(dialects
Qwara – nearly extinct, spoken by
Beta Israel formerly living in Qwara, now in
Israel;
Kayla – extinct, formerly spoken by some
Beta Israel, transitional between Qimant and Xamtanga)
There is a literature in Agaw but it is widely dispersed: from medieval texts containing passages in the
Qimant language, now mostly in
Israeli museums, to the modern
Bilen language with its own newspaper, based in
Keren,
Eritrea. Historical material is also available in the
Xamtanga language, and there is a deep tradition of folklore in the
Awngi language.
Phonology
Central Cushitic languages are characterised by the presence of /
ŋ/, /
ɣ/, /
z/, and
central vowels, while they lack ejectives, implosives, pharyngeals, consonant gemination, vowel length, and the consonant /
ɲ/.[3]
Appleyard, David L. (2006) A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages (Kuschitische Sprachstudien – Cushitic Language Studies Band 24). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Hetzron, Robert (1976) The Agaw Languages. Afroasiatic Linguistics 3,3. p. 31–37
^Zelealem, [Mollaligne] Leyew. 2020. Central Cushitic. In: Rainer Vossen and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.