Konso (Komso, Khonso, also Af Kareti, Afa Karatti, Conso, Gato, Karate, Kareti) is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia. Native speakers of Konso number about 200,000 (SIL 2005). Konso is closely related to Dirasha (also known as Gidole), and serves as a "trade language"—or lingua franca—beyond the area of the Konso people. Blench (2006) considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages.[2]
Konso | |
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Native to | Ethiopia |
Region | South of Lake Chamo in the bend of the Sagan River |
Native speakers | 240,000 (2007)[1] |
Language family | Afro-Asiatic
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Writing system | Ethiopic script |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kxc |
Glottolog | kons1243 |
The Grammar of Konso was first described by Hellenthal (2004), and later, in more detail, by Ongaye (2013). The New Testament was published in the Konso language in 2002.
Unlike its Oromoid relatives and most East African languages in general, Konso distinguishes neither voiced nor ejective consonants. Instead, it has a series of implosive stops, including the extremely rare uvular implosive /ʛ/.[3]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
Stop | Plain | p | t | c | k | ʔ | |
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ʛ | |||
Fricative | f | s | ʃ | χ | h | ||
Lateral | l | ||||||
Flap | r | ||||||
Glide | w | j |
Typically of a Cushitic language, Konso distinguishes five short and five long vowels:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː | |
Mid | e eː | o oː | |
Open | a aː |
Languages of Ethiopia | |||||||||
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Regional languages |
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Sign languages |
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North Cushitic | |||||||||||||||
Agaw | |||||||||||||||
Highland East | |||||||||||||||
Lowland East |
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Dullay | |||||||||||||||
South | |||||||||||||||
Italics indicate extinct languages |
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