To appear in: Bedilu Wakjira, Ronny Meyer, Yvonne Treis and Zelealem Leyew (eds.), /The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages./ London: Oxford University Press. 29 Nilo-Saharan: General overview Gerrit J. Dimmendaal 29.1 Introduction 29.2 Kunama 29.3 Eastern Sudanic 29.3.1 Nara 29.3.2 Bertha 29.3.3 Surmic 29.3.4 Nilotic 29.4 Gumuz and the Koman group Keywords: Accretion zone, case, converbs, dependent marking, Differential Object Marking, Differential Subject Marking, ergativity, head marking, metatypy, split intransitivity, spread zone 29.1 Introduction The easternmost representatives of Nilo-Saharan, a language family spread over much of Central and Eastern Africa, extend into Ethiopia and Eritrea (Map 1). Their geographical spread along a mainly north-to-south axis in the border area between Ethiopia and Sudan, including South Sudan, reflects the relative chronology of their historical diffusion into Ethiopia from the west, which probably started in the northern parts of Ethiopia. Starting with the northern languages, the Kunama cluster is characteristic of Nilo-Saharan languages spoken along an east-west axis from Ethiopia and Eritrea towards Chad and Nigeria. These languages are characterized by extensive case systems, converbs, coverb plus light verb constructions, and verb-final syntax. They are consequently also typologically similar to Afroasiatic languages in Ethiopia. South of this area, in Western Ethiopia, languages are spoken which belong to the largest subgroup within Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic: Nara, Bertha, and also Nilotic and Surmic languages. Nara is most closely related to the Nubian languages, and also to the Taman group and to Nyimang plus Afitti (all in Sudan and Chad), with which it forms the Northern branch within Eastern Sudanic. Bertha is most closely related to the Jebel languages, and to Daju, Temeinian, and Nilotic and Surmic languages. From a typological perspective, these Southern members of Eastern Sudanic differ dramatically from their Northern relatives, particularly with