The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east.
The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Geʽez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have complex tonal systems. The languages have around 6.2 million speakers. The group is generally classified as belonging to the Afroasiatic language family, but this is disputed by some.
The Beja people are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the Eastern Desert inhabiting a coastal area from southeastern Egypt through eastern Sudan and into northwestern Eritrea. They are descended from peoples who have inhabited the area since 4000 BC or earlier, although they were Arabized by Arabs who settled in the region. They are nomadic and live primarily in the Eastern Desert. They number around 1,900,000 to 2,200,000 people.
The Baggāra or Chadian Arabs are a nomadic confederation of people of mixed Arab and Arabized indigenous African ancestry, inhabiting a portion of the Sahel mainly between Lake Chad and the Nile river near south Kordofan, numbering over six million. They are known as Baggara and Abbala in Sudan, and as Shuwa Arabs in Cameroon, Nigeria and Western Chad. The term Shuwa is said to be of Kanuri origin.
Blue Nile State is one of the eighteen states of the Republic of the Sudan. It was established by presidential decree nº 3 in 1992 and it is named after the Blue Nile River.
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.
The Eastern Jebel languages are a small subfamily belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subgroup of Nilo-Saharan. They are spoken in the hills of An Nil al Azraq province in eastern Sudan
Berta proper, a.k.a. Gebeto, is spoken by the Berta in Sudan and Ethiopia. As of 2006 Berta had approximately 180,000 speakers in Sudan.
Ethiopian Semitic is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of the Afroasiatic language family.
The languages of Ethiopia include the official languages of Ethiopia, its national and regional languages, and a large number of minority languages, as well as foreign languages.
The Tigre people are an ethnic group indigenous to Eritrea. They mainly inhabit the lowlands and northern highlands of Eritrea.
Tornasi is an ethnic group in Sudan. They speak Kelo, a Nilo-Saharan language which has 200 speakers and is critically endangered. It is among the Satellite-Core languages among the Nilo-Saharan languages. A more detailed division is Core languages, then Eastern Sudanic languages, Southern languages, Eastern Jebel languages, then Aka-Kelo-Molo. Beni Sheko speakers consider themselves to be part of the same ethnic group as Kelo speakers. They live in Geissan District, Blue Nile State, Sudan: Jebel Tornasi, Keeli village, and Beni Sheko. They live West of Berta-speaking people. Most are Muslims.
Bench Sheko is a zone in the South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Bench Sheko is bordered on the south and southeast by West Omo, on the west by the Gambela Region on the north by Sheka, and on the east by Keffa. The administrative center of Bench Sheko is Mizan Teferi.
Sheko is a woreda in South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region, Ethiopia. It is named for the Sheko people, whose homeland lies in this woreda. Part of the Bench Maji Zone, Sheko is bordered on the south by Debub Bench, on the west by Guraferda, on the northwest by the Gambela Region, on the north by the Sheka Zone, and on the east by Semien Bench. Towns in Sheko include Sheko. The western part of this woreda was added to Dimma woreda and central part of it was used to create Guraferda woreda.
Sheko is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the area between Tepi and Mizan Teferi in western Ethiopia, in the Sheko district in the Bench Maji Zone. The 2007 census lists 38,911 speakers; the 1998 census listed 23,785 speakers, with 13,611 identified as monolinguals.
Dizin is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by the Dizi people, primarily in the Maji woreda of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, located in southwestern Ethiopia. The 2007 census listed 33,927 speakers. A population of 17,583 was identified as monolinguals in 1994.
Dongolawi is a Nubian language of northern Sudan. It is spoken by a minority of the Danagla people in the Nile Valley, from roughly upstream to the bend in the Nile near ed Debba. Dongolawi is an Arabic term based on the town of Old Dongola, the centre of the historic Christian kingdom of Makuria. Today's Dongola was founded during the 19th century on the western side of the Nile. The Dongolawi call their language Andaandi "the language of our home".
Nayi is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in western Ethiopia. Most of the speakers of the language live in two separated areas. The largest grouping live in Decha woreda of the Keffa Zone. The nearest city to their region is Bonga. A few in Dulkuma village of the Shoa Bench woreda, some in Sheko woreda having moved there in 1976-1977 as a result of conflicts between local feudal lords and the military government. In Decha, young people no longer speak the language.
Hozo is an Afroasiatic language spoken mostly in the Kondala woreda of Mirab Welega Zone by peoples generically known as "Mao". There are smaller groups of Hozo speakers in Mana Sibu woreda. The term Hozo is usually understood by the Mao to refer to a clan. Hozo speakers prefer to call themselves Amo. Hozo and Seze are sometimes called Begi Mao. Hozo is spoken by roughly 3,000 people in Ethiopia. Hozo is also a clan in the Begi area. The Hozo language is also known as Begi-Mao and Mao of Begi. Its classification is Afro-Asiatic, Omotic, and Mao. The word Mao is Omotic and means ‘man; people’, occurring as [ma:ɪ] in Seze and as [mɔ:] in Hozo. Mao is frequently used as an ethnic term. There is a kind of Mao identity across language differences in Ethiopia. While it is generally accepted today that Omotic is one of the primary branches of the Afro-Asiatic family, the position of the four languages Hozo, Seze, Ganza and Northern Mao is still being discussed. The Mao languages are the least documented within Omotic, and Omotic itself is the least documented of the Afroasiatic groups.
The Berta languages, or Funj, traditionally considered dialects of a single language, are Gebeto, Fadashi, and Undu. They are either a small family of their own, or a primary branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family.
