group of Nilo-Saharan languages spoken by some 110,000 people of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Whereas some varieties of Kunama constitute mutually intelligible dialects, others, such as Bitama and Ilit, are distinct Kunama languages. Kunama was assigned by Joseph H. Greenberg (Greenberg, Joseph H.) as a subgroup of Chari-Nile within Nilo-Saharan, but Chari-Nile is no longer considered a valid genetic unit.