| Tegali | |
|---|---|
| Tagale, Tegele, Tekele, Togole | |
 | |
| Native to | Sudan |
| Region | South Kordofan |
| Ethnicity | Tagale |
Native speakers | 110,000 (2022)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ras |
| Glottolog | tega1236 Tegali |
| ELP | Tegali |
Tegali (also spelled Tagale, Tegele, Tekele, Togole) is a Kordofanian language in the Rashad family, which is thought by some to belong to the hypothetical Niger–Congo phylum (Greenberg 1963, Schadeberg 1981, Williamson & Blench 2000).[2] It is spoken in South Kordofan state, Sudan.
Classification
The Rashad family of language consists of two dialect clusters, Tegali and Tagoi, which share about 70% basic vocabulary on the 100-word Swadesh list. They are spoken on two mountain ranges to the north and north-west of Rashad.[3] These languages are spoken in the Tegali Hills in the north-east of the Nuba Mountains, the home of the former "Tegali Kingdom".[4] The most conspicuous difference between the two dialect clusters is that Tagoi has a complex system of noun classes while Tegali does not. Different explanations exist for why Tegali dialects lack a noun class system. Greenberg (1963) excludes the possibility of mass borrowing of basic vocabulary in Tagoi and assumes the loss of noun classes in the Tegali dialects.[5]
- ^ Tegali at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ "Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No. 11". SIL International. Retrieved 2017-04-30.
- ^ Schadeberg, Thilo C.; Elias, Philip (1979). A description of the Orig language: (Southern Kordofan), based on the notes of Fr. Carlo Muratori. Tervuren: Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale. Musee Royal De L'afrique Centrale. p. 3.
- ^ Stevenson, R. C. (January 1964). "Linguistic Research in the Nuba Mountains—Ii". Sudan Notes and Records. 45: 79–102. JSTOR 41716860.
- ^ Schadeberg, Thilo C. (1981). A survey of Kordofanian. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. pp. 67–80.
