Ometo languages

Ometo
Geographic
distribution:
Ethiopia
Linguistic classification:

Afro-Asiatic

Subdivisions:
  • South
  • East
  • North
Glottolog: omet1238[1]

The Ometo languages of Ethiopia 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.[2]

Bender (2000) classifies them as,[2]

Hayward (2003) added Basketo to Central Ometo and called the result 'North Ometo',[3] a position followed by Blench (2006). Blench lists several additional North Ometo languages, and lists Chara as unclassified within the family.[4]

He also lists Balta, a regional name for Wolaytta, as a possibly separate language.

Notes

  1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ometo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  2. 2.0 2.1 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.
  3. Hayward, Richard J. 2003. 'Omotic: the "empty quarter" of Afroasiatic linguistics'. In Research in Afroasiatic Grammar II: selected papers from the fifth conference on Afroasiatic languages, Paris 2000, ed. by Jacqueline Lecarme, pp. 241-261. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  4. Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List