Omotic

Omotic
Geographic distribution:	Ethiopia
Genetic classification:	Afro-Asiatic  Omotic
Subdivisions:	North Omotic (Kaffa) South Omotic (Arii) ? Mao
ISO 639-5:	omv
The Omotic languages      South Omotic      Mao      Dizoid      Gonga (Kefoid) Gimojan languages:      Yemsa      Bench (Gimira)      Chara      Ometo Neighboring languages      Nilo-Saharan      Afro-Asiatic

The Omotic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic family spoken in southwestern Ethiopia. The Ge'ez alphabet is used to write some Omotic languages, the Roman alphabet for some others. They are fairly agglutinative,^[1] and have complex tonal systems (see Bench language).

Language List

The Omotic Languages include:

The North and South Omotic branches ("Nomotic" and "Somotic") are universally recognized. The primary debate is over the placement of the Mao languages. Bender (2000) classifies Omotic as follows:

• South Omotic/Aroid (Hamer-Banna, Aari, Dime, Karo)
• North Omotic/Non-Aroid
  • Mao
    • Bambassi
    • West Mao (Hozo, Sezo, Ganza)
  • Dizoid (Dizi, Sheko, Nayi)
  • Gonga-Gimojan
    • Gonga/Kefoid (Boro, Anfillo, Kafa, Shekkacho)
    • Gimojan
      • Yemsa (Fuga lect perhaps a separate language)
      • Ometo-Gimira
        • Bench
        • Chara
        • Ometo languages

Apart from terminology, this differs from Fleming (1976) in including the Mao languages, whose affiliation had originally been controversial, and in abolishing the "Gimojan" group.^{[clarification needed]} There are also differences in the subclassification of Ometo, which is not covered here.

Hayward (2003) separates out the Mao languages as a third branch of Omotic, and breaks up Ometo-Gimira:

• South Omotic
• Mao
• North Omotic
  • Dizoid
  • Ta-Ne languages
    • Gonga
    • Gimojan
      • Yemsa
      • Bench
      • Ometo-Chara

Classification

Omotic is generally considered the most divergent branch of the Afroasiatic languages. Greenberg (1963) had classified it as the Western branch of Cushitic. Fleming (1969) argued that it should instead be classified as an independent branch of Afroasiatic, a view which Bender (1971) established to most linguists' satisfaction,^[2] though a few linguists maintain the West Cushitic position.^[3] Blench (2006) notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary with the rest of Afroasiatic, but not cattle-related vocabulary, suggesting that the split occurred before the advent of pastoralism. A few scholars have raised doubts that the Omotic languages are part of the Afroasiatic language family at all,^[4][5] and Theil (2006) proposes that Omotic be treated as an independent family.^[6] However, the general consensus, based primarily on morphological evidence, is that membership in Afroasiatic is well established.^[7]

Notes

Sources cited

• Bender, M. Lionel. 2000. Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages. Munich: LINCOM.
• Fleming, Harold. 1976. Omotic overview. In The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia, ed. by M. Lionel Bender, pp. 299-323. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University.
• Newman, Paul. 1980. The classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic. Universitaire Pers Leiden.

General Omotic bibliography

• Bender, M. L. 1975. Omotic: a new Afroasiatic language family. (University Museum Series, 3.) Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University.
• Blench, Roger. 2006. Archaeology, Language, and the African Past. AltaMira Press
• Hayward, Richard J., ed. 1990. Omotic Language Studies. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
• 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.
• Lamberti, Marcello. 1991. Cushitic and its classification. Anthropos 86(4/6):552-561.
• Zaborski, Andrzej. 1986. Can Omotic be reclassified as West Cushitic? In Gideon Goldenberg, ed., Ethiopian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference, pp. 525-530. Rotterdam: Balkema.

See also

• Languages of Ethiopia

External links

• Is Omotic Afro-Asiatic? by Rolf Theil