Juba Arabic In the last several weeks with the surge of interest in this article caused by the country s independence one or more editors have repeatedly inserted claims that exaggerate the importance of any variety of the Arabic language in the demographic makeup of South Sudan Arabic is not an indigenous language there at least not in a normal sense And the Ethnologue claims only about 30 000 speakers of Juba Arabic which is well under one percent of the country s population Sudananese Colloquial Arabic is definitely not an indigenous language it belongs to the neighboring Sudan Knowledge of either Sudanese Colloquial Arabic or of Modern Standard Arabic as second languages is not an ethnographic fact not a demographic fact In articles on other countries say European ones one doesn t report the widespread proficiency in English in the sections on ethnic composition and language communities Do likewise for South Sudan