Editing Arabization (section)

===Arabization in Sudan===
{{Main|Languages of Sudan}}

[[Sudan]] is an ethnically mixed country that is economically and politically dominated by the society of riverine Sudan along the Nile, where many identify as Arabs and Muslims. The population in [[South Sudan]] consists mostly of Christian and Animist [[Nilotic peoples|Nilotic people]], who have been regarded for centuries as non-Arab, African peoples. Apart from Modern Standard Arabic, taught in schools and higher education, and the spoken forms of [[Sudanese Arabic]] colloquial, several other languages are spoken by diverse ethnic groups.

Since independence in 1956, [[Sudan]] has been a multilingual country, with Sudanese Arabic as the major first language among the majority and second language by some minority groups such as the [[Beja people]] in Eastern Sudan. In the 2005 [[constitution of the Republic of Sudan]] and following the [[Comprehensive Peace Agreement]], the official languages of Sudan were declared Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and English. Before the independence of [[South Sudan]] in 2011, people in the southern parts of the country, who mainly speak [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] or [[Juba Arabic]], were subjected to the official policy of Arabization by the central government in Khartoum. The constitution declared, however, that "all indigenous languages of the Sudan are national languages and shall be respected, developed, and promoted," and it allowed any legislative body below the national level to adopt any other national language(s) as additional official working language(s) within that body's jurisdiction.<ref name=":3">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Languages |encyclopedia=Sudan: a country study |publisher=[[Federal Research Division]], [[Library of Congress]] |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/cs/pdf/CS_Sudan.pdf |last=Bechtold |first=Peter K. |date=2015 |editor-last=Berry |editor1-first=LaVerle |edition=5th |pages=77–79 |isbn=978-0-8444-0750-0}} {{PD-notice}} Though published in 2015, this work covers events in the whole of Sudan (including present-day South Sudan) until the 2011 secession of South Sudan.</ref>

MSA is also the language used in Sudan's central government, the press, as well as in official programmes of Sudan television and Radio Omdurman. Several [[lingua franca]]s have emerged, and many people have become genuinely multilingual, fluent in a native language spoken at home, a lingua franca, and perhaps other languages.<ref name=":3" />