The Omotic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken in Ethiopia. Most Omotic speakers live in southwestern Ethiopia. The Ge'ez alphabet is used to write some Omotic languages.

The Omotic languages are fairly agglutinative.^[1] Blench (2006) notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary, but not cattle-related vocabulary, with the rest of Afro-Asiatic, suggesting that the split occurred before the advent of pastoralism.^{citation needed} Many scholars, however, are beginning to doubt that the Omotic languages are part of Afro-Asiatic.^[2][3]

The Omotic languages should not be confused with the unrelated Omotik language, a nearly extinct Nilotic language of Tanzania with a similar name.

Language List

The Omotic Languages include:

Lionel Bender (2000) classifies this group as follows:

• South Omotic/Aroid (Hamer, Banna, Aari, Dime, Karo)
• North Omotic/Non-Aroid
  • Mao (Bambassi (Bambeshi), Hozo, Sezo, Ganza)
  • Dizoid (Dizi, Dorsha, Sheko (Shako), Nayi (Nao))
  • Gonga-Gimojan
    • Gonga/Kefoid (Boro, Anfillo, Kafa, Shekkacho language (Mocha))
    • Gimojan
      • Yem/Janjero (Yemsa (Janjero), Fuga)
      • Ometo-Gimira
        • Gimira (Bench, She, Mer)
        • Chara
        • Ometo (Male; Basketo; Kachama, Ganjule, Koreete (Koyra), Gidichho, Zayse, Zergulla; Welayta (Ometo), Oyta (Oyda), Dorze, Melo, Gamo, Gofa, Dawro)

Apart from terminology, this differs from Harold Fleming's earlier (1976) classification in including the Mao languages, whose affiliation had originally been controversial, and in abolishing the "Gimojan" group. There are also differences in the subclassification of Ometo, which is not given here.

Hayward (2003) separate out the Mao languages and slightly rearranges the Gimojan languages:

• South Omotic: Hamar, Aari, Dime
• Mao: Mao of Begi, Mao of Bambeshi, Diddesa
• North Omotic
  • Dizoid: Dizi, Sheko, Nayi
  • Ta-Ne languages
    • Gonga: Kafa, Shakicho (Mocha), Shinasha, Anfillo
    • Gimojan
      • Yem (earlier known as 'Janjero')
      • Gimira: Bench, She
      • Ometo-C'ara: C’ara
        • North Ometo: Wolaitta, Gamo, Gofa, Dawro, Malo, Basketo, Oyda
        • East Ometo: Zayse, Zargulla, Harro and other lacustrine varities, Koorete
        • South Ometo: Maale

Classification

The Omotic languages were formerly classified as the West subgroup of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. However, as more data became available, Harold Fleming proposed that they constituted a separate subgroup of Afro-Asiatic, and this became the prevalent view. Whether the old Cushitic linguistic subgroup should have been split in two in this way was still controversial among a few linguists.

Other linguists such as the noted Chadicist Paul Newman, on the other hand, regard the differences between the Omotic languages and the other Afro-Asiatic languages as being so great as to cast doubt on their very inclusion in the phylum. In keeping with Newman's views is Rolf Theil (2006), who proposes that Omotic be treated instead as an entirely independent language family on the basis that no closer genetic relations have been demonstrated between Omotic and Afro-Asiatic than between Omotic and any other language family.^[2]

Notes

Sources cited

• Bender, M. Lionel. 2000. Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages. Munich: LINCOM.
• Fleming, Harold. 1976. Omotic overview. In The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia, ed. by M. Lionel Bender, pp. 299-323. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University.

General Omotic bibliography

• Bender, M. L. 1975. Omotic: a new Afroasiatic language family. (University Museum Series, 3.) Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University.
• Blench, Roger. 2006. Archaeology, Language, and the African Past. AltaMira Press
• Hayward, Richard J., ed. 1990. Omotic Language Studies. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
• Hayward, Richard J. 2003. Omotic: the "empty quarter" of Afroasiatic linguistics. In Research in Afroasiatic Grammar II: selected papers from the fith conference on Afroasiatic languages, Paris 2000, ed. by Jacqueline Lecarme, pp. 241-261. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

See also

• Languages of Ethiopia

External links

• Is Omotic Afro-Asiatic? by Rolf Theil

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