Qwara dialect

Qwara
Qwareña
Spoken in	Ethiopia
Region	Amhara Region
Native speakers	0  (date missing)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Central Northern Qimant Qwara
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Qwara, or Qwareña (called "Falashan" in some older sources), is one of two Agaw dialects formerly spoken by a subgroup of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) of the Qwara area. It is a dialect of Qimant.

The language was on the decline in the early 20th century, as it was being slowly replaced by Amharic. During Operation Solomon, most of its remaining speakers were airlifted to Israel, where it continues to lose ground to Hebrew.

Several early Falashan manuscripts, using the Ge'ez alphabet, exist; in more recent times, the language has been recorded by several linguists and travellers, starting with Flad in 1866.

See also

• Kayla dialect

References

• "Kaïliña – a 'new' Agaw dialect and its implications for Agaw dialectology", in Voice and Power: The Culture of Language in North-East Africa, R.J. Hayward and I. Lewis (eds.), pp. 1–19. London: SOAS, 1996 (March). ISBN 0-7286-0257-1.

External links

• SIL – Sociolinguist report of the Kemant (Qimant) Language of Ethiopia