BRINGING A NUBIAN LANGUAGE BACK TO LIFE, THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
The Nubian language of Egypt has been categorized as an endangered language, both locally in Africa, and globally. This categorizing is a process that is becoming all too frequent with languages, in an era of a quickly declining number of languages, globally.
The Nubian language and its cultural heritage are foundational to much of what Egypt and the world at large is. Musically, linguistically, culturally, and more, we have drawon on Nubian culture to inform our global selves. On the river Nile banks, reside the indigenous Nubian community
Yet several factors have influenced the decline of the Nubian language. One factor is the relocation of the Nubian community owing to the forced placement by the government of the High Dam in Aswan, in 1922.
The App was launched in 2017, and also caters to those wishing to travel throughout the Nubian region, containing tourist spots, in the two Nubian dialects, that is, the Kinzi and the Visicci. One highlight of the App is its use of animated and colorful constructions to guide the user.
Yet, technology is now here to revitalize languages and, in short, to save the oral day. For example, the Nubi App has been produced as a repository of the Nubian language, culture, and history, and is quite exhaustive in this respect.
The Nubian App has become a popular piece of technology glopbally, despite is focus on a very localized language. Yet, the interest in the app far pervades the Nubian communitiy. Linguists, cultural workers, and others have taken an interest in the app, and its success rate. The App is designed to include lexical sets, sentence structures, and other objects that assist the user to learn the basics of the language and beyond.
The App clearly facilitates access to and the learning of the Nubian language in many ways. Yet, the producers of the App are not stopping there. They intend to collaborate with others globally to increasingly disseminate the language through a variety of means.