The Ometo languages of Ethiopia are a dialect cluster of the Omotic family, generally accepted as part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They include the most populous Omotic language, Wolaytta, with two million speakers.[1] The languages have around 4 million speakers.

Ometo
Geographic
distribution
Ethiopia
Linguistic classificationAfro-Asiatic
Subdivisions
  • South
  • East
  • North
Language codes
Glottologomet1238

Classification

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Bender (2000)

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Bender (2000) classifies them as,[1]

Blench (2006)

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Hayward (2003) added Basketo to Central Ometo and called the result 'North Ometo',[2] a position followed by Blench (2006).

Blench (2006) lists several additional North Ometo languages, and lists Chara as unclassified within the family.[3]

He also lists Balta, a regional name for Wolaytta, as a possibly separate language.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Bender, M. Lionel. 2000. Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages. Munich: LINCOM. Classification copied in Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  2. ^ Hayward, Richard J. 2003. 'Omotic: the "empty quarter" of Afroasiatic linguistics'. In Research in Afroasiatic Grammar II: selected papers from the fifth conference on Afroasiatic languages, Paris 2000, ed. by Jacqueline Lecarme, pp. 241-261. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  3. ^ Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List