Endangered cultures are civilizations or heritages under the threat of extinction. This is usually signaled by language extinction. Although South Sudan is known to be a homogenous country, there are many tribes, cultures, and languages that comprise this region. The major languages spoken in South Sudan are English, Arabic, Juba Arabic, Bari, and Zande. English is the national language but the other languages listed are also widely spoken across South Sudan. However, these languages only make up a small fraction of South Sudan’s linguistic map. In fact, the country has 76 established languages. Most of these languages come from the same tribe. For example, the Dinka language comes from the Dinka tribe, the Nuer language comes from the Nuer tribe, etc. In the field of linguistics, languages are categorized by L1, L2, and so on. L1 refers to a person’s native language (aka the first language) and L2 refers to a second language or a non-native language. Surprisingly, even though English is the national language, there are almost zero L1 speakers. Due to South Sudan being formerly colonized and globalization, many of the languages are extinct or on the brink of extinction. Languages like Dongotono, Kuku, Lokoya, Banda, Indri, and many others are on the verge of dying while languages like Homa, Mittu, and Togoyo are already extinct. As discussed in a Ted Talk by Wade Davis, when we lose a language, we ultimately lose a culture. For instance, the Mündü, an ethnic group in Eastern Africa, has faced the challenge of keeping their identity alive. According to an article titled, Mündü, an endangered language of Southern Sudan, “with the ongoing dispersal of the group, loss of their territories, and an increasing influence of the vehicular language Arabic the situation has become so unbalanced that the Mündü have great difficulties to maintain their language,” (Helma Pasch, 2008).
Pasch, H. (2008). Mündü, an endangered language of southern Sudan – universität zu köln. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/3162/1/The_Mundu10.pdf
South Sudan. Ethnologue. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.ethnologue.com/country/SS/status
South Sudan – World Directory of Minorities & Indigenous Peoples. Minority Rights Group. (2020, November 17). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/country/south-sudan/
(n.d.). Wade Davis: Dreams from endangered cultures | TED Talk. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_dreams_from_endangered_cultures.