 |
This Afro-Asiatic languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| Wolaytta (Walamo in ISO 639-3) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Ethiopia | |
| Region: | Wolaytta Region | |
| Total speakers: | 1,231,673, including 999,694 monolinguals (1998) | |
| Language family: | Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Gonga-Gimojan Gimojan Ometo-Gimira Ometo Central Wolaytta (Walamo in ISO 639-3) |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | wal | |
| ISO 639-3: | wal | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Wolaytta[1] is an Omotic language spoken in the Wolaita Zone and some parts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia. The number of speakers of this language is estimated at 2,000,000 (1991 UBS); it is the native language of the Welayta people.[2] The estimates of the population vary greatly because it is not agreed where the boundaries of the language are.
There are conflicting claims about how widely Wolaytta is spoken. The Ethnologue identifies one smaller dialect region: Zala. Some hold that Melo, Oyda, and Gamo-Gofa-Dawro are also dialects, but most authorities, including Ethnologue and ISO 639-3 now list these as separate languages. The different communities of speakers also recognize them as separate languages.[3]
Contents |
Balta, Borodda, Ganta, Otschollo, Uba.
The language is the official language in the Welayta zone of Ethiopia. The Ethnologue cites statistics that 5% to 25% literate in this language. Portion of the Bible were produced in 1934, the New Testament in 1981, and the entire Bible in 2003.
Like other Omotic languages, the language has the basic word order SOV (Subject Object Verb). It also has ejective consonants, but is notable in Ethiopia for having /p/ instead of /f/.
|
This Afro-Asiatic languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
