Lafofa, also known as Tegem-Amira, is a dialect cluster spoken in the southern Nuba Mountains of Sudan. Joseph Greenberg's 1950 classification placed Lafofa among the Talodi languages as a divergent member, but this position has since been abandoned, and the Glottolog classification now treats Lafofa as a language isolate; a 2016 study by Russell Norton tentatively finds it closest to the Ijoid languages. Unlike the neighboring Talodi-Heiban languages, which follow subject-verb-object word order, Lafofa follows subject-object-verb order, and because it remains poorly documented, Roger Blench's 2010 study notes there may be further varieties beyond the two it identifies, Tegem and Amira.
Facts
RegionSouthern Nuba Mountains, in the south of Sudan. 1 Proto-Language StatusGreenberg (1950) placed Lafofa within the Talodi languages (Niger-Congo) as a divergent member, but that classification has since been abandoned; Lafofa is now left unclassified within Niger-Congo. Norton (2016) tentatively links it to the Ijoid languages, and Glottolog treats it as a language isolate. No proto-language has been reconstructed. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Lafofa Languages
Wikimedia Foundationlead sectionQuote, lead section
Lafofa, also Tegem-Amira, is a dialect cluster spoken in the southern Nuba Mountains in the south of Sudan. Blench (2010) considers the Tegem and Amira varieties to be distinct languages; as Lafofa is poorly attested, there may be others. Greenberg (1950) classified Lafofa as one of the Talodi languages, albeit a divergent one, but without much evidence. More recently this position has been abandoned, and Lafofa is left unclassified within Niger-Congo. Norton (2016) tentatively finds Lafofa to be closest to the Ijoid languages. It is considered a language isolate by Glottolog.
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