Nilo-Saharan Languages - Internal Relationships - Ehret 1984 (1989, 2001)

Ehret 1984 (1989, 2001)

In his non-peer reviewed 2001 reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan, circulated in manuscript form since 1984 and first published in 1989, Christopher Ehret classifies the families in a radically different fashion, moving Koman to the periphery, Songhay deep into the family next to Maban, and Berta into East Sudanic:

Blench notes that Ehret failed to consider existing scholarship, such as reconstructions of Proto-Central and Proto-Eastern Sudanic, and provided no evidence for his classification. It has not been followed by other researchers.