| Talodi–Heiban | |
| Region: | Nuba Hills, Sudan |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Kordofanian? |
| Child1: | Talodi |
| Child2: | Heiban |
| Map: | Kordofan-languages 02.png |
| Glotto: | none |
| Glotto2: | narr1279 |
| Glottoname2: | Talodi |
| Glottorefname2: | Narrow Talodi |
| Glotto3: | heib1242 |
| Glottoname3: | Heiban |
| Glottorefname3: | Heibanic |
The Talodi–Heiban languages are a proposed branch of the hypothetical Niger–Congo family, spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The Talodi and Heiban languages are thought to be distantly related by Dimmendaal,[1] though Glottolog 4.4 does not accept the unity of Talodi–Heiban pending further evidence.[2]
Roger Blench (2016) notes that the Talodi and Heiban branches share many typological similarities, but few lexical similarities. Blench (2016) considers Talodi and Heiban to each be separate, independent Niger-Congo branches that had later converged due to mutual contact.
Talodi and Heiban had each constituted a group of the Kordofanian branch of Niger–Congo that was posited by Joseph Greenberg (1963); Talodi has also been called Talodi–Masakin, and Heiban has also been called Koalib or Koalib–Moro. Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo core of Niger–Congo, but that the Katla languages (another putative branch of Kordofanian) have no trace of ever having had such a system, whereas the Kadu languages and some of the Rashad languages appear to have acquired noun classes as part of a Sprachbund, rather than having inherited them. He concludes that the Kordofanian languages do not form a genealogical group, but that Talodi–Heiban is core Niger–Congo, whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch (or perhaps branches) along the lines of Mande. The Kadu languages may be Nilo-Saharan.
Lafofa (Tegem), sometimes classified as a divergent Talodi language, has a different set of cognates with other Niger–Congo and has been placed in its own branch of Niger–Congo.
Norton & Alaki (2015: 76, 126)[3] classify the Talodi languages as follows. Proto-Talodi, Proto-Lumun-Torona, and Proto-Narrow Talodi have also been reconstructed by Norton & Alaki (2015).
Lexical correspondences between Proto-Heiban and Proto-Talodi according to Blench (2016):
| Gloss | Proto-Heiban | Proto-Talodi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| belly |
|
| |
| dry |
|
| |
| ear |
|
| |
| fire |
|
| |
| give |
|
| |
| guts |
|
| |
| hear |
|
| |
| hole |
|
| |
| horn |
|
| |
| left side |
|
| |
| name |
|
| |
| pull |
|
| |
| red |
|
| |
| rope |
|
| |
| small |
|
| |
| star |
|
| |
| stone |
|
| |
| tongue |
|
| |
| tooth |
|
| |
| wing |
|
|
Noun class prefix comparison between Proto-Heiban and Proto-Talodi according to Blench (2016):[4]
| Noun class | Proto-Heiban | Proto-Talodi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persons |
|
| |
| Trees and plants |
|
| |
| Round things, vital body parts |
|
| |
| Symmetrical body parts |
|
| |
| Long thin objects, bushy objects |
|
| |
| Small objects, animals |
|
| |
| Liquids |
|
| |
| Uncountables, [dust, grass] |
|
|