Northern Eastern Sudanic languages

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.

Northern Eastern Sudanic
Astaboran
(undemonstrated)
Geographic distribution	Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt, Chad
Linguistic classification	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Northern Eastern Sudanic
Proto-language	Proto-Northern Eastern Sudanic
Subdivisions	Nubian Nara Taman Nyima Meroitic? †
Language codes
Glottolog	None

Eastern Sudanic languages: Group k (Northern Eastern Sudanic languages) (orange) Group n (Southern Eastern Sudanic languages) (yellow)

The most well-known language of this group is Nubian. According to Claude Rilly, the ancient Meroitic language 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).^[1]

Internal classification

Rilly (2009:2)^[2] provides the following internal structure for the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages.

• Northern East Sudanic
  • Nyima: Nyimang, Afitti
  • Taman: Tama, Mararit
  • Nara-Nubian
    • Nara
    • 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 (2021) suggests that the Maban languages may be closely related.^[3]

See also

• Linguistics portal
• Languages portal

• List of Northern Eastern Sudanic reconstructions (Wiktionary)