Dagik, or Dengebu, Dagig, Thakik, Buram, Reikha, is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Sudan. It is 80% lexically similar with Ngile, which is also spoken by the Mesakin people.

Dagik
Dhaduwa
Native toSudan
RegionNuba Hills
EthnicityMesakin
Native speakers
67,000 (2022)[1]
Dialects
  • Arreme
  • Adobu
  • Tosari
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3dec
Glottologdagi1241

The most comprehensive grammar is that of Vanderelst (2016).[2]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p t k
Fricative (f) s (h)
Nasal m n ŋ
Rhotic r ɽ
Approximant w l j
  • Sounds /p, t̪, t, k/ can have intervocalic allophones as sonorants [β, ð, ɾ, ɣ], and voiced allophones [b, d̪, d, ɡ] when after nasals.
  • Sounds [f, h] only have marginal status.
  • /r/ can also be heard as a tap [ɾ] allophone.

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
ɪ ʊ
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open a
  • /u/ can also assimilate to a close-mid [o] in different environments.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Dagik at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)  
  2. ^ a b Vanderelst, John. 2016. A Grammar of Dagik: A Kordofanian Language of Sudan. (Grammatical Analyses of African Languages, 50.) Cologne: Köppe.