The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of five language groups spoken in the Nuba Mountains of the South Kordofan region of Sudan: Talodi–Heiban languages, Lafofa languages, Rashad languages, Katla languages and Kadu languages. The first four groups are sometimes regarded as branches of the hypothetical Niger–Congo family, whereas Kadu is now widely seen as a branch of the proposed Nilo-Saharan family.

History

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, and they have not been shown to constitute a valid group. Today, the Kadu languages are excluded, and the others are usually included in Niger–Congo proper. 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 two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system. However, 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. Blench concludes that Talodi and Heiban are core Niger–Congo whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch along the lines of Mande. Heiban, Katloid, and Talodi are also grouped together in an automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013). However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Talodi–Heiban languages

The Heiban languages, also called Koalib or Koalib–Moro, and the Talodi languages, also called Talodi–Masakin, are part of the Talodi–Heiban group.

Lafofa languages

Lafofa (Tegem) was for a time classified with Talodi, but appears to be a separate branch of Niger–Congo.

Rashad languages

The number of Rashad languages, also called Tegali–Tagoi, varies among descriptions, from two (Williamson & Blench 2000), three (Ethnologue), to eight (Blench ms). Tagoi has a noun-class system like the Atlantic–Congo languages, which is apparently borrowed, but Tegali does not.

Katla languages

The two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had a Niger–Congo-type noun-class system.

Kadu languages

Since the work of Thilo C. Schadeberg in 1981, the "Tumtum" or Kadu branch is now widely seen as Nilo-Saharan.

Reconstruction

Quint (2020) suggests that Proto-Kordofanian can be reconstructed from the Heibanian, Talodian, Rashadian, Katloid, and Lafofa languages. His Proto-Kordofanian reconstructions are as follows:

Lexical isoglosses

Starostin (2018) lists the following common lexical isoglosses in the Kordofanian languages. Potential cognates are highlighted in bold. ! Proto-language ! eye ! bone ! egg ! tooth ! ear ! tongue ! head ! I ! thou ! Proto-Heiban ! Proto-Talodi ! (Proto-)Lafofa ! Proto-Katla-Tima ! Proto-Rashad ! Proto-Kadu

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary of the Heiban, Talodi, Rashad, and Lafofa branches: Note: In table cells with slashes, the singular form is given before the slash, while the plural form follows the slash.

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages: