Nding is an endangered NigerâÂÂCongo language in the Talodi family of Kordofan, Sudan. Nding is spoken in the area of the mountain (Jebel) Eliri, on the south of Talodi in South Kordofan, Sudan. Because of that, the language also goes by the name Eliri.
According to the UNESCO âÂÂAtlas of the WorldâÂÂs Languages in Dangerâ from 2010, the language is critically endangered. However, the 2020 edition of Ethnologue describes it as endangered, counting 400 speakers among some young people and all adults.
In the Nding language, exist the following vowels: a, e, i, o, u. Among those a, e, o, can be further classified as long or short, pronunciation-wise.
In the Nding language, appear following consonants: k, g, á¹ , tj, dj, à Â, t, d, n, r, l, y, p, b, m, w. Interestingly, the sound âÂÂhâ is absent in Nding. Consonants can be nasalized by connecting one consonant with n or m; and in some cases, also with their various parallel forms, e.g. á¹ g (alternatively à Âg/á¹ à Â), ndj (alternatively á¹ dj/à Âdj), nd, mb. Rarely does one come across such combinations as rn, rb, dr.
The consonant âÂÂlâ [el] can, and often is, also written as âÂÂilâÂÂ.
Words can change from voiceless to voiced if the preceding word ends with âÂÂnâÂÂ. For example, tetjo [eng. house] in the sentence âÂÂthe man departs from the houseâ becomes detjo: babura ako an detjo. Such consonant and vowel changes also seem to happen in an irregular manner, as there is no obvious connection found yet, e.g. tj becomes dj, ti becomes di, ta becomes da.
There is no evidence of tones in Nding.
The most widespread sentence structure seems to be SubjectâÂÂVerbâÂÂObject, however, the use of VerbâÂÂObjectâÂÂSubject has been documented as well. Personal pronouns come before the verb. Prepositions such as âÂÂwhatâ (Nding: yara), âÂÂwhereâ (Nding: ÃÂa) and âÂÂwhoâ (Nding: abura) come at the beginning of the sentence. Important is the fact that the noun doesn't change, no matter its usage, e.g. the noun being a subject/an object/when it comes together with a preposition, has no influence on its form.
Nouns seem to be mostly voiceless, but when they become adjectives, they usually (but not always) become voiced, e.g. p becomes b, tj becomes dj.
Gender of a noun is signaled in Nding through prefixes. For more information, see the paragraph below.
The plural form is created through a change of the initial sound of the noun and it depends on the gender-bound prefix, that the noun possesses. That can mean a change of the prefix or a change of the final position of the word. The before-mentioned categories stand at the core of Meinhof's plural form classification. First, I'll talk about the prefix-changing building of the plural form. There are the following subcategories of these nouns, according to Meinhof:
Now, the other type of plural form, created by a change of the final position, is categorized in the following way:
Oftentimes vowel changes appear in plural forms too, e.g. nudruba pl. nuduruba [eng. rabbit].
Plural forms can also change their stems and be irregular, e.g. sing. bwai pl. tje [eng. cow/cows].
The information and data gathered on the topic of adjectives are very limited, and according to Seligmann, in Nding they would be usually replaced with a verbal construction, e.g. instead of saying âÂÂno mountain is greater than Eliriâ it would be literally translated as âÂÂno mountain surpasses EliriâÂÂ= ko ma keñe Dayo'.
The initial sound of an adjective adapts to the initial sound of the noun, to which it refers to, and they change in their plural forms accordingly. Meinhof divided the adjectival noun-dependent prefixes into 3 categories:
The genitive seems very rare and almost non-existent in the Nding language, however, when it is used, it is put at the end of the phrase unit, just like in Bantu, e.g. ba bura bá Dayo [eng. an Eliri man/a man from Eliri].
The numerals 1,2 and 3 with connection to the -mena (see numbers 6, 7, 8) gain an initial sound -y. It is being theorized, that -mena means something like âÂÂaddâÂÂ. Additionally, the number 10 (yemeà Âunok) and the repeated "yemenyalok" in the number 20, are thought to be the same word (à ÂâÂÂny and uâÂÂa).
Normal personal pronouns: aá¹ i (I), aá¹ o (you), aá¹ o (he), arnaá¹ o (we), ata (they).
Personal pronouns before the verb: à Âi/á¹ i/ni (I), aá¹ o (you), aá¹ o (he), á¹ ori/ari (we), á¹ orno/ano (you pl.), á¹ ota/ÃÂtà(she).
Personal pronouns can also conjoin with the verbs and act as suffixes; thus, indicating the subject of the action: -ia/i (I), -wa/o (you), -wa/oba (he), -uria/-ori (we), -ota/-ata (you pl.), -una/-ata (she). When that happens, the stem of the word can change (esp. the vowels a, o, u have a tendency to swap). Nevertheless, there are many ambiguities and contradictions in the data about personal pronouns, so there are still many problems with finding a clear pattern.
Personal pronouns: i/iá¹ /à Âe (my/mine), -a (your/yours), -oba (his), -ori (our), -ono/-ai (your/yours), -ano/-ota (her).
Interrogative pronouns: abura (who), bi or yara (what), tja (where).
See the paragraph above on personal pronouns.
Negation is accomplished by the use of a post-position ma/nÃÂ/nÃÂ.
The information about the imperative form is also somewhat unclear, but as one sees in the following example, it has been observed, that there is surely a difference between an imperative in a singular form and in the plural (a suffix -ano is gained in the plural): à Âá¹ o! (you go!) uá¹ ano! (pl. you go!).
Exemplary conjugation of a phrase "to break a stick": koñi guri (I broke a stick), koño guri (you brokeâ¦), koñoba guri (he brokeâ¦), koñori guri (we broke..), koñata guri (you [pl.] brokeâ¦), koñata guri (they broke..).
Adverbs: nÃÂnna (here), tegu (yesterday).
Postpositions: ma/nÃÂ/nÃÂ (used for negation).
Prepositions: ra (âÂÂinâ in a sense, when someone is asking for a location of something), ba (âÂÂtoâÂÂ), an (âÂÂfromâÂÂ), nà(âÂÂat/onâÂÂ), tuko (âÂÂoutsideâÂÂ), tuka (âÂÂat/onâ in a sense, when someone asks about location), djeta (âÂÂfar fromâÂÂ), noá¹ gotjon (âÂÂclose toâÂÂ), tenyagan (âÂÂunderâÂÂ), ti/tiaritjo (âÂÂin the middle ofâÂÂ).