The Eastern Jebel languages are a small subfamily belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subgroup of

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributari ...

. They are spoken in the hills of

An Nil al Azraq Blue Nile State ( ') is one of the eighteen states of the Republic of the Sudan. It was established by presidential decree nº 3 in 1992 and it is named after the Blue Nile River. The region is host to around forty different ethnic groups. Its e ...

province in eastern

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

(the name "Jebel" is simply

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

for "mountain".)

Languages

The Eastern Jebel languages are: * Gaam (also called "Ingassana" or "Tabi") * Aka (Silak) * Kelo (Tornasi) * Molo (Malkan) Gaam has some 40,000–80,000 speakers, whereas the other three are threatened languages with far fewer speakers. Gaam was believed to be the only member of this group until more information about Aka, Kelo, and Molo was obtained by Bender; the latter three languages have been significantly influenced by Berta. Gaam is spoken in a compact area around the towns of Bau, Bobuk,

Kukur Kukur is a village and a former municipality in the Elbasan County, central Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and ...

, Gabanit, and Sawda in the Tabi Hills, roughly 11°15′–30′ N by 33°55′–34°10′ E. The other three were spoken in isolated pockets to its south, but are now probably extinct: Aka in the Sillok Hills, Kelo in the Tornasi Hills on jebels Tornasi ( Kayli village) and Beni Sheko, and Molo at Jebel Malkan near the

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

n border.

Reconstruction

Proto-Eastern Jebel has been reconstructed by Bender (1998).Bender, M. Lionel. 1998. The Eastern Jebel Languages of Sudan. Afrika und Übersee 81: 39-64.

References

Bibliography

* Malik Agaar Ayre & M.

Lionel Bender Marvin Lionel Bender (August 18, 1934 – February 19, 2008) was an American linguist. Life Bender was born August 18, 1934, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He travelled throughout the world, particularly in Northeast Africa, and was an accompli ...

, ''Preliminary Gaam-English-Gaam Dictionary''. Addis Abeba 1980. * M. Lionel Bender
"The Eastern Jebel Languages of Sudan"
''Afrika und Übersee'' 80 (1997), 81 (1998):189-215, 39-64. * W. J. Crewe. "The Phonological Features of the Ingessana Language". 1975 * E. E.

Evans-Pritchard Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Ox ...

, "Ethnological Observations in

Dar Fung The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate (due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue) (), was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern ...

", ''Sudan Notes and Records'' 15.1, 1932. pp. 1–61. * F. S. & J. Lister. "The Ingessana Language: A Preliminary Description", ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'' 4.1, 1966. pp. 41–44. * B. Z. Seligman. "Notes on Two Languages Spoken in the

Sennar Sennar ( ') is a city on the Blue Nile in Sudan and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. For several centuries it was the capital of the Funj Kingdom of Sennar and until at least 2011, Sennar was the capital of Sennar State. Histo ...

Province of the

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ') was a condominium (international law), condominium of the United Kingdom and Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day South Sudan and Sudan. Legally, sovereig ...

", ''Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen'' 2.4, 1912. pp. 297–308. * Timothy M. Stirtz. "Phonology and Orthography in Gaahmg", in ed. Leoma C. Gilley, ''Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No. 9'', Entebbe: SIL-Sudan 2004. * Sisto Verri. "Il Linguaggio degli Ingessana nell'Africa Occidentale", ''Anthropos'' 50, 1955. pp. 282–318. {{Nilo-Saharan families Southern Eastern Sudanic languages Language families

Languages

Reconstruction

See also

References

Bibliography