Verb extensions in Koalib: a first general overview followed by some brief comparative considerations

International audience Koalib is a Kordofanian language (Heibanian family) spoken by ca. 100,000 people living in or coming from the areas of Abri, Delami, Tongole, Umm Heitan, Umm Berembeita and Djebel Nyukur, in the northeastern part of the Nuba Mountains (Southern Kordofan, Sudan). As happens in many other Niger-Congo languages, verb extensions are a key element of Koalib verb morphology. Indeed, out of a total of 2,397 verbs registered in our Koalib dictionary (Quint & Ali Karmal Koko, forthcoming), 406 at most are underived verbs, while the rest, i.e., 1,991 items or 83% of the total, are extended verbs. At least 10 different extensions are attested in contemporary Koalib.To this day, only two publications are available about Koalib verb extensions, namely Stevenson (1956/57: 29), which gives examples of some extensions, and Quint (2010), which focuses on applicatives (benefactives and malefactives).The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general overview of verb extensions in Koalib. Its contents are organized as follows. In SECTION 2, the different verb extensions are scrutinized regarding their main characteristics (segmental and tonal morphology, valency, productivity, phonological constraints, semantics and borrowed verbs). In SECTION 3, the question of the boundaries between basic and extended verbs is tackled, with particular attention being paid to the case of frequentative and pluractional verbs. In SECTION 4, a brief comparative insight is provided, in order to allow the reader to situate Koalib verb extensions with respect to other Heibanian and Kordofanian languages. SECTION 5 summarizes the main points developed in this chapter and makes suggestions for further research.