Native to Ethiopia Native speakers 92,000 (2007 census) Writing system Ethiopic, Latin | Region Oromia Region & SNNPR Dialects Fuga | |
Language family Afro-Asiatic
Omotic
North
Yem | ||
Yemsa is the language of the Yem people of the former Kingdom of Yamma, known as Kingdom of Janjero to the Amhara. It is a member of the Omotic group of languages, most closely related to Kafa. It is distinctive in having different systems of vocabulary depending on social status, rather like Japanese and Javanese. The estimated number of speakers varies wildly from about 1000 (Bender,1976) to half a million (Aklilu, 1993).
The Fuga dialect is distinct enough to perhaps be a different language.
Sample Verb Forms
References
Yem language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA