Nubia (pronounced
/'nju?bi?/) is a region in Southern
Egypt along the
Nile and in what is now northern
Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in
Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt. In ancient times it was an independent kingdom.
While the ancient kingdoms of Nubia had changing boundaries, modern Nubia is roughly thought of as the region along the Nile, south of Aswan, up to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Sudan.[1]
Recent studies in population genetics suggest that there was a south-to-north gene flow through the Nile Valley. [2] Similarly, linguistic evidence suggests that the Nubians in the Nile Valley were related to peoples originally from the south or southwest. Comparative historical research into the Nubian language group has indicated that the Nile-Nubian languages must have split off from the Nubian languages still spoken in the Nuba Mountains in Kordofan, Sudan, at least 2,500 years ago. [3]
A large variety of languages are spoken in the Nubia region due to its long history of organized civilizations and external migrations. For instance, in the northern part of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, a subbranch of the Nilo-Saharan subfamily including Nobiin, Kenuzi-Dongola, Midob and several related varieties is present.[citation needed] An offshoot of this group, (Birgid) was also spoken (at least until 1970) north of Nyala in Darfur, but that is now extinct. Historically prominent is Old Nubian, which was used in mostly religious texts dating from the 8th and 9th centuries AD, and is considered ancestral to modern day Nobiin.[citation needed].
