XXX Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 19–21 июня 2019 г. Т. 1

Языки стран Азии и Африки к 150-летию академика В. В. Бартольда (1869–1930). Ч. 1 405 earth are endangered. The following summary is presented there: ‘At least 43% of the 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. This figure does not include the data-deficient languages, for which no reliable data is available. As their exact number is unknown, data-de- ficient languages are presented together with the safe ones…’ The decision to include data-deficient languages together with the ‘safe’ ones raises the following questions: Why should data-deficient languages inflate the numbers of the safe languages? How many of the so-called ‘safe’languages are data-deficient and unsafe? However, there is an issue. The Nile Nubian languages including Nobíin Nubian were included in the “largest” category (‘57.13%’), the so-called ‘ safe’ languages of the world. The Nile Nubian languages were not specified as any of the 64 endangered, vulnerable or recently extinct languages listed by the UNESCO Atlas for Sudan. Nor was any Nubian language mentioned by the Atlas among the 3 endangered or extinct languages mentioned for Egypt. Sabbar argued that Nobíin Nubian was clearly endangered. Important was the widespread tendency of children not to continue speaking the home language of their elders. Of special importance, Nobíin Nubian had no significant place in the school curricula of the Sudan and Egypt. It was not supported by the national sys- tems of education. Amajority of the languages ofAfrica have never received adequate support from a national system of education. The Nobíin Nubian language is like a sinking boat. It is in danger, no matter whether it is as small as a lifeboat or as large as the Titanic. When Sabbar and I examined an authoritative list of names for 60 Nubian vil- lages and archaeological sites, we discovered that most of these names were different from the corresponding names heard in local Nubian speech. Our focus was on the area where the Nobíin Nubian language was historically spoken, the stretch of the Nile between Kerma in Sudan and Korosko in Egypt (Nubian: Kuruskó ). The results of our investigation are found online in the journal Dotawo (2017, p. 9ff.) and also in chapter five of the most recent book by Sabbar: The Toponymy Not only is the language endangered, its toponymy is also endangered