Nyimang language

Nyimang, also known as Ama, is an Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan by the Nyimang people who are a sub-group of the Nuba people.

Nyimang
Ámá
Native to	Sudan
Region	South Kordofan
Ethnicity	Nyimang
Native speakers	170,000 (2022)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Northern Eastern Nyima Nyimang
Dialects	Ama Afunj Mandal Tundia
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nyi
Glottolog	amas1236

It is spoken in Al Fous, Fuony, Hajar Sultan, Kakara, Kalara, Koromiti, Nitil, Salara, Tundia, and other villages (Ethnologue, 22nd edition).

Rilly (2010:182) lists two mutually unintelligible varieties, Ama and Mandal.^[2] Blench lists the Mandal dialect separately.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal/ Retroflex	Velar
Plosive	voiceless		t̪	t		k
	voiced	b	d̪	d	ɟ	ɡ
Fricative		f		s	(ʃ)
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill				r	ɽ
Approximant		w		l	j

• /s/ is heard as [ʃ] when before front vowels.
• /l/ can be heard as a retroflex [ɭ] when before front vowels.
• /f/ can also be heard as bilabial [ɸ] in free variation.^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• /i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] in lax position.
• /o/ can have an allophone of [ɵ] when in the position of /ɽ/.^[4]