''Nobiin''', also known as '''Halfawi''', '''Mahas''', is a [[Nubian languages|Nubian language]] of the [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan language family]]. "Nobiin" is the [[genitive case|genitive]] form of {{lang|fia|Nòòbíí}} ("Nubian") and literally means "(language) of the [[Nubians]]". Another term used is {{lang|fia|Noban tamen}}, meaning "the Nubian language".<ref>[http://www.nlsnubia.net/en/academic.htm Nubian Language Society]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

At least 2500 years ago, the first Nubian speakers migrated into the [[Nile]] valley from the southwest. [[Old Nubian language|Old Nubian]] is thought to be ancestral to Nobiin. Nobiin is a [[tone (linguistics)|tonal language]] with contrastive vowel and consonant length. The basic word order is [[subject–object–verb]].

Nobiin is currently spoken along the banks of the Nile in [[Upper Egypt]] and northern [[Sudan]] by approximately 685,000 Nubians. In 2023 there  were 183,000 Nobiin speakers in  [[Sudan]], and in 2024 there were 502,000 Nobiin speakers in [[Egypt]].<ref name="FIA">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/fia/|title=Nobiin|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=12 April 2025}}</ref> It is spoken by the Fedicca in Egypt and the [[Mahas]] and Halfawi tribes in Sudan. Present-day Nobiin speakers are almost universally [[multilingual]] in local varieties of [[Arabic]], generally speaking [[Modern Standard Arabic]] (for official purposes) as well as [[Saʽidi Arabic]], [[Egyptian Arabic]], or [[Sudanese Arabic]]. Many Nobiin-speaking Nubians were forced to relocate in 1963–1964 to make room for the construction of the [[Aswan Dam]] at [[Aswan]], Egypt and for the upstream [[Lake Nasser]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Nubians demand repatriation during Sisi visit |url=https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/01/nubians-demand-repatriation-during-sisi-visit |access-date=7 January 2022 |publisher=Al-Monitor}}</ref>

There is no standardised [[orthography]] for Nobiin. It has been written in both [[Latin script|Latin]] and [[Arabic script]]s; also, recently there have been efforts to revive the [[Old Nubian language#Writing|Old Nubian alphabet]]. This article adopts the Latin orthography used in the only published [[grammar]] of Nobiin, Roland Werner's (1987) ''Grammatik des Nobiin''.