// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Dagik language say to its student? "You dagik it?

Dagik
Dhaduwa
Native to	Sudan
Region	Nuba Hills
Ethnicity	Mesakin
Native speakers	67,000 (2022)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Kordofanian Talodi–Heiban Talodi Ngile–Dengebu Dagik
Dialects	Arreme Adobu Tosari
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dec
Glottolog	dagi1241

Dagik, or Dengebu, Dagig, Thakik, Buram, Reikha, is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Sudan. It is 80% lexically similar to Ngile, which is also spoken by the Mesakin people.

The most comprehensive grammar is that of Vanderelst (2016).

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t̪	t			k
Fricative	(f)		s				(h)
Nasal	m	n̪	n			ŋ
Rhotic			r	ɽ
Approximant	w		l		j

• Sounds /p, t̪, t, k/ can have intervocalic allophones as sonorants [β, ð, ɾ, ɣ], and voiced allophones [b, d̪, d, ɡ] when after nasals.
• Sounds [f, h] only have marginal status.
• /r/ can also be heard as a tap [ɾ] allophone.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open	a

• /u/ can also assimilate to a close-mid [o] in different environments.