Linguistic Studies

Early Explorer Documentation

The earliest explicit documentation of the Beja language appeared in the first two decades of the nineteenth century at the hands of European explorers:

• Ulrich Jasper Seetzen's collection of 737 words, published posthumously as Wörterverzeichniss aus der Sprache von Szauaken in Johann Severin Vater's Proben Deutscher Volks-Mundarten, Dr. Seetzen’s linguistischer Nachlass, und andere Sprach-Forschungen und Sammlungen, besonders über Ostindien
• Henry Salt's wordlist from his A Voyage to Abyssinia, and Travels into the Interior of that Country, Executed Under Orders of the British Government, in the Years 1809 and 1810; in which are Included, an Account of the Portuguese Settlements on the East Coast of Africa, Visited in the Course of the Voyage; a Concise Narrative of Late Events in Arabia Felix; and Some Particulars Respecting the Aboriginal African Tribes, Extending from Mosambique to the Borders of Egypt; together with Vocabularies of their Respective Languages
• John Lewis Burckhardt's wordlist from his Travels in Nubia

Modern Grammars

The twenty-first century has seen two print grammars of the Beja language:

• A Learner's Grammar of Beja (East Sudan) by Klaus and Charlotte Wedekind and Abuzeinab Musa
• Le Bedja by Martine Vanhove