Inor (pronounced ), sometimes called Ennemor, is an
Afroasiatic language spoken in central
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
. One of the
Gurage languages
The Gurage languages (Gurage: ጉራጌ), also known as Guragie, is a dialect-continuum language, which belong to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by the Gurage people, who inhabit the Gurage Zone within ...
, it is mainly spoken within the
Gurage Zone in the
, as well as by speakers of the language who have settled in Ethiopian cities, especially
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, ...
. In addition to the morphological complexity that is common to all Semitic languages, Inor exhibits the very complex
morphophonology characteristic of
West Gurage languages
The Gurage languages (Gurage: ጉራጌ), also known as Guragie, is a dialect-continuum language, which belong to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by the Gurage people, who inhabit the Gurage Zone within t ...
.
Endegegn, Enner, Gyeto, and the extinct dialect
Mesmes are all sometimes considered dialects of Inor.
Inor possesses
nasal vowels, which are unusual for a Gurage language. Many of these may be the result of historical
rhinoglottophilia.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
may be regarded as largely epenthetic and only marginally phonemic.
References
Bibliography
*Berhanu Chamora. "Consonant distribution in Inor", in: G. Hudson (ed.), ''Essays on Gurage Language and Culture'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag), pp. 53–67.
*
*Bustorf, Dirk. (2005). "Ennämor Ethnography”, in: Siegbert Uhlig (ed.):
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 2: D-Ha, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 307-08.
*Boivin, Robert (1996). "Spontaneous Nasalization in Inor", in: G. Hudson (ed.), ''Essays on Gurage Language and Culture'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag), pp. 21–33.
*Hetzron, R. (1977). ''The Gunnän-Gurage Languages''. Napoli: Istituto Orientale di Napoli.
*
Leslau, W. (1979). ''Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic)''. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
*Leslau, W. (1983). ''Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. Part V : Chaha - Ennemor''. Äthiopistische Forschungen, Band 16. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
*Leslau, W. (1996). "Inor Lullabies", in: ''Africa'' 66/2, pp. 280–287.
*Voigt, Rainer.(2005). "Ennämor Language”, in: Siegbert Uhlig (ed.):
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 2: D-Ha, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 307.
Outer Ethiopian Semitic languages
Languages of Ethiopia
{{Semitic-lang-stub