Kresh languages


Kresh is a small language group of South Sudan. It is generally considered to be a branch of the Central Sudanic languages. Boyeldieu judges that this has yet to be demonstrated satisfactorily, but Starostin finds convincing evidence, and that its closest relative within that family appears to be Birri.
Kresh is generally considered a dialect cluster, but it is dialectically diverse. Blench lists five Kresh languages, four of which Ethnologue counts among seven dialects of Kresh/Gbaya. Kresh and Gbaya, however, are merely exonym and endonym, not coherent languages; they are equivalent to five varieties listed by Ethnologue. Ethnologue notes that the varieties are not mutually intelligible, but that Kresh-Ndogo is universally understood as a prestige variety, and that Naka is also commonly understood as the most populous variety. Blench also includes Furu as a Kresh language, though Ethnologue classifies it as Kara.
In addition, Aja is spoken by ethnic Kresh, but though it remains Kresh grammatically, it has been relexified by the unrelated Banda languages.

Languages

Blench distinguishes Kresh, Woro, Gbaya, Furu, Dongo, and Aja. However, the principal Kresh 'dialects' are not mutually intelligible, and Ethnologue lists them as Naka, Gbaya-Ndogo, Gbaya-Ngbongbo, Gbaya-Gboko, Orlo, Gbaya-Dara, and Dongo :
The names Gbaya and Dongo are ambiguous, as they are also used for unrelated Ubangian languages.