Beja language

Beja
Bidhaawyeet, Tubdhaawi, تُبڈاوِ
Native toSudan, Eritrea, Egypt
RegionRed Sea
EthnicityBeja
Native speakers
2.76 million (2022–2023)[1]
Early forms
DialectsHadendoa
Hadareb
Amarar
Bisharin
Beni-Amer
Latin alphabet (limited use)
Arabic alphabet (limited use)
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-2bej
ISO 639-3bej
Glottologbeja1238

Beja (Bidhaawyeet or Tubdhaawi) is an Afroasiatic language of the Cushitic branch spoken on the western coast of the Red Sea by the Beja people. Its speakers inhabit parts of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea. In 2022 there were 2,550,000 Beja speakers in Sudan, and 121,000 Beja speakers in Eritrea according to Ethnologue. As of 2023 there are an estimated 88,000 Beja speakers in Egypt. The total number of speakers in all three countries is 2,759,000.[2]

  1. ^ Beja at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Beja". Ethnologue. Retrieved 11 September 2023.

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