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Language Family

Katla

African Language Families

The Katla languages are two to three closely related languages forming a small family in the Nuba Hills of Sudan. Once part of the erstwhile Kordofanian proposal, their position within the hypothetical Niger-Congo family is uncertain, since they do not share the noun-class morphology characteristic of Niger-Congo languages. Linguist Roger Blench classifies them as a divergent branch outside the Atlantic-Congo core, and notes the same situation holds for the neighboring Rashad family, to which Katla is not closely related.

Facts
Partially Attested
Speaker Count
28,305 2
A family-wide total is not published in one source; this is the sum of the Katla language 25,000 speakers (2009) and the Tima language 3,305 speakers (2000), each from its own Wikipedia article, the same direct-sum approach used for the Ongan family in this axis.
Proto-Language Status
Dimmendaal (in press 2019) reconstructs Proto-Katloid, though the wider position of the family within Niger-Congo remains uncertain. Katla and Tima lack the noun-class morphology characteristic of Niger-Congo, leading Roger Blench to classify them as a divergent branch outside the Atlantic-Congo core. 1
Dimmendaal (in press 2019) reconstructs Proto-Katloid, though the wider position of the family within Niger-Congo remains uncertain. Katla and Tima lack the noun-class morphology characteristic of Niger-Congo, leading Roger Blench to classify them as a divergent branch outside the Atlantic-Congo core.
Region
The Nuba Hills of Sudan. 1
In the Other Atlases
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Sudan, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Katloid Languages
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Katloid languages, Wikipedia, infobox region field
    Nuba Hills, Sudan
  • Katloid languages, Wikipedia, infobox fam2 footnote
    Reconstructing Katloid and deconstructing Kordofanian.
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Katla Language
Wikimedia FoundationKatla language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
Quote, Katla language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
25,000 Julud
View the Source
Wikipedia: Tima Language
Wikimedia FoundationTima language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
Quote, Tima language, Wikipedia, infobox speakers field
3,305
View the Source
Wikidata: Katla
Wikidata Q6377681, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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