Our Children, Our Language — The Dinka Language: Our Identity
By Kur Wël Kur, Adelaide, Australia
Sunday, October 14, 2018 (PW) — We’re almost in all four corners of the world, and fighting to remain the Dinka people. I am afraid that the load of melanin isn’t one of the tools to fight this war of identity because masses of other Africans are our mirror images with the same shades of black.
But the LANGUAGE—the Dinka language along with moral values and cultures of Dinka are the main tools to protect our identity. One’s mother tongue is an invaluable definition of who one truly is.
However, having become wanderers because of wars, our language is falling behind other languages—English, Arabic, Kiswahili and even Spanish (some people who went to Cuba as kids speak less Dinka than Spanish)—we have picked up in nations of our refuge.
Our children in other nations speak other languages with fluidity; their fluency in these languages is extremely towering that one of their Dinka (language).
So, without home and church education, our language: the Dinka language will die in “exile”.
It’s my hope that our sacrifices as parents will make a difference. With these sacrifices in mind, I am here to inform you about Aesop’s fables that’s been translated into our dear language—the Dinka language.
As widely known, Aesop’s fables are time (many centuries old) tested moral stories, translated into many languages and had been widely read by children and adults.
Atem Yaak Atem has translated some (50 stories) of Aesop’s fables into Dinka. He has done an excellent and extra work of considering the different dialects of Jieng.
However, for consistency reasons, he has used one dialect through out his translation. So, words in other dialects appeared at the bottom of every story. For example words such as “Duone” (don’t) appears as follows in other dialects (Ne thook Kok ke Jieeng aye col): Duk, Du, Di.
I hope you’ll find it helpful for yourselves and your precious children. I invite you for a healthy discussion and don’t hesitate to leave a suggestion or any comment.
So, in advance, thanks for your time and comments.
The author, Kur Wel Kur, holds a Bachelor of Science (Genetics and Zoology) from Australian National University—ANU in Canberra, Australia, and can be reached via his email: kurwelkur77@gmail.com
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