| Language name: | NUBIAN |
| UPSID number: | 4206 |
| Alternate name(s): | NOBIIN, MAHAS |
| Classification: | Nilo-Saharan, East Sudanic |
| This language has | 21 segments |
| Its Frequency index is | 0.491605955 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
| The language has these sounds: | b m k g dZ f S nj "l h i "e a "o u tD dD nD s r tS |
| Comment: | All vowels also occur long. The affricate tS almost always occurs geminated, and might be treated as the geminate counterpart of dZ which is never geminate. Bell (1970) suggests a two level tone system for Nobiin. |
| Source(s): | Bell, H. 1968. The tone system of Mahas Nubian, Journal of African Languages, 7/1: 26-32. Bell, H. 1971. The phonology of Nobiin Nubian. African Language Review 9: 115-39. Stevenson, R.C. 1957. A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba mountain languages IV. Afrika und Ubersee 41: 27-65. |