| Heiban | |
| Nativename: | Ebang |
| Region: | Nuba Hills |
| States: | Sudan |
| Ethnicity: | Heiban Nuba |
| Date: | 1984 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Script: | Latin |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Kordofanian |
| Fam3: | Talodi–Heiban |
| Fam4: | Heiban |
| Fam5: | Central |
| Fam6: | Laro–Ebang |
| Map2: | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
| Iso3: | hbn |
| Glotto: | heib1243 |
| Glottorefname: | Ebang |
The Heiban language, Ebang, or Abul, is a Niger–Congo language in the Heiban family spoken in the town of Heiban located in the Nuba Mountains of Kordofan, Sudan.
The earliest record of the Heiban noun class system was composed by Stevenson (1956/57), in which he classified each noun class into two sections, the first being for singular form and the second for plural form. Each noun class has an indicative prefix. The separation of noun classes occurs due to the nouns belonging to a certain category. Guest (1997) further contributed to the findings of Stevenson by discovering more classification for nouns.
| 1,2 | kw-/gw- ku-/gu- (∅) | l- li-/lu- li- | People, animal and nature except trees | |
| 1,2 | (∅) | - ŋa (suffix) | Relatives | |
| 3,4 | Kw-/gw- Ku-/gu- | j-/(∅) ji-/ju-/(∅) | Trees | |
| 5,6 | l- | ŋ-/nw- | Sets | |
| 7,8 | k-/g- | j-/(∅) | Common things | |
| 9,10 | dh- | d-/r- | Long. thin things | |
| 11,12 | dh- | j-/(∅) | Large and dangerous things | |
| 13,14 | k-/g- | Ny- | Hallow and deep things | |
| 15,16 | ŋ- | ny- | Domestic and small animals and things | |
| 20 | ŋ- | - | Liquids and abstract nouns | |
| 21,22 | ŋ- | j- | Goat | |
| 25,26 | (∅) | j- | Words beginning with a vowel |
Pronouns in Heiban are categorised as ‘free pronouns’ or ‘bound pronouns’. Early recordings of the language, such as in the work of Guest (1997) only went as far as to mention free pronouns.
| 1st person singular | nyi | -nyi | |
| 2nd person singular | ŋa | -aŋa | |
| 3rd person singular | ŋeda | -nyi | |
| 1st person dual | daŋa | -ilo | |
| 1st person plural | Anaŋa/alŋa | -ilo | |
| 2nd person plural | ŋaŋa | -ji | |
| 3rd person plural | ŋidiŋa | -ilo |
| 1st person singular | nyi- | -inyi- | -iny | Subject and object | |
| 2nd person singular | ŋa- | -aŋa- | -aŋa | Subject and object | |
| 3rd person singular | ŋwu- | -uŋwu- | -uŋw | Always subject | |
| 1st person plural inclusive subject | Al- | Subject | |||
| 1st person plural exclusive subject | ana- | -ana- | -ana | Subject | |
| 1st person plural object | ji- | -iji- | -ije | Object | |
| 2nd person plural subject | nya- | -anya- | -anya | Subject | |
| 2nd person plural object | ŋaji- | -a(i)ji- | -aje | Object | |
| Plural | Al- | -il- | -lo | ? | |
| Plural Adresse | -ul | Plural adresse |
| base numeral | +10 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gwetipo | 11 | die a gwepito | |
| 2 | ram | 12 | die a ram | |
| 3 | thiril | 13 | die a thiril | |
| 4 | koriŋo | 14 | die a koriŋo | |
| 5 | thudhna | 15 | die a thudhna | |
| 6 | nyiril | 16 | die a nyiril | |
| 7 | koriŋo a thiril | 17 | die a koriŋo a thiril | |
| 8 | dubaŋ | 18 | die a dubaŋ | |
| 9 | thudhina a koriŋa | 19 | die a thudina a koriŋo | |
| 10 | die | 20 | dhure | |
Beyond 20, the numbers proceed to 200 in a similar manner as the teens, with only the word denoting the power of 10 changing.