Birgid language, which is also called by its native speakers as “moorg-in agal”- literally means “the tongue of allies”, is a Nubian central language spoken by the Nubian groups in South and central Darfur. The name birgid, most probably refer to the native speaker of this language. This name is composed of two words; birg “small hill” and id “human”, and the entire term can be translated as “the human of the small hill”.

Birgid people’s historical land was in Kordofan, in a region extends south of the city of Al-Obyyied to the outskirts of Ajang Nubia in the Nuba Mountains. Nowadays, the majority of the Birgid people dwell a large area known as “Hakura el-Birgid” in Darfur, which include the area between Jebel Marra in the east and to the borders of Nyala in Jabal Masko Northern to the Rizeigat Tribe’s borders.

The status of the language

Birgid language is currently an extinct language. Its use became restricted to very few elderly people. Several documentations for the language were conducted in the last decades by Western and Sudanese linguists (e.g., Herman Bell’s documentation in 1960s, and Ushari Muhammad Mahmoud in 1970s). The last documentation was done Mohamed Bahr, a member of NLS team with the elders Maryam Kutaga and Sheikh Radwan Muhammad from of Korunji and Baraka (Jabal Masko area) in 2014.

Birgid has an SOV grammar system like all other Nubian languages in which the object in always marked by the marker -gi.

e.g., hai markati eege-gi marg-ommi

(you) thief          sheep-obj steal-neg

Listen thief! do not steal the sheep!