Qimant language

Qimant language

The Qimant language is a highly endangered language spoken by a small and elderly fraction of the Qemant people in Northern Ethiopia mainly in Chilga Woreda in Semien Gondar Zone between Gondar and Metemma.

language
name=Qimant
nativename=Kemantney
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
states=Ethiopia
region=Amhara Region
speakers=1650 (1994 Census)
rank=Statistics
fam1=Afro-Asiatic
fam2=Cushitic
fam3=Central
fam4=Western
iso1=none
iso2b=cus
iso3=ahg

Classification

The language belongs to the western subsection of the Agaw or Central Cushitic languages [Zelealem 2003, p. 30] . Other (extinct) members of this subsection are Qwara and Kayla. With all other Cushitic languages Qimant belongs to the phylum of the Afro-Asiatic languages.


=Geographic distribution and sociolinguistic situation=

Qimant is the original language of the Qemant people of Semien Gondar Zone in Ethiopia. Although the ethnic population of the Qemant was 172,327 at the 1994 census, only a very small fraction of these speak the language nowadays. All speakers live either in Chilga woreda or in Lay Armachiho woreda [see map in Zelealem 2003, p. 31] . The number of first-language speakers is 1625, the number of second language speakers 3450 [Zelealem 2003, p. 62] . All speakers of the language are older than 30 years, and more than 75% are older than 50 years [Zelealem 2003, p. 63] . The language is no longer passed on to the next generation of speakers. Most ethnic Qemant people speak Amharic. Qimant is not spoken in public or even at home as a means of daily communication any more, but is reduced to a secret code [Zelealem 2003, p. 75] .

Dialects/Varieties

It is not clear to what extent Kayla, Qwara and Qimant have been dialects of the same Western Agaw language, or were languages distinct from each other.

Phonology

Consonants

Continuants can be geminated word-medially.

Vowels

Phonotactics

The maximum syllable structure in Qimant is CVC, which implies that consonant clusters are only allowed word-medially [Zelealem 2003, p. 160f] . In loanwords from Amharic there may also be consonant-clusters within a syllable. Vowel clusters are not allowed.

Phonological processes

Consonant clusters with more than two consonants are broken up by inserting the epenthetic vowel IPA|/ɨ/. Other phonological processes are nasal assimilation and devoicing of IPA|/ɡ/ at word boundaries [Zelealem 2003, p. 164ff] .

Prosody

The prosodic features of Qimant have not been studied yet.

Grammar

Morphology

The personal marking system distinguishes between first person singular and plural, second person singular, polite, and plural, and third person masculine, feminine and plural. On the verb, all inflectional categories are marked by suffixes. Zelealem (2003, p. 192) identifies three different aspect forms in Qimant: Perfective, Imperfective and Progressive. Like in other Central Cushitic languages, the numbers one to nine go back to an ancient quinary system, where the suffix IPA|/-ta/ added to the numbers two to four results in the numbers six to nine [Zelealem 2003, p. 233] .

yntax [Zelealem 2003, p. 252-262]

The basic constituent order in Qimant, like in all other Afro-Asiatic languages of Ethiopia, is SOV. The presence of a case marking system allows for other, more marked orders. In the noun phrase the head noun follows its modifiers. Numbers, however, can also follow the head noun. All kind of subordinate clauses precede the main verb of the sentence.

Vocabulary/Lexis

As a consequence of the looming language death, many items of the vocabulary are already replaced by Amharic words.

References

* Zelealem Leyew. 2003. "The Kemantney Language - A Sociolinguistic and Grammatical Study of Language Replacement". Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
* David L. Appleyard. 1975. "A descriptive outline of Kemant," "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies" 38:316-350.

Notes

External links

*Ethnologue|code=ahg|label=Qimant


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Qimant — ist eine vom Aussterben bedrohte Sprache, die nur noch von wenigen älteren Mitgliedern des Volksstammes der Kemant im Norden Äthiopiens gesprochen wird, vor allem in Chilga (Woreda) in der Semien Gondar Region zwischen Gondar und Metemma.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Qimant — ISO 639 3 Code : ahg ISO 639 2/B Code : ISO 639 2/T Code : ISO 639 1 Code : Scope : Individual Language Type : Living …   Names of Languages ISO 639-3

  • Qwara language — Qwara, or Qwareña (called Falashan in some older sources), is an Agaw language spoken by the Agaw and Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) of the Qwara area, closely related to Qimant. The language was on the decline in the early 20th Century, as it was… …   Wikipedia

  • Kemant — Die Kemant (oder Qimant) sind eine kleine ethnische Gruppe in Äthiopien, welche trotz ihrer engen geschichtlichen und ethnischen Nähe nicht mit den Beta Israel identisch sind. Gemäß der Volkszählung von 1994 zählt die Gruppe etwa 170.000… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Central Cushitic languages — Infobox Language family name=Central Cushitic altname=Agaw region=Ethiopia and central Eritrea familycolor=Afro Asiatic fam1=Afro Asiatic fam2=Cushitic child1=Awngi child2=Bilin child3=Qimant child4=XamtangaThe Central Cushitic, or Agaw,… …   Wikipedia

  • Qemant — Ethnic group group=Qemant poptime=Est. 172,000 in 1994 (of whom only 1,650 retain the language.) popplace=Ethiopia langs=Qimant (an Agaw language) rels=Pagan Hebraic related=Agaw, Beta Israel, [http://www.nacoej.org/falas.htm Falas Mura] , Qwara …   Wikipedia

  • Kemant (Volk) — Die Kemant (oder Qimant) sind eine kleine ethnische Gruppe in Äthiopien, welche trotz ihrer engen geschichtlichen und ethnischen Nähe nicht mit den Beta Israel identisch sind. Gemäß der Volkszählung von 1994 zählt die Gruppe etwa 170.000… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Languages of Ethiopia — Ethiopia has many indigenous languages (some 84 according to the Ethnologue, 77 according to the 1994 census)), most of them Afro Asiatic (Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic), plus some that are Nilo Saharan. Charles Ferguson proposed the Ethiopian… …   Wikipedia

  • Агавские языки — Агавские (агау, центральнокушитские) языки одна из ветвей кушитской семьи языков. Распространены среди народов агау в северо восточной Эфиопии и Эритрее, являются основным субстратом для большинства эфиосемитских языков. Классификация Согласно… …   Википедия

  • Центральнокушитские языки — Агавские (агау, центральнокушитские) языки одна из ветвей кушитской семьи языков. Распространены среди народов агау в северо восточной Эфиопии и Эритрее, являются основным субстратом для большинства эфиосемитских языков. Классификация Согласно… …   Википедия

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”