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THE LANGUAGE SURVEY of SUDAN the First Phase: a Questionnaire Survey in Schools ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UMENSIS Umeå Studies in the Humanities. 22 Björn Jernudd THE LANGUAGE SURVEY OF SUDAN The First Phase: A Questionnaire Survey in Schools Umeå 1979 ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UMENSIS Umeå Studies in the Humanities. 22 Björn Jernudd THE LANGUAGE SURVEY OF SUDAN The First Phase: A Questionnaire Survey in Schools INAUGURAL DISSERTATION by due permission of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Umeå to be publicly discussed in lecture hall E, Humanisthuset, on February 2, 1979, at 10 A. M., for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UMENSIS Umeå Studies in the Humanities. 22 Bjtfrn H, Jernudd The Language Survey of Sudani the First Phase A Questionnaire Survey in Schools Umeå, 1979. ISBN 91-717^022-8 Abstract This is a report on a sociolinguistic survey of pupils in selected junior secondary schools and some primary schools in Northern Sudan, and in Malakal and Adong in Southern Sudan, conducted in 1972. This survey began the Language Survey of Sudan, which is a continuing project of the Institute of African and Asian Studies, Khartoum. The report describes in some detail how the survey was conducted. It adopted an approach intended to demonstrate the use­ fulness of sociolinguistic surveying to development and public po­ licy in .Sudan and to bring out the needs for further, detailed work. The Language Survey of Sudan aims at describing and mapping knowledge and use of languages and dialects in Sudan, by (i) iden­ tifying languages and dialects and classifying them by linguistic method, (2) accounting for how many people know each language and dialect, and how well, and (3) studying for what purposes each language and dialect are used. This survey addressed primarily the last objective. As concerns the significance of findings, the char­ acteristics of the respondents introduce severe constraints on interpretation. Although their ages are relatively uniform (around 14 or 15 years of age) with both sexes represented, born in the majority of cases in the same provinces as their schools are lo­ cated in and showing a good spread of fathers' jobs, the respon­ dents are not representative of the wider community. But the respondents are representative of the school population in Sudan in their age group. Results account for pupils* reports on parents* knowledge of Arabic and parents* literacy in Arabicj on pupils* own preferences for the use of classical or colloquial varieties of Arabic in the classroom; and on knowledge of other languages in addition to Arabic and patterns of use of these languages as well as Arabic. One major finding of this study is that, with very few exceptions, Arab respondents do not acquire another Sudanese lan­ guage. Another major finding is that the data points to varying degrees of bilingualism among all other ethnic groups in at least Northern Sudan: Arabic and local vernaculars are used in comple­ mentary social situations, with AraMc assuming a lingua franca function and being associated mainly with national, public, offi ­ cial, 'modern* or often simply out-group communicative situations. But the report does not show that Arabic is replacing other langua­ ges. What it shows is acceptance of use of Arabic in many contexts. Another major finding is that girl respondents consistently say that they use more Arabic than boys say they do, and claim more Arabic knowledge and also literacy for their mothers than boys do. ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UMENSIS Umeå Studies in the Humanities. 22 Björn Jernudd THE LANGUAGE SURVEY OF SUDAN The First Phase: A Questionnaire Survey in Schools Umeå 1979 © Björn Jernudd Umeå universitetsbibliotek, Box 718, S-901 10 Umeå, Sweden Tryckt hos Göteborgs Offsettryckeri AB, Kungälv ISBN 91-7174-022-8 TO MY MOTHER 3 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 9 1. Background to the first phase of the Language Survey of Sudan 13 1.1 Basic facts about Sudan and the language situation in Sudan 14 1.2 Objectives of the Language Survey of Sudan 15 1.3 Planning of the Language Survey 18 2. Objectives of the first phase of the Language Survey of Sudan 22 2.1 Terms of reference 22 2.2 Specific goals... 24 2.3 Details of choice of survey sites.... 28 3. Administration of the first phase 31 3.1 Preparation of field work 31 3.2 Direct field contacts 31 3.3 Research assistance 32 3.4 Administering questionnaires in the field 33 3.5 Coding, punching and tabulations of questionnaire data 34 3.6 Editing a directory of scholars 36 3.7 The language information questionnaire 37 3.8 Costs 38 4. Management and liaison of the Language Survey of Sudan 39 4.1 Formal organization of liaison 39 5 4.2 Information and publicity 41 4.3 Daily routine of a field worker 43 4.4 Impact and implementation 45 5. The student questionnaire 48 5.1 Characterization of the student questionnaire 48 5.2 The questions 48 5.3 Sources for the questionnaire 58 5.4 Comments on the questionnaire code... 5.5 Some severe constraints on interpreting results 60 6. Results. Parents' knowledge of Arabic and literacy. 62 6.1.1 Fathers' knowledge of spoken Arabic 63 6.1.2 Mothers' knowledge of spoken Arabic 64 6.2.1 Fathers' ability to read in Arabic.. 68 6.2.2 Mothers' ability to read in Arabic.. 72 6.2.3 Relationship between father's and mother's ability to read 75 6.2.4 A note on the Haifa data 76 6.2.5 A note on Darfur 78 7. Results. Preference for Arabic variety in the classroom 81 8. Results. Self-report on language knowledge and language use by pupils in Sudanese schools 87 8.1 A note on terminology 87 6 3.2 General observations on language knowledge 90 8.3 A note on mixed marriages 94 8.4 Language use in Dongola 95 8.5 Language use in New Haifa 103 8.6 Language use in Sinkat Ill 8.7 Language use in El Fasher and Tina... 116 8.8 Language use in Dilling 123 8.9 Language use in Heiban 134 8.10 Language use in Sallara 142 8.11 Language use in El Obeid (Fellata quarters) 146 8.12 Language use in Malakal 153 8.13 Language use in Aaong 163 8.14 Language use in Kabushiya, Singa, Dinder and Burri 170 9. Comparison of patterns of language use.... 172 10. Why do girls use Arabic more often then boys? 176 11. Conclusion 184 Appendix 1. Student questionnaire in Arabic... 186 Appendix 2. Coding instructions for student questionnaire 194 References 201 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is truly amazing how many people are involved, one way or other, in getting even a simple job like this one done. First there are those people who got the Language Survey of Sudan off the ground: foremost among them Professor Yusuf Fadl Hasan and Dr. Sayyid Hamid Hurreiz. Then there are all those people who so readily made themselves and their institutions available in support of the travelling survey team and for answering Survey questions: headmasters, teachers and pupils in Sudanese schools, and officers of the local councils. The field team was overwhelmingly received everywhere; Mr. Mirghani Omar al-Amin accommodated us and accompanying family members in El Obeid, the late Mr. Kodi al-Doma's family provided us with food in Heiban, Mr. Adam Adam Saleh and his fellow bachelor veterinarians accommodated us in El Fasher, Mr. Salah al-Din al-Amin Saadalla invited us to stay with his family as we disembarked from the bus in New Haifa. There was always someone who took it upon himself to look after our comforts even when we stayed in resthouses or the Sudan Railways hotel in Malakal! Staff at the Institute of African and Asian Studies in Khartoum did a good job of keeping the field team in supplies, helping with communications and turning out sufficient quantities of question­ 9 naires. In particular my thanks go to Mr. Suliman Abdalla Adam and Mrs. Wahiba Bentu. Mr. Muhammad al-Fatih Sharaf al-Din, Mr. Awad Mursi Taha, Mr. Suliman Muhammad Radwan and Mr. Elias, all from the third floor in the Ätbara 'BT hostel helped with coding the questionnaires. Mr. Ron Savage of Monash University did a superb job of introducing me to computer data processing and factor analysis, a job which Mr. Vic Askman at the Culture Learning Institute of the East-West Center, Honolulu, equally admirably continued some years later, when again I could turn to writing this report. I had most of the raw tables (marginals) printed at the Institute of Statistics and Research and Scientific Computation Center in Cairo, a tabula­ tion task the successful execution of which I owe to Ms. Merwat Gheith and her colleague and programmer Mr. Muhammad al-Nahass. Some preliminary tabulation had also been done on the University of Khartoum card tabulator, and I thank Mr. Muhammad al-Hasan in the Statistical Laboratory for his kind supervision of that job. I did m ost of the writing in the summer of 1976 in Khartoum. I owe the opportunity to spend several months on this and another research writing task to Mr. Samuel Bunker, Ford Foundation representative for the Middle East and North Africa. With his permis­ sion I made Khartoum base of operations for three summer months during my term as project specialist in linguistics with the Foundation. 10 Professor Yusuf Fadl Hasan, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, arranged to accommodate me in his Faculty at the University of Khartoum and found me an office in the Arabic Department where Dr. Muhammad Ali al-Raya and Mr.
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