Ghulfan
Uncunwee
Native toSudan
RegionNuba Mountains
EthnicityGhulfan
Native speakers
37,000 (2017)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ghl
Glottologghul1238
ELPUncunwee

Ghulfan (also Gulfan, Uncu, Uncunwee, Wunci, Wuncimbe) is a Hill Nubian language spoken in the central Nuba Mountains in the south of Sudan. It is spoken by around 37,000 people in the Ghulfan Kurgul and Ghulfan Morung hills, south of Dilling. The villages in which the language is spoken are Dabri, Karkandi, Katang, Kurgul, Namang, Ninya, Moring, Ota, Shigda, and Tarda. It is closely related to Kadaru, with which it forms the Kadaru-Ghulfan subgroup of Hill Nubian.[2]

Ethnologue reports that the use of Ghulfan is decreasing as younger speakers switch to Sudanese Arabic with only adults speaking the language now and that there are no monolingual speakers of the language.[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Post-alv./
Palatal		 Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless t ʈ tʃ k
voiced b d ɖ dʒ ɡ
Fricative ʃ
Lateral l
Rhotic r ɽ
Approximant w j

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e eː o oː
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a aː

[3]

References

  1. ↑ Ghulfan at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. 1 2 "Ghulfan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  3. ↑ Williams, Robert S.; Comfort, Jade (n.d.). Ghulfan Grammar Sketch.
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