Gumuz language

language
name=Gumuz
familycolor=Nilo-Saharan
states=Ethiopia, Sudan
region=Benishangul-Gumuz Region
speakers=120,424 in Ethiopia; 40,000 in Sudan
fam1=? Nilo-Saharan
iso3=guk

Gumuz (also spelled "Gumaz") is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Gumuz people, who live along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. Most Ethiopian speakers live in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 live outside the town of Welkite. The Sudanese speakers live in the area east of Er Roseires, around Famaka and Fazoglo on the Blue Nile, extending north along the border. [Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. "Ethnologue: Languages of the World". 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.]

The language has both ejective consonants and implosives. The implosive quality is being lost at the velar point of articulation in some dialects (Unseth 1989). There is a series of palatal consonants, including both ejective and implosive. In some dialects, e.g. Sirba, there is a labialized palatalized bilabial stop, as in the word 'rat' [bjwa] (Unseth 1989).

An early record of this language is a wordlist from the Mount Guba area compiled in February 1883 by Juan Maria Schuver. [Wendy James, "et al.", "Juan Maria Schuver's Travels in North East Africa, 1880-1883" (London: Hakluyt Society, 1996), pp. 340-43]

Notes

References

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=guk Ethnologue entry for Gumuz]

Further reading

* Ahland, Colleen Anne. 2004. "Linguistic variation within Gumuz: a study of the relationship between historical change and intelligibility."‭ M.A. thesis. University of Texas at Arlington.
* Bender, M. Lionel. 1979. Gumuz: a sketch of grammar and lexicon. "Afrika und Übersee" 62: 38-69.
* Unseth, Peter. 1985. "Gumuz: a dialect survey report."‭ "Journal of Ethiopian Studies" 18: 91-114.
* Unseth, Peter. 1989. "Selected aspects of Gumuz phonology."‭ In Taddese Beyene (ed.), "Proceedings of the eighth International Conference on Ethiopian Studies", vol. 2, 617-32. Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
*Uzar, Henning. 1993. Studies in Gumuz: Sese phonology and TMA system. In "Topics in Nilo-Saharan linguistics", edited by M.L. Bender. Hamburg: Helmut Buske: 347-383.