Misplaced Pages

Kadu
Tumtum Kadugli–Krongo
Geographic distribution	Nuba Mountains of Sudan
Linguistic classification	Nilo-Saharan? Kadu
Subdivisions	Western Central Eastern
Language codes
Glottolog	kadu1256

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.

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

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.

Branches

There are three branches:

• Kadu
  • Western: Tulishi, Keiga, Kanga
  • Central: Kadugli (incl. Miri, Katcha)
  • Eastern: Krongo, Tumtum

Classification

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

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):

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary for Kadu languages:

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

See also

• Kadu word lists (Wiktionary)

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.

Notes and references

1. Gerrit Dimmendaal, 2008. "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5:843ff.
2. 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.
3. Blench, Roger. 2109. Chabu and Kadu: two orphan branches of Nilo-Saharan. Proceedings of the 14th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Department of African Studies, University of Vienna.
4. Blench, Roger. 2019. Shabo and Kadu: Two Orphan Branches of Nilo-Saharan. 14th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Department of African Studies, University of Vienna.
5. Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9. S2CID 133888593.
6. Hall, Marian and Hall, Edward. 2004. Kadugli-Krongo. Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages 9. 57–68. Entebbe: Summer Institute of Linguistics Sudan.
7. Schadeberg, Thilo C. 1987. Kordofanian. In The Niger-Congo languages, ed. by John Bendor-Samuel, pp. 66–80. Lanham: University Press of America.
8. 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.
9. Schadeberg, Thilo. 1994. Comparative Kadu Wordlists. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 40:11–48. University of Cologne.
10. Chan, Eugene (2019). "The Nilo-Saharan Language Phylum". Numeral Systems of the World's Languages.

• Dafalla, Rihab Yahia. 2000. A Phonological Comparison of the Katcha Kadugli Language Groups in the Nuba Mountains. M.A. Dissertation, University of Khartoum.
• Schadeberg, Thilo C. 1981. "The Classification of the Kadugli Language Group". Nilo-Saharan, ed. by T. C. Schadeberg and M. Lionel Bender, pp. 291–305. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.

• Kadu languages
• Nilo-Saharan languages
• Language families