The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan family. Maban languages are spoken in eastern

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

and western

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

( Darfur).

Languages

The Maban branch includes the following languages: *

Mimi of Nachtigal Mimi of Nachtigal, or Mimi-N, is a language of Chad that is attested only in a word list labelled " Mimi" that was collected ca. 1870 by Gustav Nachtigal. Nachtigal's data was subsequently published by Lukas & Voelckers (1938). Classification ...

* Kenjeje (Yaali, Faranga) * Masalit: Surbakhal,

Masalit The Masalit (Masalit language, Masalit: ''masala/masara''; ar, ماساليت) are an ethnic group inhabiting western Sudan and eastern Chad. They speak the Masalit language Overview The Masalit primarily live in Geneina, the capital of west Darfu ...

* Aiki (Runga and Kibet, sometimes considered separate languages) * Mabang: Karanga,

Marfa Marfa may refer to: Music * Marfa (instrument), an African percussion instrument * Marfa (music), celebratory music of the Hyderabadi Muslims Places * Márfa, a village in Baranya county, Hungary * Marfa, Chad * Marfa, Texas, a city in the hi ...

, Maba The languages attested in two word lists labelled " Mimi", collected by Decorse (

Mimi-D Mimi of Decorse, also known as Mimi of Gaudefroy-Demombynes and Mimi-D, is a language of Chad that is attested only in a word list labelled " Mimi" that was collected ca. 1900 by G. J. Decorse and published by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes. Joseph ...

) and Nachtigal ( Mimi-N), have also been classified as Maban, though this has been contested. Mimi-N appears to have been remotely related to Maban proper, while Mimi-D appears to have not been Maban at all, with the similarities due to language contact with locally dominant Maba. Blench (2021) gives the following classification: *Proto-Maban **?

**Aiki-Kibet *** Aiki (= Runga) ***Kibet **core branch *** Kendeje ***

, Surbakhal ***Maban (= Mabang) **** Karanga ****

**** Maba

External relationships

Based on morphological evidence such as tripartite number marking on nominals,

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...

(2021) suggests that closest relatives of the Maban languages may be the

Eastern Sudanic languages In most classifications, the Eastern Sudanic languages are a group of nine families of languages that may constitute a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Eastern Sudanic languages are spoken from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania. Nu ...

, especially the

Taman languages The Taman languages form a putative branch of the Eastern Sudanic language family spoken in Chad and Sudan, though ''Glottolog'' notes that "no conclusive, methodologically sound basis for assigning Tama to Eastern Sudanic" has been presented ...

, which form a branch within Northern Eastern Sudanic. Maban also shares lexical similarities with the Fur languages,

Saharan languages The Saharan languages are a small family of languages across parts of the eastern Sahara, extending from northwestern Darfur to southern Libya, north and central Chad, eastern Niger and northeastern Nigeria. Noted Saharan languages include Kanuri ...

, and even

Songhay languages The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, ...

, but generally has more lexical matches with

Comparative vocabulary

Blench (2021) posits the following consonants for proto-Maban: Vowels likely were

ATR ATR may refer to: Medicine * Acute transfusion reaction * Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related, a protein involved in DNA damage repair Science and mathematics * Advanced Test Reactor, nuclear research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, ...

pairs, with at least *a *ɛ *e *i *ɔ *o *u and possibly *ɪ *ʊ, plus length. There were likely two register tones plus the possibility of contour tones on long vowels. Sample basic vocabulary for Maban languages:

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

References

*Calvain Mbernodji, Katharina Wolf. 2008. ''Une enquête sociolinguistique des parlers Kibet, Rounga, Daggal et Mourro du Tchad''. SIL International.

External links

*G. Starostin, 2011
On Mimi
{{Authority control Language families Languages of Chad Languages of South Sudan Languages of Sudan