Improve your Bedawiet language

Here's the complete text of a Beja grammar book. Sadly there is no cover illustration. The Beja Pedagogical Grammar by Klaus Wedekind is available at Africanistik online. Navigate through the chapters on the left side.

Language resources for To Bedawie

Today, we've got two items for you.

The first is an overview of To Bedawie, written Martine Vanhove. It's a presentation she made to the 7th International Sudan Studies Conference, in April 2006. Fifteen pages long, it's a broad survey of To Bedawie. The title is, THE BEJA LANGUAGE TODAY IN SUDAN: THE STATE OF THE ART IN LINGUISTICS.

Download the pdf.

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The second is a grammar written by  a British official in 1928. Tu Bedawie: An Elementary Handbook for the use of Sudan Government Officials was written by E.M. Roper. It's about 135 pages, but some are missing from this scan. See a variety of options for viewing it here.

Three old Beja websites + Bonus!

Here are three sites that deal with items of interest for the Beja people, but they have not been updated for a long time, though they are still online today. If you're interested in the recent history or the poetry of the Beja people, check these sites out.

Mohamed O Ibrahim lives in Canberra, Australia, and posted from 2006 until November 2011 at http://www.dabaiwa.com. He covered news stories and politics in east Sudan. A few stories are in English.

The East Sudan development site offers some documentation of government activities in Arabic. There's a series of 20 photos of a new building on one page... Looks like the site is being hosted on a free hosting service, and was last active in 2010.... 

http://habyaat.blogspot.ca/ is an Arabic language blog based in Canada with entries posted in November 2011. Adroob Huaan posted only eight entries only, covering poetry, stories and proverbs in To Bedawie with translations into Arabic. Includes a few pictures.

BONUS!!!!!    Update, May 2012.
Large forum of specifically BEJA material. Dates 2009, 2010, and 2011. Worth a look.
For Arabic only, or get English language content when you click through below.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fbeja.topgoo.net%2Fforum

International Literacy Day

Today is International Literacy Day [September 8].

Around the world, literacy remains an elusive target: almost 800 million adults lack minimum literacy skills which means that about one in six adults is still not literate; 67.4 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

This year’s International Literacy Day, celebrated world-wide on 8 September, will focus on the link between literacy and peace. During a ceremony in New Delhi, India, UNESCO will award international literacy prizes to projects in Burundi, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the United States of America. 


Details.

Website offers Beja language primer

 

Brian Morrow photo

The Beja Cultural Studies Center has opened up a website that features an entire language primer online. Readers can develop their vocabulary of the Bedawiet tribal language. Some audio samples are included that go with various words and phrases.

In addition, about 10 academic articles about the language are available, in English and French. This is a great resource for the Beja people. Make sure you visit the site today!

The Beja Cultural Studies Center is located on the campus of Red Sea University, in downtown Port Sudan, just a few blocks from the corniche and the harbour.

Beja Cultural Studies Center