Dizin language

Dizin
Spoken in	Ethiopia
Native speakers	33,900  (2007 census)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Dizoid Dizin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mdx

Dizin (often called “Dizi” or “Maji” in the literature) is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the Dizi woreda of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, located in southwestern Ethiopia.^[2] The 2007 census listed 33,927 speakers.^[3] A population of 17,583 was identified as monolinguals in 1994.^[4]

The language has basic SOV (subject–object–verb) word order, tones, and is largely suffixing.

Dizin, together with the Sheko and Nayi languages, is part of a cluster of languages variously called "Maji" or "Dizoid".

Notes

1. ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
2. ^ The 1994 Population and Housing census of the SNNPR Region: Volume I, Part I, Table 2.15. According to Table 2.16, Dizin is second to Amhara in the number of speakers in the woreda's towns of Maji, Jeba and Tum.
3. ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
4. ^ Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

References

• Allan, Edward. 1976. Dizi. In The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia, M. Lionel Bender, ed., pp. 377–392. East Lansing, Michigan: African Studies Center, Michigan State University.
• Beachy, Marvin Dean. 2005. An overview of Central Dizin phonology and morphology.‭ M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington.
• 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.
• Muldrow, William. 1976. Languages of the Maji area. In Language in Ethiopia, ed. by Bender, Bowen, Cooper, and Ferguson, pp. 603–607. Oxford University Press.

External links

• Ethnologue information on Dizi
• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Dizi