The Kadu languages, also called Kadugli-Krongo or Tumtum, are a small family of about 10 languages concentrated in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, split into Western, Central and Eastern branches. Once classified within Niger-Congo, they have been widely seen as Nilo-Saharan since Thilo Schadeberg's 1981 work, though a conservative classification treats Kadu as independent; the languages share verb-initial word order with Nilotic, Surmic and Kuliak.
Facts
RegionNuba Mountains of Sudan 1 Proto-Language StatusUnsettled. The family affiliation of Kadu itself is disputed, independent family versus Nilo-Saharan versus an earlier and now largely rejected Niger-Congo placement, and only quasi-reconstructions of proto-Kadu vocabulary have been proposed, by Blench (2006); no settled Proto-Kadu phonology exists. 1 Partially Attested
Speaker CountA family-wide total is not published in one source. Kadugli, one of about ten Kadu languages, alone had this many speakers per Ethnologue as cited (2004). Other member languages (Katcha, Kanga, Keiga, Miri, Tulishi, Krongo and others) are not counted here. Sources
1. Wikipedia: Kadu Languages
Wikimedia FoundationKadu languages, Wikipedia, infobox region field
[[Nuba Mountains]] of [[Sudan]]
Kadu languages, Wikipedia, Reconstructions section
Some Kadu quasi-reconstructions by Blench (2006):
View the Source 2. Wikipedia: Kadugli Language
Wikimedia FoundationKadugli language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers fieldQuote, Kadugli language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
speakers=75,000
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