- Sheko language
language
name=Sheko
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
states=Ethiopia
speakers=23,785, 13,611 monolinguals (1998)
fam1=Afro-Asiatic
fam2=Omotic
fam3=North
fam4=Maji
iso3=sheSheko is an
Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the area betweenTepi andMizan Teferi in westernEthiopia , in the Sheko district in theBench Maji Zone . The 1998 census listed 23,785 speakers, with 13,611 identified as monolinguals. [Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. "Ethnologue: Languages of the World". 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.]The language is notable for its
retroflex consonant s (Aklilu Yilma 1988), a striking feature shared with closely relatedDizi and nearby (but not closely related) Bench (Breeze 1988). The Ethnologue lists the following linguistic features: "SOV; postpositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals, relatives after noun heads; question word initial; 1 prefix, 5 suffixes; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects; affixes indicate case of noun phrases; verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject; passives, causatives, comparatives; CV, CVC, CVV, CV:C, CVCC; tonal, 3 tones."Sheko, together with the Dizi and
Nayi languages, is part of a cluster of languages variously called "Maji" or "Dizoid".Notes
References
* Breeze, Mary. 1988. "Phonological features of Gimira and Dizi." In Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Fritz Serzisko (eds.), Cushitic - Omotic: papers from the International Symposium on Cushitic and Omotic languages, Cologne, January 6-9, 1986, 473-487. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
* http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=she
* Yilma, Aklilu. 1988. The phonology of Sheko. Addis Ababa University MA thesis.
* Yilma, Aklilu, Ralph Siebert and Kati Siebert. 2002. "Sociolinguistic survey of the Omotic languages Sheko and Yem." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-053. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-053
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