South Sudan

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English in South Sudan

dusseaux.antoine_289191, Thu, 2022-12-22 11:06
Regarding: 
Language Counts
Country: 
South Sudan

It seems that English has been the medium of instruction in what is now South Sudan since 1972, with many attempts (some successful?) to re-introduce Arabic.

The literacy rate is 38% (UNESCO 2018) among people ages 15 and above. According to the World Bank, in 2021 there were: 6,324,219 people aged 15-64 and 375,000 aged 65 and above.

So we have 2.3 million literate people aged 15 and above. Are these people English speakers?

arb in South Sudan

dusseaux.antoine_289191, Thu, 2022-12-22 10:57
Regarding: 
Language Counts
Country: 
South Sudan

What's the source giving 3,130,000 Standard Arabic speakers in South Sudan?

Standard Arabic has no official status. There are 345,000 Sudanese Arabic speakers and 1,447,000 Juba Arabic speakers. So a total of 1.8 million native Arabic speakers.

Certainly, the number of Standard Arabic users (a language only acquired through formal education) cannot be higher than that of native Arabic speakers.

Similarly, it seems that English has been the medium of instruction in South Sudan since 1972, so it should have more speakers than Standard Arabic.

Editorial Action

No action taken, at the present time.  This is tied into the decision that needs to be made about Standard Arabic [arb] in all the countries where it is spoken.