Konso language

Konso
Konso
አፈ ኾንሶ (äfä honəso)
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	South of Lake Chamo in the bend of the Sagan River
Native speakers	240,000 (2007)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Lowland East Oromoid Konsoid Konso; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Duuro; Fasha; Karatti; Kholme;
Writing system	Ethiopic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kxc
Glottolog	kons1243

Konso (Komso, Khonso, also Af Kareti, Afa Karatti, Conso, Gato, Karate, Kareti) is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia. 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. Blench (2006) considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages.^[3]

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 nor ejective consonants. Instead, it has a series of implosive stops, including the extremely rare uvular implosive /ʛ/.^[4]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Plosive	plain	p	t	c	k		ʔ
Plosive	implosive	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ		ʛ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ		χ	h
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Glide		w		j

Vowels

Typical of a Cushitic language, Konso distinguishes five short and five long vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

References

^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
^ Konso at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms)
^ Orkaydo, Ongaye Oda (2013). A Grammar of Konso. p. 11.

Literature on the Konso language

Bliese, Loren; Gignarta, Sokka (1986). "Konso Exceptions to SOV (subject–object–verb) Typology". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 19: 1–40. JSTOR 41965937.
Hellenthal, Anne-Christie (2004). Some Morphosyntactic Aspects of the Konso Language (MA thesis). Leiden University.
Orkaydo, Ongaye Oda (2013). A grammar of Konso (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Leiden University. hdl:1887/20681.
Uusitalo, Mirjami (2007). Konso language. in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 3, 424-425. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.