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Kadu languages

Small language family of southern Sudan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kadu languages
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The Kadu languages, also known as Kadugli–Krongo or Tumtum, are a small language family of the Kordofanian geographic grouping, once included in Niger–Congo. However, since Thilo Schadeberg (1981), Kadu is widely seen as Nilo-Saharan. 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.[1]

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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.[2] However, more recently, Blench states that Kadu is almost certainly Nilo-Saharan, with its closest relationship being with Eastern Sudanic.[3][4]

Like the Nilotic, Surmic, and Kuliak languages, 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.[5]

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Branches

There are three branches:

Classification

Hall & Hall (2004),[6] based on Schadeberg (1987),[7] classify the languages as follows.

Kadu

Keiga

Kamda, Tulishi

Damba, Kadugli

Miri

Katcha, Tuna

Kanga, Kufa, Kursi, Lima, Shororo

Krongo-Abdullah, Tumma

Krongo-Tabanya

Kurondi, Talasa, Tumtum

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):[8]

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Comparative vocabulary

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Sample basic vocabulary for Kadu languages:[9]

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Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:[10]

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See also

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.
  • Blench, Roger (2019). "Shabo and Kadu: Two Orphan Branches of Nilo-Saharan". 14th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Department of African Studies, University of Vienna.
  • 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.
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Notes and references

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