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Language Family

Talodi-Heiban

African Language Families

The Talodi-Heiban languages are a proposed branch of the hypothetical Niger-Congo family, spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. Linguist Gerrit Dimmendaal considers the Talodi and Heiban languages distantly related, though the Glottolog classification does not accept the unity of Talodi-Heiban as established, pending further evidence.

Facts
Partially Attested
Speaker Count
79,000 2
A family-wide total is not published in one source. Moro, a Heiban-branch language and one of the larger Talodi-Heiban languages, alone had this many speakers as of 2022 per the cited source; other member languages (Tira, Koalib, Logol, Lumun, Tocho, Dagik and others) are not summed here.
Proto-Language Status
Reconstructed separately for each branch rather than for a unified Talodi-Heiban node. Norton and Alaki (2015) reconstruct Proto-Talodi, Proto-Lumun-Torona and Proto-Narrow Talodi; Blench (2016) compares Proto-Heiban and Proto-Talodi lexical items and noun-class prefixes, but Glottolog does not accept Talodi-Heiban itself as a genetic unity. 1
Reconstructed separately for each branch rather than for a unified Talodi-Heiban node. Norton and Alaki (2015) reconstruct Proto-Talodi, Proto-Lumun-Torona and Proto-Narrow Talodi; Blench (2016) compares Proto-Heiban and Proto-Talodi lexical items and noun-class prefixes, but Glottolog does not accept Talodi-Heiban itself as a genetic unity.
Region
The Nuba Hills (Nuba Mountains) of Sudan. 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Talodi-Heiban Languages
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Talodi-Heiban languages, Wikipedia, infobox region field
    [[Nuba Hills]], [[Sudan]]
  • Talodi-Heiban languages, Wikipedia, Norton and Alaki (2015) section
    Proto-Talodi, Proto-Lumun-Torona, and Proto-Narrow Talodi have also been reconstructed by Norton & Alaki (2015).
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Moro Language
Wikimedia FoundationMoro language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
Quote, Moro language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
{{sigfig|79,000|2}}
View the Source
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