Nyimang language

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

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.

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. Blench lists the Mandal dialect separately.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal/
Retroflex		 Velar
Plosive voiceless t̪ t k
voiced b d̪ d ɟ ɡ
Fricative f s (ʃ)
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Trill r ɽ
Approximant w l j

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

References

  1. ↑ Nyimang at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)