Highland East Cushitic languages
| Highland East Cushitic | |
|---|---|
| Sidamic | |
| Geographic distribution | Ethiopia |
| Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | high1285 |
Highland East CushiticorBurji-Sidamois a branch of theAfroasiatic language familyspoken in south-centralEthiopia.They are often grouped withLowland East Cushitic,Dullay,andYaakuasEast Cushitic,but that group is not well defined. The most populous language isSidama,with close to two million speakers.
The languages are:
The four to six Sidamoid languages are all closely related. Hadiyya and Libido are especially close, as are Kambaata and Alaba. Their relationship with Burji is more distant and was first proposed in 1940;[1]it has been accepted widely but not universally.
Language contact[edit]
The Highland East Cushitic languages show parallels in their phonology to the historical development of the southernEthio-Semiticlanguages, in particular those of theGuragegroup, and may have influenced their development.[2]
Notes[edit]
- ^Lamberti, Marcello (1991). "Cushitic and its Classifications".Anthropos:552–561.
- ^Leslau, Wolf."Sidamo Features in the South Ethiopic Phonology.""Journal of the American Oriental Society," 1959.
References[edit]
- Hudson, Grover. 1981. The Highland East Cushitic family vine.Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika3.97-124.
- Hudson, Grover. 1988. The Highland Cushitic hypothesis.Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies(Addis Ababa, 1984), Taddese Beyene, ed., 693-696. Birmingham, England: Elm Press.
- Hudson, Grover. 1989.Highland East Cushitic Dictionary(Kuschitische Sprachstudien 7). Hamburg: Buske.
- Hudson, Grover. 2005. Highland East Cushitic languages,Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics,2nd ed., Keith Brown, ed., 294-298. Elsevier: Oxford.
- Hudson, Grover. 2007a. Highland East Cushitic morphology,Morphologies of Asian and African Languages,vol. 1,Alan S. Kaye,ed., 529-545. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
- Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 1979. The consonant phonemes of Proto-East-Cushitic (PEC): A first approximation. Malibu: Undena Publications.
- Wedekind, Klaus. 1980. Sidamo, Gedeo (Derasa), Burji: Phonological differences and likenesses.Journal of Ethiopian Studies14: 131-76.
- Wedekind, Klaus. 1990.Generating narratives: interrelations of knowledge, text variants, and Cushitic focus strategies.Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, 52. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
