Kordofan

Kordofan is the label for a cluster of language groups spoken in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan in Sudan, which may preserve the oldest linguistic stratum of the region. They share a mountain refuge rather than a demonstrated common ancestor, so the name is chiefly geographic; most groups are assigned to Niger-Congo while Kadu is placed in Nilo-Saharan.

In antiquity the rugged mountains lay within the Kingdom of Kush, and in the Middle Ages they formed part of the Nubian kingdom of Alodia.

The Taqali state arose among the Nuba hills between 1750 and 1780 and kept its independence behind its rocky ridges; although the Egyptians conquered the neighboring Kingdom of Sennar in 1821, their invasions of Taqali failed and the hill country kept its own rulers and languages.