The Ometo languages of

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 ...

are a

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

of the Omotic family, generally accepted as part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They include the most populous Omotic language, Wolaytta, with two million speakers. The languages have around 4 million speakers.

Classification

Bender (2000)

Bender (2000) classifies them as,Bender, M. Lionel. 2000. ''Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages.'' Munich: LINCOM. Classification copied in Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World''. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. *South: Maale * Basketo *Central: Wolaytta (Ometo),

Oyda Oyda is one of the woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. It is named after Oyda people living in this woreda. Part of the Gamo Gofa Zone, Oyda is bordered on the south by Uba Debretsehay, on the west by th ...

(Oyta), Melo (Malo), Dorze– Gamo-Gofa-Dawro *East: Gats'ame ( Kachama-Ganjule), Koorete (Koyra, Harro), Zayse-Zergulla

Blench (2006)

Hayward (2003) added Basketo to Central Ometo and called the result 'North Ometo', a position followed by Blench (2006). Blench (2006) lists several additional North Ometo languages, and lists Chara as unclassified within the family.Blench, 2006
The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List
/ref> *North: Misketto (Basketto),

Dokka Dokka is the administrative centre of Nordre Land Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located at the confluence of the rivers Dokka and Etna, about north of the lake Randsfjorden, the fourth largest lake in Norway. The vi ...

, Doko-Dolo, Wolaitta (Welamo), Zala,

Malo Mal, which in Spanish means ''bad or evil'', may also refer to: Places *Malo, Italy, a town *Malo Island, formerly known as St. Bartholomew, Vanuatu * Malo (Solomon Islands), an island *Malo, Washington, Ferry County, Washington, United States * ...

, Dorze– Laha– Gamo– Gofa– Kullo-Konta– Dache, Ganjule, Gidicho, Kachama *East: Gatame (Haruro), Zayse (+Zergula), Koore/Koyra (Badittu) *South: Maale *?: Ch'ara He also lists ''Balta'', a regional name for Wolaytta, as a possibly separate language.

Notes

North Omotic languages Languages of Ethiopia {{Ethiopia-stub