Highland East Cushitic languages

The Highland East Cushitic languages are a group of related languages ​​spoken in the southern highlands of Ethiopia , on the western edge of the Great Rift Valley . They belong to the Cushitic languages , which in turn are a branch of the Afro-Asian language family .

Whether they are to be classified as East Cushitic languages within Cushitic together with the Lowland East Cushitic languages , the Dullay languages and Yaaku is a matter of dispute .

According to Christopher Ehret , the Highland East Cushite groups - like the Ometo - formed between the 3rd and the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. From a mixture of omotischsprachigen farmers who Ensete grew, and from the north immigrant kuschitischsprachigen ranchers and finger millet farmers . The current economy of these groups consists in the cultivation of ensete and finger millet, which is associated with cattle farming.

The Highland East Cushitic languages ​​are divided as follows:

• Alaba-K'abeena / Qabena; K'abeena is also partly classified as a dialect of Kambaata
• Burji
• Kambaata (including Timbaro)
• Gedeo
• Hadiyya
• Libido / mareko; emerged from the hadiyya
• Sidama .

With the exception of Burji, these languages ​​are closely related.

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1. ↑ Christopher Ehret : The Civilizations of Africa. A history to 1800 . Currey Press, Oxford 2002, p. 129, ISBN 0-85255-476-1 .
2. ↑ ethnologue.com