Editing Nobiin language (section)

==History==
Nobiin is one of the few [[languages of Africa]] to have a written history that can be followed over the course of more than a millennium. Old Nubian, preserved in a sizable collection of mainly early Christian manuscripts and documented in detail by [[Gerald M. Browne]] (1944–2004), is considered ancestral to Nobiin. Many manuscripts, including [[Bible translations into Nubian|Nubian Biblical texts]], have been unearthed in the Nile Valley, mainly between the first and fifth cataracts, testifying to a firm Nubian presence in the area during the first millennium. A dialect cluster related to Nobiin, [[Dongolawi language|Dongolawi]], is found in the same area. The Nile-Nubian languages were the languages of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of [[Nobatia]], [[Makuria]] and [[Alodia]].

The other [[Nubian languages]] are found hundreds of kilometers to the southwest, in [[Darfur]] and in the [[Nuba Mountains]] of [[Kordofan]]. For a long time it was assumed that the Nubian peoples dispersed from the Nile Valley to the south, probably at the time of the downfall of the Christian kingdoms. However, comparative lexicostatistic research in the second half of the twentieth century has shown that the spread must have been in the opposite direction. [[Joseph Greenberg]] (as cited in Thelwall 1982) calculated that a split between Hill Nubian and the two Nile-Nubian languages occurred at least 2500&nbsp;years ago. This is corroborated by the fact that the oral tradition of the [[Shaigiya tribe]] of the Jaali group of arabized Nile Nubians tells of coming from the southwest long ago. The speakers of Nobiin are thought to have come to the area before the speakers of the related Kenzi-Dongolawi languages (see [[#Classification|classification]] below).

Since the seventh century, Nobiin has been challenged by [[Arabic]]. The economic and cultural influence of Egypt over the region was considerable, and, over the centuries, [[Egyptian Arabic]] spread south. Areas like [[al-Maris (region)|al-Maris]] became almost fully Arabized. The conversion of Nubia to [[Islam]] after the fall of the Christian kingdoms further enhanced the [[Arabization]] process. In what is today Sudan, Sudanese Arabic became the main [[vernacular]] of the [[Funj Sultanate]], with Nobiin becoming a minority tongue. In Egypt, the Nobiin speakers were also part of a largely Arabic-speaking state, but Egyptian control over the south was limited. With the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] conquest of the region in the sixteenth century, official support for Arabization largely ended, as the Turkish and Circassian governments in Cairo sometimes saw Nobiin speakers as a useful ally. However, as Arabic remained a language of high importance in Sudan and especially Egypt, Nobiin continued to be under pressure, and its use became largely confined to Nubian homes.