Geographic
distribution: Gurage Zone (Ethiopia) | ||
Linguistic classification: Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
South Semitic
Western
South Ethiopic
Transversal
Harari – East Gurage
East Gurage Glottolog: silt1239 (Silte–Wolane)
zayy1238 (Zay) | ||
The Gurage languages (Amharic: ጉራጌ? Guragē, also known as Guragie) are Afroasiatic languages of the South Ethiopic branch of the Semitic family spoken by the Gurage people. The ethnic group inhabits the Gurage Zone within the larger multi-ethnic Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region in southwestern Ethiopia.
Contents
Overview
The Gurage languages do not constitute a coherent linguistic grouping. Instead, the term is both linguistic and cultural. The Gurage people speak a number of separate languages, all belonging to the Southern subdivision of the Ethiopian Semitic languages within the Afroasiatic family, which also includes Amharic. The languages are often referred to collectively as "Guraginya" by other Ethiopians (-inya is the Amharic suffix for most Ethiopian Semitic languages).
There are three dialectically varied Gurage subgroups: Northern, Eastern and Western. East Gurage is more closely related to Amharic than to either of the other two groups.
The Gurage languages are written with the Ge'ez script. The Gurage subset of this script has 44 independent glyphs.
There is no general agreement on how many languages or dialects there are, in particular within the West Gurage grouping.
As the Gurage people are surrounded by speakers of Cushitic languages, these languages have influenced the Gurage languages perhaps even more than they have other Ethiopian Semitic languages. For example, the East Gurage languages have a ten-vowel system characteristic of the neighboring Cushitic languages rather than the seven-vowel system common to most other Ethiopian Semitic languages, including the West Gurage languages.
Languages
In the following listing, the distinction between languages and dialects follows Ethnologue.
Sebat Bet (or Sebat Beit), in particular, is best understood as a grouping in itself; the term means literally "Seven Houses," and refers to seven specific Western Gurage groups and varieties. Silt'e is more closely related to Amharic than to Soddo.