Eastern Sudanic languages

Eastern Sudanic languages

Eastern Sudanic
Geographic
distribution:

Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo (DRC)

Linguistic classification: Nilo-Saharan?

Eastern Sudanic

Subdivisions:

Astaboran (k languages)
KirAbbaian (n languages)

Ethnologue code:

17-742

ISO 639-5:

sdv

[1]

In modern classifications, the Eastern

Sudanic languages are a large family
of languages which constitute a branch
of the Nilo-Saharan language family.
Eastern Sudanic languages are spoken
from southern Egypt to northern
Tanzania.
Nubian (and possibly Meroitic) gives
Eastern Sudanic some of the earliest
written
attestations
of
African
languages. However, the largest branch
by far is Nilotic, spread by extensive
and comparatively recent conquests
throughout East Africa. Before the
spread of Nilotic, Eastern Sudanic was
centered in present-day Sudan. The
name "East Sudanic" refers to the
eastern part of the region of Sudan
where the country of Sudan is located,
and contrasts with Central Sudanic and
West Sudanic (modern Mande, in the
NigerCongo family).

Eastern Sudanic languages:

* Group k (northesastern sudanic languages) (orange)
* Group n (southesastern sudanic languages) (yellow)

Lionel Bender (1980) proposes several

Eastern Sudanic isoglosses (defining words), such as *kutuk "mouth", *(ko)TVS-(Vg) "three", and *ku-lug-ut or
*kVl(t) "fish".
In older classifications, such as that of Meinhof (1911), the term was used for the eastern branch of the Sudanic
languages, and was largely equivalent to modern Nilo-Saharan sans the Nilotic languages, which are the largest
constituent of modern Eastern Sudanic.

Eastern Sudanic languages

Internal classification
There are two recent classifications of East Sudanic languages. The one followed by other historical linguists is
Bender 2000.
Bender 2000
Bender assigns the languages into two branches, depending on whether the 1sg pronoun ("I") has a /k/ or an /n/:

Nubian
Northern
(klanguages)

Nara
Nyima
Taman

Eastern
Sudanic

Surmic
Eastern Jebel
Southern
(nlanguages)

Temein (Nuba Hills)

Daju
Nilotic

Ehret 2001 [1984]

Ehret, published in 2001 but circulating in manuscript form since at least 1984, calls the family "Eastern Sahelian",
and idiosyncratically adds the Kuliak languages and Berta, which Bender assigns to higher-level branches of
Nilo-Saharan, and reassigns Nyima to the southern branch. No evidence has been published for any of these
assignments, and they have not been picked up by other linguists. For example, (Blench 2007) Wikipedia:Please
clarify calls the reassignment of Nyima to the Temein family "a classification which suggests the author has not
seriously considered all the relevant data (none of which is referenced in the bibliography)".

Eastern Sudanic languages

Nara (Barea)
Astaboran

Western
Astaboran

Nubian
Taman

Kuliak ("Rub")

Eastern
Sahelian

Jebel

Eastern Jebel (Tabi)

Berta

Temein (including Nyima)

KirAbbaian

Daju
Kir
Surma
Nilotic

Surmic
Nilotic

Sources
Bender, M. Lionel. 2000. "Nilo-Saharan". In: Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (eds.), African Languages: An
Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Bender, M. Lionel. 1981. "Some Nilo-Saharan isoglosses". In: Thilo Schadeberg, M. L. Bender (eds.),
Nilo-Saharan: Proceedings of the First Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Leiden, Sept.8-10,1980.
Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
Temein languages [2] (Roger Blench, 2007).
Ehret, Christopher. 2001. A historical-comparative reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan. Kln: Rudiger Kppe.

References
[1] http:/ / www. ethnologue. com/ family/ 17-742
[2] http:/ / www. rogerblench. info/ Language/ Nilo-Saharan/ Eastern%20Sudanic/ Temein%20cluster/ Temein%20languages%20paper. pdf

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Eastern Sudanic languages Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=570181330 Contributors: Antime, Azalea pomp, Davius, Dhegiha, DrumstickJuggler, Falcon8765, Florian
Blaschke, Hibernian, Kwamikagami, Landroving Linguist, MacedonianBoy, Mark Dingemanse, Mustafaa, Nnemo, Pete unseth, Sl, Ulric1313, 10 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Eastern Sudanic Languages.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Eastern_Sudanic_Languages.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Davius

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