Northern Eastern Sudanic
Astaboran
(undemonstrated)
Geographic
distribution		Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt, Chad
Linguistic classificationNilo-Saharan?
Subdivisions
GlottologNone

The Northern Eastern Sudanic, Eastern k Sudanic, Ek Sudanic, NNT or Astaboran languages may form a primary division of the proposed Eastern Sudanic family. They are characterised by having a /k/ in the first person singular pronoun "I/me", as opposed to the Southern Eastern Sudanic languages, which have an /n/. Nyima has yet to be conclusively linked to the other languages, and would appear to be the closest relative of Ek Sudanic rather than Ek Sudanic proper.

The most well-known language of this group is Nubian. According to Claude Rilly, the ancient Meroitic language appears on limited evidence to be closely related to the languages of this group.

A reconstruction of Proto-Northern Eastern Sudanic has also been proposed by Rilly (2010).[1]

Internal classification

Rilly (2009:2)[2] provides the following internal structure for the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages.

External relationships

Based on morphological evidence such as tripartite number marking on nominals, Roger Blench (2021) suggests that the Maban languages may be closely related.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Rilly, Claude (2010). Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique (in French). Leuven: Peeters Publishers. pp. 347–349. ISBN 978-9042922372.
  2. ^ Rilly, Claude (June 4–7, 2009). From the Yellow Nile to the Blue Nile: The quest for water and the diffusion of Northern East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millennia BCE. ECAS 2009 (3rd European Conference on African Studies). Leipzig.((cite conference)): CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ Blench, Roger. 2021. The Maban languages and their place within Nilo-Saharan.
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