Kordofanian languages

Infobox Language family
name=Kordofanian
region=Kordofan
familycolor=Niger-Congo
fam1=Niger-Congo
child1=Kadu (in Nilo-Saharan)
child2=Katla-Rashad (outer Niger-Congo)
child3=Talodi-Heiban (in Atlantic-Congo)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 and Heiban languages have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Atlantic-Congo core of Niger-Congo, but that the Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system, whereas the Kadu languages and some of the Rashad languages appear to have acquired noun classes as part of a Sprachbund rather than having inherited them. He concludes that the Kordofanian languages do not form a genealogical group, but that Talodi and Heiban are core Niger-Congo whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch along the lines of Mande.

Bibliography

* Herman Bell. 1995. [http://www.hf-fak.uib.no/institutter/smi/sa/tan/Nuba.html 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 Unpublished. [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/Niger-Congo%20reconstruction/Kordofanian%20and%20Niger-Congo.pdf 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

* [http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/pub/alda/sudan/KATCHA~1.DOC Katcha-English Dictionary] (one of the Kadu languages)
* [http://www.nubamountains.com The Nuba Mountains Homepage]