The Northern Eastern Sudanic, Eastern ''k'' Sudanic, ''Ek'' Sudanic, NNT or Astaboran languages may form a primary division of the proposed
Eastern Sudanic family. They are characterised by having a /
k/ in the first person singular pronoun "I/me", as opposed to the
Southern Eastern Sudanic languages, which have an /
n/.
Nyima has yet to be conclusively linked to the other languages, and would appear to be the closest relative of ''Ek'' Sudanic rather than ''Ek'' Sudanic proper.
The most well-known language of this group is
Nubian. According to
Claude Rilly
Claude Rilly (born November 4, 1959) is a French linguist, Egyptologist, and archaeologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research who primarily specializes in Meroitic and Nilo-Saharan languages. He is professor at the École prati ...
, the ancient
Meroitic language
The Meroitic language () was a language of uncertain linguistic affiliation spoken in Meroë (in present-day Sudan) during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BC) and became extinct about 400 AD. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic al ...
appears on limited evidence to be closely related to the languages of this group.
A reconstruction of Proto-Northern Eastern Sudanic has also been proposed by Rilly (2010).
Internal classification
Rilly (2009:2)
provides the following internal structure for the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages.
*Northern East Sudanic
**
Nyima: Nyimang, Afitti
**
Taman
Taman may refer to: Places Africa
* Taman, Togo, a town in Bassar Prefecture
Asia
*Taman, Nepal
* Taman, Pemalang, a district in Pemalang Regency, Central Java
*Taman, a district in Madiun, East Java, Indonesia
*Taman, a district in Sidoarjo Re ...
: Tama, Mararit
**Nara-Nubian
***
Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
***Meroitic-Nubian
****
Meroitic
****
Nubian
*****Western Nubian
******Birgid
******Midob, Kordofan Nubian
*****Nile Nubian
******Old Dongolawi, Kenuzi, Dongolawi
******Old Nubian, Nobiin
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 the
Maban languages
The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have been included in the hypothetical Nilo-Saharan languages, Nilo-Saharan language family.
Maban languages are spoken in eastern Chad, the Central African Republic and western Sudan (Da ...
may be closely related.
[Blench, Roger. 2021. ]
The Maban languages and their place within Nilo-Saharan
'.
See also
*
List of Northern Eastern Sudanic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
*
*
*
{{Eastern Sudanic languages
Eastern Sudanic languages
Proposed language families