The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have also been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan

Nilo-Saharan languages

The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...

 family. Maban is spoken in Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

, the Central African Republic

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

, Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 (Darfur

Darfur

Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...

), and South Sudan

South Sudan

South Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...

, and includes the following languages:

• Kenjeje (Yaali)
• Masalit: Surbakhal, Masalit
  Masalit language
  Masalit is a Maban language spoken by the Masalit people in western Darfur. It has two sociolects: "heavy" Masalit, with a complicated agglutinative grammar, spoken by higher-ranking people and in the countryside, and "light", spoken particularly in the home and in the market, with a somewhat...
  
  
• Aiki
  Aiki language
  Aiki is a Maban language language of Chad. It consists of two dialects, Runga and Kibet, which are divergent enough to be considered separate languages. Kibet is spoken in Chad, while Runga is split between Chad and the CAR. Ayki is a name in CAR.The Aiki area is flooded half the year....
  
   (Runga and Kibet, sometimes considered separate languages)
• Mabang: Karanga
  Karanga language
  Karanga is a Maban language language of Chad spoken by four peoples, each with their own dialect: the Karanga , Kashmere , Bakha Fala , and Koniéré Moyo ....
  
  , Marfa, Maba

The languages attested in two word lists labelled "Mimi

Mimi language

Mimi is a name applied to several distinct and not particularly closely related Nilo-Saharan languages of the Wadai area of Chad, most commonly Amdang but also including two possibly Maban languages: Mimi of Nachtigal and Mimi of Decorse....

", collected by Decorse (Mimi-D) and Nachtigal (Mimi-N), have also been classified as Maban, though this has been contested. Mimi-N appears to have been only remotely related, and G. Starostin has argued that Mimi-D is not Maban at all, with the similarities due to contact with locally dominant Maba.

External links

• Maban family tree (apart from Karanga) at Ethnologue
  Ethnologue
  Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
  
  . In the 16th edition, the Maban family was mistakenly auto-correlated with a branch of Luo with the same name
  Mabaan language
  Mabaan, or Southern Burun, is a Luo language of South Sudan. It forms a dialect continuum with Burun....
  
  . This will be corrected in the 17th edition.
• G. Starostin, 2011. On Mimi