A Contrastive Study in Sentence Construction between English and Nubian Languages
Dr. Ibrahim Al Faki

Abstract
This study focuses on analyzing and contrasting sentence construction in both Nubian and English languages. The study intends to find out the potential productivities of these processes for pedagogical purposes, which may prove to be useful for Nubian native and how Nubian English language teachers may benefit from it in teaching English language .The data of this study have been collected from two important sources: The literature which has been written on Nubian language and a sample of Nubian speakers . The literature reviewed covers: the geography of the area where Nubian people live , a description of the Nubian syntax, classification and distribution of the Nubian languages , the contrastive analysis process , and finally some previous studies. The findings reveal that English and Nubian languages have similarities as well as differences. These can be summarized as follows: The points of similarities are as follows: The two languages have similar elements to construct a sentence. Both languages use coordination to construct compound and complex sentences and both language have equivalent conjunctions. Both languages have equivalent pronouns to construct (WH) questions. Ellipsis exists in the two languages. Points of differences between the two languages: The two languages have different syntactic order of elements in sentence construction .Coordinators in English convey shades of meaning, whereas in the Nubian language they cannot do so. Ellipsis in the Nubian language does not result in an ambiguous sentence. The coordinator appears in the middle of the sentence in English. The presence of more than one coordinator may result in an ambiguous sentence. In Nubian languages the coordinator appears after the nominal in each clause and no ambiguous sentence may result.

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