Heiban language

The Heiban language, Ebang, or Abul, is a Niger–Congo language in the Heiban family spoken in the town of Heiban located in the Nuba Mountains of Kordofan, Sudan.

Heiban
Ebang
Native to	Sudan
Region	Nuba Hills
Ethnicity	Heiban Nuba
Native speakers	(4,000 cited 1984)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Kordofanian Talodi–Heiban Heiban Central Laro–Ebang Heiban
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hbn
Glottolog	heib1243
Heiban
Heiban is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Orthography

^[2]

a

b

ɓ

c

d

dh

ɗ

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

kh

l

m

n

ny

ŋ

o

ɔ

p

r

ɽ

s

t

th

u

ū

v

w

y

z

Grammar

Nouns

The earliest record of the Heiban noun class system was composed by Stevenson (1956/57), in which he classified each noun class into two sections, the first being for singular form and the second for plural form. Each noun class has an indicative prefix. The separation of noun classes occurs due to the nouns belonging to a certain category. Guest (1997) further contributed to the findings of Stevenson by discovering more classification for nouns.

Noun Class	Singular Prefix	Plural prefix	Semantic identification
1,2	kw-/gw- ku-/gu- (∅)	l- li-/lu- li-	People, animal and nature except trees
1,2	(∅)	- ŋa (suffix)	Relatives
3,4	Kw-/gw- Ku-/gu-	j-/(∅) ji-/ju-/(∅)	Trees
5,6	l-	ŋ-/nw-	Sets
7,8	k-/g-	j-/(∅)	Common things
9,10	dh-	d-/r-	Long. thin things
11,12	dh-	j-/(∅)	Large and dangerous things
13,14	k-/g-	Ny-	Hallow and deep things
15,16	ŋ-	ny-	Domestic and small animals and things
20	ŋ-	-	Liquids and abstract nouns
21,22	ŋ-	j-	Goat
25,26	(∅)	j-	Words beginning with a vowel

Pronouns

Pronouns in Heiban are categorised as ‘free pronouns’ or ‘bound pronouns’. Early recordings of the language, such as in the work of Guest (1997) only went as far as to mention free pronouns.

	Subject pronoun (stand- alone)	Object Infix
1st person singular	nyi	-nyi
2nd person singular	ŋa	-aŋa
3rd person singular	ŋeda	-nyi
1st person dual	daŋa	-ilo
1st person plural	Anaŋa/alŋa	-ilo
2nd person plural	ŋaŋa	-ji
3rd person plural	ŋidiŋa	-ilo

Guest further notes that in Heiban, an object or an animal may not be referred to with the 3rd person subject pronouns alone, but with the object suffix. Bound pronouns are morphemes in a verbal complex that refer to some participant but are not class specific.

	Initial	Medial	Final	Syntactic function
1st person singular	nyi-	-inyi-	-iny	Subject and object
2nd person singular	ŋa-	-aŋa-	-aŋa	Subject and object
3rd person singular	ŋwu-	-uŋwu-	-uŋw	Always subject
1st person plural inclusive subject	Al-			Subject
1st person plural exclusive subject	ana-	-ana-	-ana	Subject
1st person plural object	ji-	-iji-	-ije	Object
2nd person plural subject	nya-	-anya-	-anya	Subject
2nd person plural object	ŋaji-	-a(i)ji-	-aje	Object
Plural	Al-	-il-	-lo	?
Plural Adresse			-ul	Plural adresse

Bound pronouns for 1st and 2nd person have specific forms to represent subject and object. In singular form, the subject and object may be identical in spelling but are assumed to have pronunciation differences. There is also a 1st person plural exclusive and inclusive for subject forms. Furthermore, there is a pronoun for 3rd person singular which is free of reference to any particular class.

Numbers

base numeral			+10
1	gwetipo		11	die a gwepito
2	ram		12	die a ram
3	thiril		13	die a thiril
4	koriŋo		14	die a koriŋo
5	thudhna		15	die a thudhna
6	nyiril		16	die a nyiril
7	koriŋo a thiril		17	die a koriŋo a thiril
8	dubaŋ		18	die a dubaŋ
9	thudhina a koriŋa		19	die a thudina a koriŋo
10	die		20	dhure

Beyond 20, the numbers proceed to 200 in a similar manner as the teens, with only the word denoting the power of 10 changing.