[2] Two or more major groups of each of the three families are present in Sudan, historically both a north–south and an east–west migration crossroads.

[2] Cushitic, another major branch of Afro-Asiatic, is represented by Bedawiye (with several dialects), spoken by the largely nomadic Beja people.

Chadic, a third Afro-Asiatic branch, is represented by its most important single language, Hausa, a West African tongue used in Nigeria by the Hausa people and employed by many other West Africans in Sudan as a lingua franca.

[2] Although some Muslims might become acquainted with classical Arabic in the course of rudimentary religious schooling, very few except the most educated know it by rote.

[2] This may also be the case elsewhere in rural Sudan, where villagers and nomads speak a local dialect of Arabic.

[2] The Kordofanian stock comprises only 30 to 40 languages spoken in a limited area of Sudan—the Nuba Mountains and their environs.

[2] The designation of a Nilo-Saharan superstock has not been fully accepted by linguists, and its constituent groups and subgroups are not firmly fixed, in part because many of the languages have not been well studied.

[2] In the early 1970s in the South, the first two years of primary school were taught in the local language.

[2] This policy was reversed by provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 that were incorporated into Sudan's Interim National Constitution.