Masalit language

[Image:Darfur Linguistic Map.svg|thumb|right|Linguistic map of the non-Arab peoples of Darfur, showing the extent of the Masalit language in Sudan.]
Masalit is a Nilo-Saharan language of the Maban language group spoken by the Masalit people in Ouaddaï Region, Chad and West Darfur, Sudan.
Masalit, known as the Massalat, moved west into central-eastern Chad. Their ethnic population in Chad was as of the 1993 census, but only 10 speakers of their language were reported in 1991.

Phonology

Consonants

It has been stated that occasional click sounds and may occur, however; they are considered to be rare.
Sounds can occur as geminated.
Sounds /t, m, n, ŋ/ can occur as palatalized before front vowels.
only occur as a result of words of Arabic origin.
is not a phonemic sound, and is only heard before word-initial vowels.
Sounds only occur in word-initial position.

Sociolects

The Masalit language has two sociolects:

"Heavy" Masalit, spoken by higher-ranking people and those in the countryside, with a complicated agglutinative grammar
"Light" Masalit, spoken particularly in the home and in the market, with a somewhat simplified grammatical structure and many borrowings from Sudanese Arabic, the regional lingua franca and language of education.