# Bimbashi Arabic
**Bimbashi Arabic** is a pidginized Arabic of the [Anglo-Egyptian Sudan](https://www.edgepedia.org/anglo-egyptian-sudan) army, the predecessor idiom of [Juba Arabic](https://www.edgepedia.org/juba-arabic) and a source for Nubi and Kibera-Nubi. It was spread from roughly 1870 to 1920 in the southern provinces of the Egyptian, later Anglo-Egyptian, Sudan.[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | A military pidginized Arabic of the Sudan army, predecessor of Nubi and Juba Arabic; early names Mongalla Arabic and Bimbashi Arabic[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf) |
| Period of spread | Ca. 1870–1920 in the southern provinces of the Egyptian and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf) |
| Origin setting | Multilingual garrison camps in southern Sudan, where pidginized versions of Sudanese Arabic emerged[2](https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/00141-EN.pdf) |
| Family placement | Eastern branch of the Sudanic Arabic contact varieties, alongside Juba Arabic; western branch is Turku and Bongor Arabic[3](https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/e27ce42a-845f-2581-e053-d805fe0acbaa/tosco_intro_4aperto.pdf) |
| Documentation | Only insufficiently documented, which constrains the study of its lexical strata and history[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf) |
| Descendant speakers | Kinubi: about 15,000 in Uganda (1991 census) and an estimated 10,000 in Kenya (2005); other estimates put the combined total at about 50,000 (as of 2001)[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1) |
## Name and historical origins
The pidgin belongs to a family of Arabic-lexified contact varieties whose common ancestor, traditionally called "Common Sudanic Pidgin Creole Arabic", took shape in southern Sudan. Various Turkish-Egyptian military expeditions between 1820 and 1840 opened southern Sudan for the slave trade, and after 1850 the slave traders' settlements were turned into military camps in which a military pidgin emerged.[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1) It was probably in these multilingual garrison camps that pidginized versions of [Sudanese Arabic](https://www.edgepedia.org/sudanese-arabic) developed.[2](https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/00141-EN.pdf)
Under Turco-Egyptian rule, Arabic spread as the language of administration in northern and central Sudan.[2](https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/00141-EN.pdf)
## Linguistic features
In Nubi, roughly 90% of the vocabulary comes from Arabic, but the grammar and phonology have been pared down; the variety emerged over a brief span, and its structure departs sharply from the Egyptian and Sudanic Arabic it drew its words from, while still keeping a relatively sturdy morphology, though a simpler one than Arabic's.[5](https://benjamins.com/catalog/jpcl.29.2.03owe) Substrate influence is measurable in the earliest records: about sixty lexical items in the earliest records of Ugandan Kinubi can be traced back to various substrate languages, and Bari is the main substrate language of Juba Arabic.[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1) Kenyan Kinubi contains some 170 Swahili loanwords out of approximately 1,400 words recorded.[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1)
These figures describe the descendants, not the pidgin itself.
## How it compares with other Arabic-lexified pidgins
The Sudanic group comprises four named varieties: Turku, Bongor Arabic, (Ki-)Nubi, and Juba Arabic, divided on structural grounds into an eastern branch, Juba Arabic and (Ki-)Nubi, and a western branch, Turku and Bongor Arabic in Chad.[3](https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/e27ce42a-845f-2581-e053-d805fe0acbaa/tosco_intro_4aperto.pdf) Bimbashi Arabic sits at the head of the eastern branch as the predecessor idiom of Juba Arabic; descendants include Nubi in Uganda and Kibera-Nubi in Kenya.[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf) Kinubi is the only fully creolized Arabic-lexifier variety, a native language for its entire speech community, with the largest communities in Bombo in Uganda, Nairobi's Kibera, and Mombasa.[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1)
By the numbers. Juba Arabic is spoken as a primary language by 47% of the population of Juba, South Sudan's capital, and as a second or third language by most of the country's population.[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1) Kenyan and Ugandan Kinubi have been strongly influenced by Swahili, the two languages having been in contact for more than a century, with the influence reaching not only the lexicon but the phonology as well.[6](https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/15699870/29/2)
The contrast with Sudanese Arabic proper is structural: the descendant creoles differ dramatically from their lexical source in structure while drawing nearly all of their vocabulary from it.[5](https://benjamins.com/catalog/jpcl.29.2.03owe) Varieties of restructured Arabic still figure less prominently in the general literature on pidgins and creoles.[7](https://journals.unibuc.ro/index.php/roar/en/article/view/2097)
## Documentation and sources
Bimbashi Arabic is only insufficiently documented, and this scarcity hampers the study of lexical strata, including Ottoman and Turkish loanwords, in Juba Arabic and its descendant varieties.[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf) The study of the Arabic-lexified pidgins also suffers from loose labeling, as Mauro Tosco and Stefano Manfredi have pointed out: varieties of Arabic have often been defined as 'pidgins' or 'creoles' with little if any sociolinguistic or linguistic evidence, a criticism that applies directly to a sparsely attested variety such as Bimbashi Arabic.[3](https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/e27ce42a-845f-2581-e053-d805fe0acbaa/tosco_intro_4aperto.pdf)
## Legacy and fate
The Mahdist revolt, which started in 1881, ended Turkish-Egyptian control over Equatoria. Fleeing slave soldiers became the backbone of the British King's African Rifles; some of the troops remained in Uganda while others were moved to Kenya and Tanzania, and this dispersal led to the dialectal division between Ugandan and Kenyan Kinubi.[4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1) Its continuations are the creoles Juba Arabic in [South Sudan](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-sudan) and Nubi in Uganda and Kenya, with the later spread of the ancestor pidgin dated ca. 1870–1920.[1](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf) • [4](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1)
## References
1. [Michael Knüppel, Prolegomena to a study of Ottoman and Turkish loanwords in Juba Arabic](https://bitig.ogu.edu.tr/Storage/bitig/Uploads/1.-MICHAEL-KNUPPEL-MATBAA-PRINT.pdf)
2. [UNESCO document on the origins of Nubi and Juba Arabic](https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/00141-EN.pdf)
3. [Mauro Tosco and Stefano Manfredi, introduction to the Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages special issue on Arabic-derived contact languages](https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/e27ce42a-845f-2581-e053-d805fe0acbaa/tosco_intro_4aperto.pdf)
4. [Arabic pidgins and creoles, Language Science Press (open-access chapter)](https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/235/1817/1843-1)
5. [Jonathan Owens, The morphologization of an Arabic creole, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29:2](https://benjamins.com/catalog/jpcl.29.2.03owe)
6. [Arabic-based Pidgins and Creoles, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29:2 (John Benjamins)](https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/15699870/29/2)
7. [Arabic pidgins and creoles from a comparative perspective, Romano-arabica](https://journals.unibuc.ro/index.php/roar/en/article/view/2097)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Languages and linguistics › Languages and dialects › Pidgins, creoles, and contact languages › Pidgins and rudimentary contact varieties › Arabic-, Swahili-, and Bantu-lexified pidgins*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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