Eastern Sudanic languages
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The Eastern Sudanic languages form a family of languages spoken from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania, usually considered a subfamily of Nilo-Saharan, following Joseph Greenberg. Its members are:
To these, Christopher Ehret controversially adds Berta. Other possible but unconfirmed members are Meroitic and Oropom.
Nubian (and possibly Meroitic) give Eastern Sudanic the earliest written attestations of any sub-Saharan African language; however, its 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 (although the name refers to the region of Sudan, not the country, as opposed to Central Sudanic.)
Lionel Bender (1980) proposes several Eastern Sudanic isoglosses, such as "mouth" *kutuk, "three" *(ko)TVS-(Vg), "fish" *ku-lug-ut, *kVl(t).
Subclassifications
Bender 1982 (as described by Ruhlen 1987, and followed by the Ethnologue):
- Eastern branch:
- * Nubian
- * Surma
- * Nara
- * Eastern Jebel
- Western branch:
- * Nyimang
- * Temein
- * Tama
- * Daju
- Nilotic
- Kuliak
- Astaboran
- * Nara
- * Western Astaboran
- ** Nubian
- ** Taman
- Kir-Abbaian
- * Jebel
- ** Eastern Jebel
- ** Berta
- * Kir
- ** Nuba Mountains (ie Nyimang)
- ** Daju
- ** Surma-Nilotic
- *** Surmic (ie Surma)
- *** Nilotic
- Rub languages (ie Kuliak)
Sources
- M. L. Bender. "Some Nilo-Saharan isoglosses". ed. Thilo Schadeberg, M. L. Bender, Nilo-Saharan: Proceedings of the First Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Leiden, Sept. 8-10, 1980. Foris: Dordrecht 1981.
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