The Kadu languages, also known as Kadugli–Krongo or Tumtum, are a small
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
of the
Kordofanian
The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of five language groups spoken in the Nuba Mountains of the Kurdufan, Sudan: Talodi–Heiban languages, Lafofa languages, Rashad languages, Katla languages and Kadu languages. The first fou ...
geographic grouping, once included in
Niger–Congo. However, since
Thilo Schadeberg (1981), Kadu is widely seen as
Nilo-Saharan
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. ...
. Evidence for a Niger-Congo affiliation is rejected, and a Nilo-Saharan relationship is controversial. A conservative classification would treat the Kadu languages as an independent family.
Classification
Blench (2006) notes that Kadu languages share similarities with multiple African language phyla, including Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan, suggesting a complex history of linguistic convergence and contact. However, more recently, Blench states that Kadu is almost certainly Nilo-Saharan, with its closest relationship being with
Eastern Sudanic
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.
N ...
.
Like the
Nilotic,
Surmic, and
Kuliak, Kadu languages have verb-initial word order. However, most other
languages of the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, and the Sudan-Ethiopia border region have verb-final word order.
Branches
There are three branches:
*Western:
Tulishi,
Keiga,
Kanga
*Central:
Kadugli
Kaduqli or Kadugli ( ar, كادوقلي ' Sudanese pronunciation: ) is the capital city of South Kordofan State, Sudan. It is located south of El-Obeid, at the northern edge of the White Nile plain in the Nuba Mountains. It contains Hil ...
(incl. Miri, Katcha)
*Eastern:
Krongo,
Tumtum
Classification
Hall & Hall (2004), based on Schadeberg (1987), classify the languages as follows.
Dafalla (2000) compares 179 cognates in Kadugli, Kamda, Kanga, Katcha, Keiga, Kufa, Miri, Shororo-Kursi, and Tulishi. Dafalla's (2000) results are similarly to those of Schadeberg (1989).
Reconstructions
Some Kadu quasi-reconstructions by Blench (2006):
Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary for Kadu languages:
[Schadeberg, Thilo. 1994. Comparative Kadu Wordlists. ''Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere'' 40:11-48. University of Cologne.]
Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual languages:
See also
*
Kadu word lists (Wiktionary)
Further reading
*Blench, Roger. 2006
The Kadu Languages and Their Affiliation: between Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic. Insights into Nilo-Saharan Language, History, and Culture Al-Amin Abu-Manga, L. Gilley & A. Storch eds. 101-127. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
*
*Stevenson, Roland; Roger Blench (ed)
Comparative Kadu Datasheets
*Reh, Mechthild. 1983. ''Die Krongo-Sprache (nììnò mó-dì): Beschreibung, Texte, Wörterverzeichnis''. (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
*Schadeberg, Thilo. 1994. Comparative Kadu Wordlists. ''Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere'' 40:11-48. University of Cologne.
Notes and references
*Dafalla, Rihab Yahia. 2000. ''A Phonological Comparison of the Katcha Kadugli Language Groups in the Nuba Mountains''. M.A. Dissertation, University of Khartoum.
*
Schadeberg, Thilo C. 1981
"The Classification of the Kadugli Language Group" ''Nilo-Saharan'', ed. by T. C. Schadeberg and M.
Lionel Bender, pp. 291–305. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
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Language families