Native to Ethiopia Ethnicity Beta Israel | Region Amhara Region Glottolog hwar1238 | |
Extinct ca. 2000 (3,200 L2 speakers) Language family Afro-Asiatic
Cushitic
Central
Northern
Qimant
Qwara | ||
Qwara, or Qwareña (called "Falasha" (Hwarasa) in some older sources), was one of two Agaw dialects, spoken by a subgroup of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) of the Qwara area. It is a dialect of Qimant. It is nearly extinct. Several early Falashan manuscripts, using the Ge'ez alphabet, exist; in more recent times, the language has been recorded by several linguists and travellers, starting with Flad in 1866.
The language was on the decline in the early 20th century, as it was being replaced by Amharic. During Operation Solomon, most of its remaining speakers were airlifted to Israel, where it continues to lose ground to Hebrew.
References
Qwara dialect Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA