Sebat Bet Gurage language

Sebat Bet Gurage
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	West Gurage region
Native speakers	(undated figure of 440,000)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic South Ethiopian South Outer West Gurage Sebat Bet Gurage
Writing system	Ethiopic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sgw
Glottolog	seba1251

Sebat Bet ("Seven houses") is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Ethiopia.

Overview

A Gurage tongue, Sebat Bet is divided into several dialects. The latter are spoken in the western Gurage Zone:

• Chaha (Cheha) is spoken in Cheha woreda, and is the best studied of these dialects;
• Ezha (Eza, Izha) is spoken in Ezhana Wolene woreda,
• Muher is spoken in the mountains north of Cheha and Ezhaha Wolene,
• Gura is spoken in Goro woreda,
• Gumer language (Gwemarra, Gʷəmarə), spoken in Gumer woreda
• Inor (Enemor), spoken in Enemorina Eaner woreda

• Gyeto, Endegegn and the extinct Mesmes language are sometimes considered sub-dialects of Inor.

Further reading

• Leslau, Wolf. 1997. "Chaha (Gurage) Phonology" in Kaye, Alan S. (ed.): Phonologies of Asia and Africa 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. pp. 373–397.
• Rose, Sharon. 2007. "Chaha (Gurage) Morphology" in Kaye, Alan D. (ed.): Morphologies of Africa and Asia 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. pp. 403–427.

External links

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Chaha