Gedeo is a

Highland East Cushitic Highland East Cushitic or Burji-Sidamo is a branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in south-central Ethiopia. They are often grouped with Lowland East Cushitic, Dullay, and Yaaku as East Cushitic. The most popular language is Sida ...

language of the

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

family spoken in south central

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. Alternate names for the language include Derasa, Deresa, Darassa, Geddeo, Derasanya, Darasa. It is spoken by the

Gedeo people The Gedeo are an ethnic group in southern Ethiopia. The Gedeo Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) is named for this people. They speak the Gedeo language, which is one of the Cushitic languages. Overview ...

, who live in the highland area, southwest of Dila and east of

Lake Abaya Lake Abaya (Amharic: አባያ ሐይቅ) is a lake in the South Ethiopia Regional State of Ethiopia. It is located in the Main Ethiopian Rift, east of the Guge Mountains. The town of Arba Minch lies on its southwestern shore, and the souther ...

. The languages has SOV word order. Verbs are marked for person, number, and gender of subject. Verbs are marked for voice: active, causative, middle, and passive. The New Testament was published in the Gedeo language in 1986, using the Ethiopian syllabary.

References

Sources

* Wedekind, Klaus. 1980. "Sidamo, Gedeo (Derasa), Burji: Phonological differences and likenesses," ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'' 14: 131-76. * Wedekind, Klaus. 1985. "Gedeo (Derasa) verb morphology and morphophonemics," ''The verb morphophonemics of five highland east Cushitic languages, including Burji''. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 2. Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik. Pages 82–109.

External links

Introduction to Gedeo dictionary
(archived)
Gedeo dictionary
(archived) East Cushitic languages Languages of Ethiopia {{AfroAsiatic-lang-stub