The Northern Eastern Sudanic, Eastern k Sudanic, Ek Sudanic, NNT or Astaboran languages may form a primary division of the proposed
Eastern Sudanic family. They are characterised by having a /
k/ in the first person singular pronoun "I/me", as opposed to the
Southern Eastern Sudanic languages, which have an /
n/.
Nyima has yet to be conclusively linked to the other languages, and would appear to be the closest relative of Ek Sudanic rather than Ek Sudanic proper.
The most well-known language of this group is
Nubian. According to
Claude Rilly, the ancient
Meroitic language appears on limited evidence to be closely related to the languages of this group.
A reconstruction of Proto-Northern Eastern Sudanic has also been proposed by Rilly (2010).[1]
Internal classification
Rilly (2009:2)[2] provides the following internal structure for the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages.
Based on morphological evidence such as tripartite number marking on nominals,
Roger Blench (2021) suggests that the
Maban languages may be closely related.[3]
^Rilly, Claude (2010). Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique (in French). Leuven: Peeters Publishers. pp. 347–349.
ISBN978-9042922372.
^Rilly, Claude (June 4–7, 2009). From the Yellow Nile to the Blue Nile: The quest for water and the diffusion of Northern East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millennia BCE. ECAS 2009 (3rd European Conference on African Studies). Leipzig.{{
cite conference}}: CS1 maint: date and year (
link)
Starostin, George (2015). Jazyki Afriki. Opyt postrojenija leksikostatističeskoj klassifikacii. Tom II. Vostočnosudanskije jazyki Языки Африки. Опыт построения лексикостатистической классификации. Том II. Восточносуданские языки [The Languages of Africa. The experience of building a lexiostatistical classification.] (in Russian). Vol. II: The Eastern Sudanic Languages. Moscow: Languages of Slavic culture.
ISBN9785457890718.