Talodi–Heiban languages
| Talodi–Heiban | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Nuba Hills, Sudan |
| Linguistic classification | Niger–Congo?
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The Talodi–Heiban languages are two relatively closely related[1] language families of the erstwhile Kordofanian branch of Niger–Congo that had been posited by Joseph Greenberg (1963): Talodi, also called Talodi–Masakin, and Heiban, also called Koalib or Koalib–Moro.
Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo core of Niger–Congo, but that the Katla languages (another putative branch of Kordofanian) 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–Heiban is core Niger–Congo, whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch (or perhaps branches) along the lines of Mande. The Kadu languages may be Nilo-Saharan.
Lafofa (Tegem), sometimes classified as a divergent Talodi language, has a different set of cognates with other Niger–Congo and has been placed in its own branch.
Talodi–Heiban
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See also
Notes
- ^ Gerrit Dimmendaal, 2008. "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5:842.
- Roger Blench. Unpublished. Kordofanian and Niger–Congo: new and revised lexical evidence.
- Roger Blench, 2011, Should Kordofanian be split up?, Nuba Hills Conference, Leiden