Kambaata language

Kambaata
Kambaatissata
Native toEthiopia
RegionSouthwest Gurage, Kambaata, Hadiyya Regions
EthnicityKambaata
Native speakers
740,000 (2007 census)[1][2]
Ethiopic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
ktb – Kambaata
alw – Alaba-K’abeena
Glottologkamb1318

Kambaata is a Highland East Cushitic language, part of the larger Afro-Asiatic family and spoken by the Kambaata people. Closely related varieties are Xambaaro (T'ambaaro, Timbaaro), Alaba, and Qabeena (K'abeena),[3] of which the latter two are sometimes divided as a separate Alaba language. The language has many verbal affixes. When these are affixed to verbal roots, there are a large amount of morphophonemic changes.[4] The language has subject–object–verb order. The phonemes of Kambaata include five vowels (which are distinctively long or short), a set of ejectives, a retroflexed implosive, and glottal stop.

The New Testament and some parts of the Old Testament have been translated into the Kambaata language. At first, they were published in the Ethiopian syllabary (New Testament in 1992), but later on, they were republished in Latin letters, in conformity with new policies and practices.

Phonology

Here is the phonology of the Kambaata language.[5]

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive/Affricate voiceless t tʃ k ʔ
voiced b d dʒ g
ejective pʼ tʼ tʃʼ kʼ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced z (ʒ)
Nasal m n (ɲ)
Lateral plain l
glottalized lˀ
Trill plain r
glottalized rˀ
Semivowel w j

Kambaata has a simple five vowel system /a, e, i, o, u/, contrasting long vowels and nasalized vowels (but only marginally).[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census Archived 2010-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Kambaata". Ethnologue. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  3. ^ Treis 2008, p. 4.
  4. ^ Sim 1985, 1988.
  5. ^ a b Treis, Yvonne. A Grammar of Kambaata. Part 1: Phonology, Nominal Morphology, and Non-verbal Predication. (Cushitic Language Studies, 26.) Cologne: Köppe.

References

  • ALAMU BANTA ATAARA, Kookaata. Kambaatissa–Amaarsa–Ingiliizissa Laaga Doonnuta. ከምባትሳ–ኣማርኛ–እንግሊዝኛ መዝገበ ቃላት. Kambatissa–Amharic–English Dictionary (Addis Abäba: Bǝrhanǝnna sälam mattämiya dǝrǝǧǧǝt, 2009 EC = 2016/2017 CE); 1165 pp.
  • Korhonen, Elsa, Mirja Saksa, and Ronald J. Sim. 1986. "A dialect study of Kambaata-Hadiyya (Ethiopia) [part 1]." Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 5: 5-41.
  • Korhonen, Elsa, Mirja Saksa, and Ronald J. Sim. 1986. "A dialect study of Kambaata-Hadiyya (Ethiopia), part 2: Appendices." Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 6: 71-121.
  • Sim, Margaret G. 1985. "Kambaata Verb Morphophonemics," The morphophonemics of five Highland East Cushitic languages including Burji. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 2. Köln: Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität zu Köln. Pages 44–63.
  • Sim, Margaret. 1988. "Palatalization and gemination in the Kambaata verb." Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 1.58-65.
  • Treis, Yvonne (2008). A Grammar of Kambaata. Part 1: Phonology, Nominal Morphology and Non-verbal Predication. Cushitic Language Studies. Vol. 26. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.


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