Northern Eastern Sudanic languages

The Northern Eastern Sudanic, Eastern k Sudanic, Ek Sudanic, NNT or Astaboran languages may form a primary division of the proposed Eastern Sudanic family. They are characterised by having a /k/ in the first person singular pronoun "I/me", as opposed to the Southern Eastern Sudanic languages, which have an /n/. Nyima has yet to be conclusively linked to the other languages, and would appear to be the closest relative of Ek Sudanic rather than Ek Sudanic proper.

The most well-known language of this group is Nubian. According to Claude Rilly, the ancient Meroitic language appears on limited evidence to be closely related to the languages of this group.

A reconstruction of Proto-Northern Eastern Sudanic has also been proposed by Rilly (2010).

Internal classification
Rilly (2009:2) provides the following internal structure for the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages.


 * Northern East Sudanic
 * Nyima: Nyimang, Afitti
 * Taman: Tama, Mararit
 * Nara-Nubian
 * Nara
 * Meroitic-Nubian
 * Meroitic
 * Nubian
 * Western Nubian
 * Birgid
 * Midob, Kordofan Nubian
 * Nile Nubian
 * Old Dongolawi, Kenuzi, Dongolawi
 * Old Nubian, Nobiin

External relationships
Based on morphological evidence such as tripartite number marking on nominals, Roger Blench (2021) suggests that the Maban languages may be closely related.