Konso (Komso, Khonso, also ''Af Kareti, Afa Karatti, Conso, Gato, Karate, Kareti'') is a
Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
. Native speakers of Konso number about 200,000 (SIL 2005). Konso is closely related to
Dirasha (also known as Gidole), and serves as a "trade language"—or ''
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
''—beyond the area of the
Konso people. Blench (2006) considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages.
The Grammar of Konso was first described by Hellenthal (2004), and later, in more detail, by Ongaye (2013). The New Testament was published in the Konso language in 2002.
Phonology
Consonants
Unlike its
Oromoid relatives and most East African languages in general, Konso distinguishes neither
voiced nor
ejective consonants. Instead, it has a series of
implosive stops, including the extremely rare
uvular implosive /ʛ/.
Vowels
Typically of a Cushitic language, Konso distinguishes five short and five long vowels:
See also
*
Konso
Konso (also known as Karati) is a town on the Sagan River in south-western Ethiopia. The administrative center of the Konso special woreda of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and ...
References
Literature on the Konso language
*
*
*
*Uusitalo, Mirjami (2007). Konso language. in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 3'', 424-425. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Languages of Ethiopia
East Cushitic languages
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