The Nubi Language of Uganda: An Arabic Creole in Africa

The Nubi language is spoken in Uganda and Kenya. Nubi is Arabic, since about 90% of its vocabulary is of an Arabic nature. It is often termed a creole, since many of its structural and developmental features resemble those of known creoles. The growth and development of the Nubi language must be situated near Lake Albert towards the end of the nineteenth century. This period is well documented and is described at length in the first part. This volume also provides a detailed description of the Nubi language of Uganda, and it deals with the development of the language and searches for the relevant Arabic source dialects. The book includes more than one thousand examples and several texts, recorded by the author during two extensive periods of field research.