Symbols
54Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Alphabet
The Latin letters used to write Masalit, in alphabetical order, with ŋ (the ng of sing) after n. Masalit spelling follows community orthography guides rather than a state standard; these are the plain Latin letters in the 2013 Massalit Orthography Guide, which has no p, q, v or x.
Punctuation
Curly quotation marks and the apostrophe.
Where it's spoken
Dar Masalit in West Darfur, Sudan, and eastern Chad across the border.
Dar Masalit
The millet and sorghum harvest, and the Masalit sultanate of El Geneina.
On the map
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Masalit language letters: the Latin alphabet and ŋ
Masalit is the language of the Masalit people of West Darfur in Sudan and of neighbouring eastern Chad. It has no script of its own, and its Latin spelling is set out in community orthography guides rather than a state standard. When it is written in Latin letters, as in grammars, word lists and literacy work, the ordinary Latin letters, without p, q, v and x, cover most of it, but the 2013 Massalit Orthography Guide also lists accented vowels, n̰, ŋ and digraphs such as mb, nd and ŋg. That sound is written with ŋ, called eng, and its capital Ŋ.
The 2013 Massalit Orthography Guide lists 34 letters, including accented vowels and consonant digraphs, and places ŋ after n̰ and before ŋg. This page shows the plain Latin letters that list uses, plus Ŋ ŋ, so it is not a complete copy of that orthography. Eng is encoded as U014B (small ŋ) and U014A (capital Ŋ) in Unicode's Latin Extended-A block, so it works in ordinary fonts on phones and computers.
In daily life most Masalit speakers also speak Arabic—Sudanese Arabic in Sudan and Chadian Arabic in Chad. In Chad, French and Arabic are both official languages used in education and administration. For Arabic letters and punctuation see our Arabic and Sudanese Arabic collections.
How to type ŋ on a keyboard, Mac or iPhone
The quickest way is to copy ŋ or Ŋ from this page. In Microsoft Word on Windows, type 014B and press AltX for ŋ, or 014A and AltX for Ŋ. On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with ControlCommandSpace and search for "eng", or add the Unicode Hex Input source and type 014B while holding Option. In HTML, write ŋ and Ŋ, or ŋ and Ŋ.
Phone keyboards do not offer ŋ on a long-press of n, so set up a text replacement once. On an iPhone, go to Settings General Keyboard Text Replacement; on Android, use your keyboard's personal dictionary. Paste ŋ as the phrase and pick a short trigger such as ngg.
Watch the look-alikes: ŋ is not the Greek η (eta), and it is not ɲ, the phonetic symbol for the ny of canyon. Only the real U014B sorts and searches as eng.
Where the Masalit language is spoken
The Masalit homeland is Dar Masalit, the land of the Masalit, around El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, close to the border with Chad. Unicode's CLDR estimates about 500,000 speakers in Sudan. Masalit is also spoken on the Chadian side of the border, in the Ouaddaï region around Adré, and the wars in Darfur since 2003, and again since 2023, have driven many Masalit families into refugee camps in eastern Chad.
Dar Masalit was a sultanate of its own, ruled from El Geneina, and it was one of the last parts of the region to come under colonial rule, joining Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the early 1920s. The Masalit still have a sultan as a traditional leader, though Sultan Saad Bahr al-Din fled to Chad in 2023. The Masalit are Muslims, mostly farmers of millet and sorghum, and many keep cattle and goats.
Masalit belongs to the small Maban family of Nilo-Saharan languages; its best-known relative is Maba, the language of the old Wadai sultanate in eastern Chad. Its Darfur neighbours include Fur and Zaghawa, which have their own collections, as do Sudan and Chad for the flags and each country's emoji.
Is there a Masalit flag emoji?
No. Most emoji flags use two regional-indicator symbols for a country or territory: is S D for Sudan and is T D for Chad. The England, Scotland and Wales flags use recognized tag sequences; Masalit has no flag emoji of its own, so posts usually use , , or both beside the name Dar Masalit.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyMasalit Language Letters combos
9Worth knowing
- Masalit has no emoji flag of its own: most emoji flags use two-letter regional codes, while the England, Scotland and Wales subdivision flags use tag sequences; Masalit posts borrow and .
- In 1910 Masalit forces defeated French colonial columns coming from Chad, and Dar Masalit stayed independent for another decade before joining Sudan.
- Masalit is related not to Fur, its neighbour in Darfur, but to Maba, the language of the old Wadai sultanate on the Chadian side of the border.
Questions people ask
7What alphabet does the Masalit language use?
The 2013 Massalit Orthography Guide lists a Latin alphabet with accented vowels and consonant letters such as n̰ and ŋ, plus digraphs such as mb, nd and ŋg.
Where is the Masalit language spoken?
In Dar Masalit around El Geneina, West Darfur, in western Sudan, and in eastern Chad around Adré, including the refugee camps there. CLDR estimates about 500,000 speakers in Sudan.
What language do the Masalit tribe speak?
Masalit, a Maban language of the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Masalit also speak Arabic: Sudanese Arabic in Sudan and Chadian Arabic in Chad.
Are Masalit people Muslim?
Yes. The Masalit are Muslims, and Islam has long shaped the culture and history of Dar Masalit, a sultanate until the early twentieth century.
Is there a Masalit flag emoji?
No. Most emoji flags use two regional-indicator letters for countries or territories; England, Scotland and Wales have tag-sequence flags. People use the flag of Sudan , of Chad , or both.
How to type ŋ on keyboard?
In Word, type 014B and press AltX (014A for capital Ŋ). On a Mac, search "eng" in the Character Viewer . In HTML, use ŋ or ŋ. Or copy it from this page.
How to type ŋ on iPhone?
The iPhone keyboard has no ŋ. Copy it from this page and save it once as a Text Replacement (Settings General Keyboard Text Replacement) with a shortcut such as ngg.
