From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Argobba is an Ethiopian Semitic spoken in an area north-east of Addis Ababa by the Argobba people. It belongs to the South Ethiopian Semitic subgroup together with Amharic and the Gurage languages. Writing in the mid-1960s, Edward Ullendorff noted that it "is disappearing rapidly in favour of Amharic, and only a few hundred elderly people are still able to speak it."[1]
The language is spoken in a number of pockets and has at least four regional variations (dialects) in Harar (extinct), Aliyu Amba, Shewa Robit and Shonke.
- ^ Ullendorff, Edward (1965) The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People, second edition (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 131f. ISBN 0-19-285061-X.
[edit] References
- Ethnologue entry for Argobba
- Cohen, Marcel (1931) Études d'éthiopien méridional (Collection d'ouvrages orientaux). Paris: Geuthner.
- Cohen, Marcel (1939) Nouvelles Études d'éthiopien méridional Paris: Ancienne Honoré Champion.
- Leslau, Wolf (1997) Ethiopic Documents: Argobba. Grammar and dictionary Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03955-8.
- Zelealem Leyew and Ralph Siebert (1994) Argobba. S.L.L.E. Linguistic Reports no. 22 Addis Ababa: SIL/Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University.
- Zelealem Leyew, Ralph Siebert (2002), Sociolinguistic Survey Report of the Argobba Language of Ethiopia SIL Electronic Survey Reports, SILESR 2002-026 (PDF)
[edit] External links
