Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

I. African Studies / Африканистика 32 Proceedings of the International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa.Vol. I. 2020 Endangered languages are numer- ous. From the viewpoint of the online UNESCOAtlas of the World’s Languages in Danger almost half of the languages spoken on 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-deficient languages are presented together with the safe ones …’ 1 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 these so-called ‘safe’ languages are data-deficient and unsafe? 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 theAtlas among the three endangered or extinct languages mentioned for Egypt. Sabbar argued that Nobíin Nubian was clearly endangered. Noteworthy 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 systems 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 clearly in danger, 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 villages and archaeological sites, we discovered that most of these names were different from 1 UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. URL: http://www.unesco.org/ languages-atlas/ (accessed 28.08.2018). Not only is the language endangered, its toponymy is also endangered