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