Andaandi love poem

Here the dongolawi (alternatives : Donglawi, Dongolese, Dongola, Dongola Nubian, Danaagla, Dongolawi Nubian, Autonym : Andaandi) translation of my love poem, for almost 70,000 speakers.

This Nilo-Saharan language of the eastern Sudanese group, of the Nubian language family, is spoken in Egypt and northern Sudan, in the Nile valley, between the south of the city of Kerma and ed-Debba.

The word dongolawi comes from the name of the city of Dongola (Dunqula, Dumqula), capital of the Christian kingdoms of Makouria, then Marouria and Nobatia, then of the Muslim kingdom of Dongola after 1317. As for the Dongolawis they name their language, andaandi.

The autonym of the language for the speakers is Andaandi which means "our language", a language which is threatened since in Sudan as in Egypt, it is Arabic which is the official language, and doesn't let a lot of place to the other languages.

Arabic has not only influenced the dongolawi llanguage, but also that the number of speakers who speak it, which does not stop decreasing.

Dongolawi and Kenzi are two closely related languages, sometimes considered as two distinct languages, sometimes they are associated with Kenzi-Dongolawi.

There are several ways to write this language. It's here with the Nubian writing! Currently, in general, it is written with the Arabic script. The Nubian script is a derivative of the Greek, Coptic and Meroitic scripts.

It is first Eratosthenes who mentions the Nubian people (Noubai, Nobadae, Noba), as different from the Kushites of Meroe. He locates them in the Bayuda Desert, west of the Nile, on the side of Kordofan and Darfur. From there groups began to separate and move, probably from 1000 BC, and in any case to be present in the valley of the Nile 1000 years later.

Stelae that refer to the red Noba and black Noba, show the existence of distinct groups, probably resulting from its migratory movements from western Sudan in the Nile valley, mixed with the populations present, the bejas.

Then these kingdoms developing, it is quite conceivable that other groups from the surrounding regions came to join them. The arrival of Arabs and Ottomans will follow, that is to say a new mixing of populations that may even come from Europe, not to forget to mention another mixing, that of all the movements linked to the slave trade.

We see that the Nubians today are in fact a melting pot of populations, who have kept the language of their Nubian ancestors with Arabic becoming a language of unification of a wider region.