Nubian studies needs a platform in which the old meets the new, in which archaeological, papyrological, and philological research into Meroitic, Old Nubian, Coptic, Greek, and Arabic sources confront current investigations in modern anthropology and ethnography, Nilo-Saharan linguistics, and critical and theoretical approaches present in post-colonial and African studies. The journal Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies brings these disparate fields together within the same fold, opening a cross-cultural and diachronic field where divergent approaches meet on common soil. Dotawo gives a common home to the past, present, and future of one of the richest areas of research in African studies. It offers a crossroads where papyrus can meet internet, scribes meet critical thinkers, and the promises of growing nations meet the accomplishments of old kingdoms. This first volume of Dotawo is the outcome of a Nubian panel within the Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium held at the University of Cologne, May 22-4, 2013. Organized by Angelika Jakobi, the Nubian panel was attended both by specialists of the modern Nubian languages and scholars working on medieval Nubia and its languages, particularly Old Nubian. We are indebted to the Fritz Thyssen Foundation at Cologne for generously sponsoring the organization of the Nubian panel and the invitation of the participants.TABLE OF CONTENTS: Grzegorz Ochala // Multilingualism in Christian Nubia: Qualitative and Quantitative ApproachesAlexandros Tsakos // The Liber Institutionis Michælis in Medieval NubiaBirgit Hellwig & Gertrud Schneider-Blum // Tabaq: In a State of FluxKerstin Weber & Petra Weschenfelder // Reflections on Old Nubian GrammarMarcus Jaeger //Coordination with goon and Bisyndetic =gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs Angelika Jakobi & El-Shafie El-Guzuuli //Semantic Change and Heterosemy of Dongolawi ed Jade Comfort //Verbal Number in the Uncu Language (Kordofan Nubian)Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei //Remarks toward a Revised Grammar of Old Nubian Adam Lajtar //Old Nubian Texts from Gebel Adda in the Royal Ontario Museum Suzan Alamin //Noun Phrase Constructions in Nubian Languages: A Comparative Study Giovanni Ruffini //Idiom and Social Practice in Medieval Nubia
About the Author: Angelika Jakobi is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute of African Studies (Institut für Afrikanistik) of Cologne University in Germany. Since 1978 she has repeatedly carried out fieldwork in Sudan and Chad. Her research interests include descriptive and historical-comparative linguistics. Most of her research has focused on three Nilo-Saharan languages: Fur, Beria (Zaghawa), and Nubian. She is the author of A Fur Grammar (1990) and in cooperation with Tanja Kümmerle she has published The Nubian Languages: An Annotated Bibliography (1993). With Joachim Crass she has co-authored a grammar of Zaghawa written in French, Grammaire du beria (langue saharienne) (2004). Currently she is working on some Kordofan Nubian languages and Dongolawi (Nile Nubian). Giovanni R. Ruffini is an Associate Professor of History and Classical Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. His publications include Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt (Cambridge, 2008) and Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic History (Oxford, 2012). He is the founder and co-editor of the collaborative Medieval Nubia website. Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei studied composition, linguistics, conceptual art, and philosophy in the Netherlands, USA, and Switzerland. He studies under Christopher Fynsk at the Centre for Modern Thought at the University of Aberdeen and is Visiting Fellow at Tembusu College, National University of Singapore. The monograph Five Legal Interventions and the two-volume monumental survey Unknown Monuments (punctum books, forthcoming) are currently in preparation. He has translated the work of Jean Daive, Alessandro De Francesco, Hervé Guibert, Dick Raaijmakers, Avital Ronell, and Nachoem Wijnberg, among others, and his writings have appeared in journals such as continent., Frakcija, nY, Parmentier, postmedieval, and Theory & Event. Van Gerven Oei is director of the Department of Eagles foundation in Tirana and runs multilingual publishing house Uitgeverij. He is also one of the founding editors of the journal Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies. Van Gerven Oei lives and works in Tirana, Albania.