Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 27, 2026

Dagik language

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 to Ngile, which is also spoken by the Mesakin people.

Last revised
Jul 27, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
187 w
Citations
3
Source
Dagik
Dhaduwa
Native toSudan
RegionNuba Hills
EthnicityMesakin
Native speakers
67,000 (2022)1
Dialects
  • Arreme
  • Adobu
  • Tosari
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3dec
Glottologdagi1241

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 to Ngile, which is also spoken by the Mesakin people.

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

Phonology

Consonants

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

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

References

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