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The Koman languages are a small close-knit family of languages located along the Sudan–Ethiopia border with about 50,000 speakers. They are commonly believed to belong to the Nilo-Saharan family, but evidence is slight, and among scholars who do accept inclusion, opinions vary as to their position within it. *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, or Shita (Ethiopia)—spoken in 5 villages north of the Nuer by about 300 people * * ?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. 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. ==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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Koman languages」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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