The Koman languages are a small, close-knit family of languages located along the Ethiopia–Sudan border with about 50,000 speakers. They are conventionally classified as part of the Nilo-Saharan family. However, due to the paucity of evidence, many scholars treat it as an independent language family. Among scholars who do accept its inclusion within Nilo-Saharan, opinions vary as to their position within it.

Koman languages in Ethiopia are in close contact with the Omotic Mao languages. In Ethiopia, some Koman-speaking groups also consider themselves to be ethnically Mao.

Internal classification

The Koman languages are:

Koman

• Uduk, or T’wampa, (formerly in South Sudan) — about 20,000 speakers, most at a large refugee camp at Bonga, near Gambela

• Kwama (Ethiopia) — about 15,000 speakers, mainly in Benishangul-Gumuz

• Komo (Sudan) — about 12,000 speakers mainly in An Nil al Azraq

• Opuuo (Opo), or Shita (Ethiopia) — spoken in 5 villages north of the Nuer by about 5,000 people

• Dana, a newly discovered language located near Opo

• ?Gule (Sudan) — extinct

The poorly known Shabo language (600 speakers) shows strong Koman influence, and it has been suggested (on little evidence) that it may be a Koman language. Gule is generally classified as Koman, but the evidence is as yet insufficient.

Otero (2019)

Otero's (2019: 28) internal classification of Koman:

Koman

Gwama

• Highland Gwama

• Lowland Gwama

Central

Komo–Uduk

• Komo

Uduk

• Chali

• Yabus

Dana–Opo

• Dana

Opo

[clade]

• Bilugu

• Modin

[clade]

• Pame

• Kigile

External classification

Dimmendaal (2008) notes that mounting grammatical evidence has made the Nilo-Saharan proposal as a whole more sound since Greenberg proposed it in 1963 but that such evidence has not been forthcoming for Songhay, Gumuz, and Koman: "very few of the more widespread nominal and verbal morphological markers of Nilo-Saharan are attested in the Coman languages plus Gumuz ... Their genetic status remains debatable, mainly due to lack of more extensive data." (2008:843) And later, "In summarizing the current state of knowledge, ... the following language families or phyla can be identified: ... Mande, Songhai, Ubangian, Kadu, and the Coman languages plus Gumuz." (2008:844) However, Ahland (2010) reports that with better attestation, both Koman and Gumuz do appear to be Nilo-Saharan, and perhaps closest to each other.

Reconstruction

Proto-Koman has been reconstructed by Lionel Bender (1983) and Otero (2019).

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

See also

• List of Proto-Koman reconstructions (Wiktionary)

References

• Colleen Ahland, 2010. "The Classification of Gumuz and Koman Languages" presented at the Language Isolates in Africa workshop, Lyons, December 4, 2010

• Lionel Bender, 2000. "Nilo-Saharan". In Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse, eds., African Languages: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.

• Gerrit Dimmendaal, 2008. "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5:842.