Talodi–Heiban languages

Talodi–Heiban
Geographic distribution:	Nuba Hills, Sudan
Linguistic classification:	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Talodi–Heiban
Subdivisions:	Talodi Heiban

The Talodi–Heiban languages are two relatively closely related^[1] language families of the erstwhile Kordofanian branch of Niger–Congo posited by Joseph Greenberg (1963): Talodi, also called Talodi–Masakin, and Heiban, also called Koalib or Koalib–Moro.

Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo core of Niger–Congo, but that the Katla languages (another putative branch of Kordofanian) have no trace of ever having had such a system, whereas 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. He concludes that the Kordofanian languages do not form a genealogical group, but that Talodi–Heiban is core Niger–Congo whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch (or perhaps branches) along the lines of Mande. The Kadu languages may be Nilo-Saharan.

Lafofa (Tegem), sometimes classified as a divergent Talodi language, has a different set of cognates with other Niger–Congo and has been placed in its own branch.

See also

• Heiban Nuba people
• Talodi people

Notes

1. ^ Gerrit Dimmendaal, 2008. "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5:842.

• Roger Blench. Unpublished. Kordofanian and Niger–Congo: new and revised lexical evidence.
• Roger Blench, 2011, Should Kordofanian be split up?, Nuba Hills Conference, Leiden