The Agaw or Central Cushitic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken by several groups in Ethiopia and, in one case, Eritrea. They form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages.[Hetzron (1976, p. 5)]
Classification
The Central Cushitic languages are classified as follows (after Appleyard):
- (Kunfäl, spoken west of Lake Tana, is poorly recorded but most likely a dialect of Awngi)
[Joswig/Mohammed (2011)]
- *Bilen–Xamtanga:
- :* Bilen language (North) spoken (70,000 speakers) in Eritrea around the town of Keren and eastern Sudan around the town of Kassala
- :* Xamtanga (Central Agaw; also called Khamir, Khamta) 143,000 speakers in the North Amhara Region
- * Qimant language (Western Agaw) nearly extinct, spoken by the Qemant in Semien Gondar Zone
- :(dialects Qwara dialect – nearly extinct, spoken by Beta Israel formerly living in Qwara, now in Israel; Kayla dialect – extinct, formerly spoken by some Beta Israel, transitional between Qimant and Xamtanga)
There is a literature in Agaw but it is widely dispersed: from medieval texts containing passages in the Qimant language, now mostly in Israel museums, to the modern Bilen language with its own newspaper, based in Keren, Eritrea. Historical material is also available in the Xamtanga language, and there is a deep tradition of folklore in the Awngi language.
Phonology
Central Cushitic languages are characterised by the presence of , , , and
, while they lack ejectives, implosives, pharyngeals, consonant gemination, vowel length, and the consonant .
[Zelealem, Mollaligne Leyew. 2020. Central Cushitic. In: Rainer Vossen and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.]
See also
Bibliography
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Appleyard, David L. (2006) A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages (Kuschitische Sprachstudien – Cushitic Language Studies Band 24). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
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Hetzron, Robert (1976) The Agaw Languages. Afroasiatic Linguistics 3,3. p. 31–37
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Joswig, Andreas and Hussein Mohammed (2011). A Sociolinguistic Survey Report; Revisiting the Southern Agaw Language areas of Ethiopia. SIL International. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2011-047.
