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''—beyond the area of the
Konso people
The Konso, also known as the Xonsita, are a Lowland East Cushitic-speaking ethnic group primarily inhabiting south-western Ethiopia.
History
According to Hallpike (1972), Konso family traditions indicate that they are a composite people, both phy ...
. 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
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
nor
ejective consonants
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...
. 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
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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