Editing Ababda people (section)

===Ababda or Beja Language===

[[File:Ababdeh riding their dromedaries.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Three Ababda men riding their dromedaries, 1851]]

There is rich evidence confirming that as late as the second half of the 19th century the Ababda were bilingual in Arabic and a [[Beja language]] that was either identical or closely related to [[Bishari tribe|Bisharin]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Präarabische Sprachen der Ja'aliyin und Ababde in der europäischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts |last=Gerhards |first=Gabriel |year=2023 |url=https://www.academia.edu/110748602 |journal=Der Antike Sudan |volume=34 |pages=135–138}}</ref> A distinct language being spoken by the Ababda has been reported by several early travellers, either identified as Beja or left without further description. In around 1770 the [[Scotland|Scottish]] traveller [[James Bruce]] claimed that they spoke the "Barabra" language, Nubian.<ref>James Bruce (1813): ''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 & 1773''. Volume VII, p. 104</ref> At the turn of the 19th century, during the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria]], the engineer Dubois-Aymé wrote that the Ababda understood Arabic, but still spoke a language of their own.<ref>M. du Bois Aymé (1809): "Mémoire sur la ville de Qoçeyr et ses environs" in ''Description de l'Égypte: ou recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française, publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand'', p. 6</ref> In the 1820s [[Eduard Rüppell]] briefly stated that the Ababda spoke their own, seemingly non-Arabic language.<ref>Eduard Rüppel (1829): "Reisen in Nubien, Kordofan und dem peträischen Arabien". Friedrich Wilmans. p. 212</ref> A similar opinion was written by [[Pierre Trémaux]] after his journey in Sudan in the late 1840s.<ref>Trémaux, Pierre (1862): ''Voyage en Ethiopie au Soudan Oriental et dans la Nigritie''. Hachette. pp. 168-170</ref>

[[John Lewis Burckhardt]] reported that in 1813 those Ababda who co-resided with the [[Bishari tribe]] spoke [[Beja language|Beja]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burckhardt |first1=John Lewis |title=Travels in Nubia |date=1819 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |page=149}}</ref> Alfred von Kremer believed them to be native Beja-speakers and was told that the Ababda were bilingual in Arabic, which they spoke with a heavy accent. Those who resided with the Nubians spoke [[Kenzi language|Kenzi]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=von Kremer |first1=Alfred |title=Aegypten: Forschungen über Land und Volk während eines zehnjährigen Aufenthalts |volume=1 |date=1863 |publisher=F.A. Brockhaus |location=Leipzig |pages=126–127}}</ref> [[Robert Hartmann (naturalist)|Robert Hartmann]], who visited the country in 1859/60, noted that the vast majority of the Ababda now spoke Arabic. However, in the past they used to speak a Beja dialect that was now, as he was told, solely restricted to a few nomadic families roaming the [[Eastern Desert]]. He believed that they abandoned their language in favour of Arabic due to their close contact with other arabophone tribes.<ref>Robert Hartmann (1863): ''Reise des Freiherrn Adalbert von Barnim durch Nord-Ost-Afrika in den Jahren 1859 und 1860.'' Georg Reimer. p. 230</ref> The Swedish linguist Herman Almkvist, writing in 1881, counted the Ababda to the Beja and noted that most had discarded the Beja language, supposedly identical to the Bishari dialect, in favour of Arabic, although "quite a lot" were still capable of understanding and even talking Beja. Bishari informants told him that in the past, the Bishari and Ababda were the same people.<ref>Herman Almkvist (1881): "Die Bischari-Sprache. Erster Band". EDV Berling. pp. 3; 20</ref> [[Joseph Russegger]], who visited the country around 1840, noted that the Ababda spoke their own language, although he added that it was heavily mixed with Arabic. He believed it to be a "Nubian Bedouin" language and implied that this language, and the Ababda customs and appearance in general, is similar to that of the Bishari.<ref>Joseph Russegger (1843): ''Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika.'' Volume 2.1" Schweizerbart'sche Verlagshandlung. p. 379</ref> Traveller [[Bayard Taylor]] wrote in 1856 that the Ababda spoke a language different from that of the Bishari, although it "probably sprang from the same original stock."<ref>Taylor, Bayard (1856): ''A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile''. G.P. Putnam. p. 184</ref> The French [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] Eusèbe de Salle concluded in 1840, after attending a Beja conversation between Ababda and Bishari, that both understood each other reasonably well, but that the Ababda "definitely" had a language of their own.<ref>Eusèbe de Salle (1840): ''Pérégrinations en Orient, ou Voyage pittoresque, historique et politique en Égypte, Nubie, Syrie, Turquie, Grèce pendant les années 1837-38-39''. Volume 2. p. 123</ref> The physician [[Carl Benjamin Klunzinger]] wrote in 1878 that the Ababda would always speak Arabic while conversing with strangers, avoiding to speak their own language which he thought was a mixture of Arabic and Beja.<ref>C. B. Klunzinger (1878): ''Upper Egypt, Its People and its Products''. Blakie & son. 263–264</ref>