Kafa | |
---|---|
Kafi noono | |
Native to | Ethiopia |
Region | in Keffa Zone |
Native speakers | 830,000 (2007 census) [1] |
Dialects | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
kbr |
Glottolog |
kafa1242 |
Kafa or Kefa (Kafi noono) is a North Omotic language spoken in Ethiopia at the Keffa Zone. It is part of the Ethiopian Language Area, with SOV word order, ejective consonants, etc.
A collection of proverbs in the language has been published by Mesfin Wodajo. [2]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | gem. | plain | gem. | plain | gem. | plain | gem. | |||
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | pː | t | tː | tʃ | tʃː | k | kː | ʔ |
voiced | b | bː | d | dː | dʒ | dʒː | g | ɡː | ||
ejective | pʼ | pːʼ | tʼ | tːʼ | tʃʼ | tʃːʼ | kʼ | kːʼ | ||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sː | ʃ | h | ||||
voiced | z | |||||||||
Nasal | m | mː | n | nː | ||||||
Rhotic | ɾ | |||||||||
Approximant | w | l | lː | j |
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː |
Mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː |
Open | a aː |
Manjo | |
---|---|
Mangiò | |
(speculative) | |
unattested | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
Glottolog |
mang1364 |
Within the Kafa culture there is a caste of traditional hunters called the Manja/Manjo 'hunters'. They may once have spoken a different language. However, Leikola has shown that currently they speak Kafa with a number of distinctive words and constructions that they use, reinforcing the distinctions between themselves and the larger Kafa society. [4]
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