Nyimang language

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Nyimang, also known as Ama, is an Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan by the Nyimang people who are a sub-group of the Nuba people.

Nyimang
Ámá
Native toSudan
RegionSouth Kordofan
EthnicityNyimang
Native speakers
170,000 (2022)[1]
Dialects
  • Ama
  • Afunj
  • Mandal
  • Tundia
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3nyi
Glottologamas1236

It is spoken in Al Fous, Fuony, Hajar Sultan, Kakara, Kalara, Koromiti, Nitil, Salara, Tundia, and other villages (Ethnologue, 22nd edition).

Rilly (2010:182) lists two mutually unintelligible varieties, Ama and Mandal.[2] Blench lists the Mandal dialect separately.

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal/
Retroflex
Velar
Plosive voiceless t k
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
Fricative f s (ʃ)
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Trill r ɽ
Approximant w l j
  • /s/ is heard as [ʃ] when before front vowels.
  • /l/ can be heard as a retroflex [ɭ] when before front vowels.
  • /f/ can also be heard as bilabial [ɸ] in free variation.[3]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
  • /i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] in lax position.
  • /o/ can have an allophone of [ɵ] when in the position of /ɽ/.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Nyimang at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)  
  2. ^ Rilly, Claude. 2010. Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-9042922372
  3. ^ Stevenson, Roland C. (1938). A grammar of the Nyimang language (Nuba Mountains).
  4. ^ Tucker, Archibald N.; Bryan, Margaret A. (2017). Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa, 2nd edn. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 312–313.
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