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
Geographic distribution	Ethiopia–Sudan border region
Linguistic classification	Nilo-Saharan? Komuz Koman
Glottolog	koma1264

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.[1]

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:[2]

Koman

• Gwama
  • Highland Gwama
  • Lowland Gwama
• Central
  • Komo–Uduk
    • Komo
    • Uduk
      • Chali
      • Yabus
  • Dana–Opo
    • Dana
    • Opo
      • Bilugu, Modin
      • 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)[3] and Otero (2019).[2]

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:[4]

See also

• List of Proto-Koman reconstructions (Wiktionary)

References

На других языках

[es] Lenguas komanas

[fr] Langues komanes

[ru] Команские языки