The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of five language groups spoken in the Nuba Mountains of the South Kordofan region of Sudan: TalodiâÂÂHeiban languages, Lafofa languages, Rashad languages, Katla languages and Kadu languages. The first four groups are sometimes regarded as branches of the hypothetical NigerâÂÂCongo family, whereas Kadu is now widely seen as a branch of the proposed Nilo-Saharan family. The Kordofanian languages may be the oldest group of languages in the region.
In 1963, Joseph Greenberg added them to the NigerâÂÂCongo family, creating his NigerâÂÂKordofanian proposal. The Kordofanian languages have not been shown to be more distantly related than other branches of NigerâÂÂCongo, however, and they have not been shown to constitute a valid group. Today, the Kadu languages are excluded, and the others are usually included in NigerâÂÂCongo proper.
Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun class systems characteristic of the AtlanticâÂÂCongo core of NigerâÂÂCongo but that the two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system. However, the Kadu languages and some of the Rashad languages appear to have acquired noun classes as part of a Sprachbund rather than having inherited them. Blench concludes that Talodi and Heiban are core NigerâÂÂCongo whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch along the lines of Mande.
Heiban, Katloid, and Talodi are also grouped together in an automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013). However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
The Heiban languages, also called Koalib or KoalibâÂÂMoro, and the Talodi languages, also called TalodiâÂÂMasakin, are part of the TalodiâÂÂHeiban group.
Lafofa (Tegem) was for a time classified with Talodi, but appears to be a separate branch of NigerâÂÂCongo.
The number of Rashad languages, also called TegaliâÂÂTagoi, varies among descriptions, from two (Williamson & Blench 2000), three (Ethnologue), to eight (Blench ms). Tagoi has a noun-class system like the AtlanticâÂÂCongo languages, which is apparently borrowed, but Tegali does not.
The two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had a NigerâÂÂCongo-type noun-class system.
Since the work of Thilo C. Schadeberg in 1981, the "Tumtum" or Kadu branch is now widely seen as Nilo-Saharan.
Quint (2020) suggests that Proto-Kordofanian can be reconstructed from the Heibanian, Talodian, Rashadian, Katloid, and Lafofa languages. His Proto-Kordofanian reconstructions are as follows:
Starostin (2018) lists the following common lexical isoglosses in the Kordofanian languages. Potential cognates are highlighted in bold.
Sample basic vocabulary of the Heiban, Talodi, Rashad, and Lafofa branches:
Note: In table cells with slashes, the singular form is given before the slash, while the plural form follows the slash.
Comparison of numerals in individual languages: