Heiban language

Heiban
Ebang
Native toSudan
RegionNuba Hills
EthnicityHeiban Nuba
Native speakers
(4,000 cited 1984)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3hbn
Glottologheib1243
Heiban is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

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.

Grammar

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Nouns

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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.

Noun Class Singular Prefix Plural prefix Semantic identification
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

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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.

Subject pronoun (stand- alone) Object Infix
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

Guest further notes that in Heiban, an object or an animal may not be referred to with the 3rd person subject pronouns alone, but with the object suffix. Bound pronouns are morphemes in a verbal complex that refer to some participant but are not class specific.

Initial Medial Final Syntactic function
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

Bound pronouns for 1st and 2nd person have specific forms to represent subject and object. In singular form, the subject and object may be identical in spelling but are assumed to have pronunciation differences. There is also a 1st person plural exclusive and inclusive for subject forms. Furthermore, there is a pronoun for 3rd person singular which is free of reference to any particular class.

Numbers

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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.

References

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  1. ^ Heiban at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
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