Kordofanian languages

Kordofanian
Geographic distribution	Kordofan
Linguistic classification	Niger-Congo Kordofanian
Subdivisions	Kadu Talodi Katla Heiban Rashad

The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of languages spoken in the Nuba hills of Kordofan Province, Sudan. In 1963 Joseph Greenberg added them to the Niger-Congo family, creating his Niger-Kordofanian proposal. The Kordofanian languages have not been shown to be more distantly related than other branches of Niger-Congo, however, nor have they been shown to constitute a valid group, and today they are usually included in Niger-Congo proper. Since Schadeberg 1981c, the "Tumtum" or Kadu branch is now widely seen as Nilo-Saharan. The remaining languages form four clearly valid groups:

• the Heiban languages, also called Koalib or Koalib-Moro: Ko, Warnang, Rere, Otoro, Logol, Heiban (Ebang), Laro, Shwai (Shirumba), Tiro, Moro
• the Talodi languages, also called Talodi-Masakin or Lafofa: Tegem, Lafofa, El Amira, Nding, Talodi (Jomang), Tocho, Acheron, Lumun, Torona, Ngile, Dagik (Dengebu)
• the Rashad languages, also called Tegali-Tagoi: Rashad, Tegali, Tumali, Moreb, Tagoi, Turjuk, Tingal, Tukum, Turum
• the Katla languages: Katla, Tima

Roger Blench notes that the Talodi languages have the prototypical noun-class system of core Niger-Congo, but that the Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system, while some of the Rashad and Kadu languages appear to have acquired noun classes as part of a Sprachbund. He concludes that the Kordofanian languages do not form a genealogical group, but that Talodi is core Niger-Congo whereas Katla is a peripheral branch along the lines of Mande.

Bibliography

• Herman Bell. 1995. The Nuba Mountains: Who Spoke What in 1976?. Being a study of the published results from a major project of the Institute of African and Asian Studies: the Language Survey of the Nuba Mountains.
• Roger Blench. Unpublished. Kordofanian and Niger-Congo: an evaluation of the evidence.
• P. A. and D. N. MacDiarmid. 1931. "The languages of the Nuba Mountains." Sudan Notes and Records 14: 149-162.
• Carl Meinhof. 1915-1919. "Sprachstudien im egyptischen Sudan". Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen 9-9. "1. Tagoy." 6: 164-161. "2. Tumale". 6:182-205. "11. Tegele." 7:110-131. "12. Rashad." 7:132.
• Thilo C. Schadeberg. 1981a. A survey of Kordofanian. SUGIA Beiheft 1-2. Hamburg:Helmut Buske Verlag.
• Thilo C. Schadeberg. 1981b. "Das Kordofanische". Die Sprachen Afrikas. Band 1: Niger-Kordofanisch, ed. by Bernt Heine, T. C. Schadeberg, Ekkehard Wolff, pp. 117-28 SUGIA Beiheft 1-2. Hamburg:Helmut Buske Verlag.
• Thilo C. Schadeberg. 1981c. "The classification of the Kadugli language group". Nilo-Saharan, ed. by T. C. Schadeberg and M. Lionel Bender, pp. 291-305. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
• Brenda Z. Seligmann. 1910-11. "Note on the language of the Nubas of Southern Kordofan." Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen 1:167-188.
• Roland C. Stevenson. 1956-57. "A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba Mountains languages, with particular reference to Otoro, Katcha, and Nyimang." Afrika und Übersee 40:73-84, 93-115; 41:27-65, 117-152, 171-196.
• A. N. Tucker and M. A. Bryan. 1956. The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. (Handbook of African Languages, Part III.) Oxford University Press: London.
• A. N. Tucker and M. A. Bryan. 1966. Linguistic Analyses/The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. (Handbook of African Languages.) Oxford University Press: London.
• Lorenz Tutschek. 1848. "Über die Tumale-Sprache." Gelehrte Anzeigen, herausgegeben von Mitgliedern der k. bayer. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nrs. 91-93; Spalten 729-52. (=Bulletin der königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nrs. 29-31.)
• Lorenz Tutschek. 1848-50. "On the Tumali language". Proceedings of the Philological Society for 1846-47 and 1847-48. Vol 3:239-54. Proceedings of the Philological Society for 1848-49 and 1849-50. Vol. 4:138-9.

External links

• Katcha-English Dictionary (one of the Kadu languages)
• The Nuba Mountains Homepage