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.
Orthography +abɓcddhɗefghijkkhlmnnyŋoɔprɽstthuūvwyz
Grammar
Nouns 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 ClassSingular Prefix Plural prefixSemantic identification1,2kw-/gw-
ku-/gu-
(∅)l- li-/lu- li-People, animal and nature except trees1,2(∅) - ŋa (suffix)Relatives3,4Kw-/gw-
Ku-/gu-j-/(∅)
ji-/ju-/(∅)Trees5,6l-ŋ-/nw-Sets7,8k-/g-j-/(∅)Common things9,10dh-d-/r-Long. thin things11,12dh-j-/(∅)Large and dangerous things13,14k-/g-Ny-Hallow and deep things15,16ŋ-ny-Domestic and small animals and things20ŋ- -Liquids and abstract nouns21,22ŋ-j-Goat25,26(∅)j-Words beginning with a vowel
Pronouns 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 Infix1st person singularnyi -nyi2nd person singularŋa -aŋa3rd person singularŋeda -nyi1st person dual daŋa -ilo1st person pluralAnaŋa/alŋa -ilo2nd person plural ŋaŋa -ji3rd 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. +InitialMedialFinalSyntactic function 1st person singularnyi- -inyi- -inySubject and object2nd person singularŋa- -aŋa- -aŋaSubject and object3rd person singularŋwu- -uŋwu- -uŋwAlways subject1st person plural inclusive subjectAl-Subject1st person plural exclusive subjectana- -ana- -anaSubject1st person plural objectji- -iji- -ijeObject2nd person plural subjectnya- -anya- -anyaSubject2nd person plural objectŋaji- -a(i)ji- -ajeObjectPluralAl- -il- -lo?Plural Adresse -ulPlural 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 base numeral +10 1 11 2 12 3 13 4 14 5 15 6 16 7 17 8 18 9 19 10 20
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
External links Ebang (Heiban) and Abul basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database