@ -10,4 +10,29 @@ Ama verbs are comparable with Nubian and other related languages in their clause
Ama is a North Eastern Sudanic language spoken in villages to the west and north-west of Dilling, near to where Kordofan Nubian languages are spoken in the north-western Nuba Mountains. “Ama” (*ámá* “people”) is the self-designated name of the language community identified by the ISO639-3 code [nyi] and replaces the name “Nyimang” in older sources,[^1] as “Ama” is the name used in local literature in the language created over the last three decades. Nyimang is an altered form of “Nyima,” one of the mountains in the Ama homeland, which is now used as the name of the branch of Eastern Sudanic consisting of Ama [nyi] and Afitti [aft]. I will assume that Nyima is one of a group of four extant northern branches of the Eastern Sudanic family, the others being Nubian, the Nara language, and Taman.[^2]
[^1]:
[^1]: Stevenson, *Grammar of the Nyimang Language* and “A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba Mountain languages with particular reference to Otoro, Katcha and Nyimaŋ,” 40: p. 107.
[^2]: Rilly, *Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique,* §4.
Ama examples unless otherwise stated are from the author’s fieldwork verified with leading Ama writers who oversee literacy in the language. For vowels, I distinguish five –ATR brassy vowels ɪɛaɔʊ and five +ATR breathy vowels *ieəou,* as represented fluently by Ama writers using five vowel letters {aeiou} and a saltillo {ꞌ} in breathy words. For tone, Ama’s nearest relative Afitti has been described as having two contrastive tone levels,[^3] but Ama has three levels, which play a role in the verb system as well as the wider lexicon as shown in table 1.
[^3]: de Voogt, “A sketch of Afitti phonology,” p. 47.
| kɛ̀r | around | nɪ̀ | kill (progressive 1st/2nd person) | ɕɪ̀ɛ̄ | do (intransitive)|
**Table 1: Level tone contrasts in Ama**
A brief overview of Ama morphosyntax can be gained by locating it in the typology of Heine and Vossen,[^4] which assesses African languages on the presence of nominal classification, nominal case, and verbal derivation. In Ama, the role of nominal classification is limited due to a remarkable lack of nominal number affixes, although there is some differentiated grammatical behavior of rational nominals.[^5] However, case is extensive in Ama,[^6] as is typical of Nilo-Saharan verb-final languages,[^7] and likewise verbal derivation is extensive.
[^4]: Heine & Vossen, “Sprachtypologie,” cited in Kröger, “Typology Put to Practical Use,” p. 159.
[^5]: Norton, “Number in Ama verbs,” pp. 75–76, 85; Stevenson, “A Survey of the Phonetics and Grammatical Structure of the Nuba Mountain Languages,” 41: pp. 175–76.
[^6]: Stevenson, *Grammar of the Nyimang Language,* §§2–10.
