Bambassi language
| Bambassi | |
|---|---|
| Mao of Bambassi | |
| Mao of Didessa | |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | in Benishangul-Gumuz Region, east of Asosa |
Native speakers | 2,300 (2011)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | myf |
| Glottolog | bamb1262 |
| ELP | Mao of Bambeshi |
Bambassi is an Omotic Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia around the towns of Bambasi and Didessa in the area east of Asosa in Benishangul-Gumuz Region.[2] The parent language group is the East Mao group. Alternative names for the language are Bambeshi, Siggoyo, Amam, Fadiro, Northern Mao, Didessa and Kere.
The most current information on the number of Bambassi speakers is not known, as the 2007 census grouped the Mao languages together, despite low lexical similarity. 33,683 mother tongue speakers of Maogna (covering Bambassi, Hozo and Seze) were listed.[3]
Similarities
Bambassi has a 31% lexical similarity with other Omotic languages.
Phonology
Bambassi has 5 vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/. The vowels have lengthened forms, and Bambassi has contrastive vowel length.[4]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | ejective | plain | ejective | plain | ejective | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʼ | t | tʼ | k | kʼ | |||
| voiced | b | d | g | |||||||
| Affricate | t͡sʼ | (t͡ʃ) | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | h | ||||||
| voiced | z | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||||
Notes
- ^ "Màwés Aasʼè". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
e18was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
- ^ Michael, Ahland, (2012). "A Grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è)". UO Libraries.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Further reading
- Ahland, Michael. 2009. "Aspects of Northern Mao (Bambassi-Diddesa) phonology."Linguistic Discovery 7: 1-42.
- Alemayehu Dumessa. 2007. Word Formation in Diddessa Mao. Addis Ababa University, MA thesis. Web access
- Wedekind, Charlotte, Klaus Wedekind and Ralph Siebert. 2002. "Third S.L.L.E. survey on languages of the Begi/Asosa area.", SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-056
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