| Alaba-K'abeena | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Ethiopia |
| Region | Rift Valley southwest of Lake Shala |
| Native speakers |
227,000 of Alaba 51,000 of Qebena (date missing) |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | alw |
Alaba-K'abeena (also known as Alaba, Allaaba, Halaba) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Ethiopia in the Great Rift Valley southwest of Lake Shala. The literacy rate of native speakers in their language is below 1%, while their literacy rate in second languages is 8.6%; Alaba-K'abeena is taught in primary schools. It has an 81% lexical similarity with Kambaata.[1] However Fleming (1976) classifies K'abeena (also transliterated "Qebena") as a dialect of Kambaata. The 2007 census in Ethiopia lists Alaba and Qebena as separate languages.[2]
