Ongota (also known as Birale, Birayle) is a

moribund language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

of southwest

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 ...

. UNESCO reported in 2012 that out of a total ethnic population of 115, only 12 elderly native speakers remained, the rest of their small village on the west bank of the Weito River having adopted the

Tsamai language Tsamai (also known as Ts'amay, S'amai, Tamaha, Tsamako, Tsamakko, Bago S'amakk-Ulo) is an Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia.Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World''. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute ...

instead.Nomination File No. 00493 For Inscription on The List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need Of Urgent Safeguarding In 2012.
/ref> The default word order is subject–object–verb. The classification of the language is obscure (Sava & Tosco 2015).

History of the people

Oral history of the Ongota tells that they originated from a number of different populations from Dikinte, Maale and Arbore among others. During a stay in Maale territory, which today lies at their north, the collection of clans were chased south due to their hunting of Maale livestock. They followed the banks of the Weito River until they reached the Arbore, where they were turned away back north and settled where they are today. This account differs from that of the Maale, who claim that the Ongota were originally a part of the Maale who migrated and did not return.Sava, Graziano, & Thubauville, Sophia, 2010. “The Ongota : a branch of the Maale? ; ethnographic, historic and linguistic traces of contact of the Ongota people.” In ''"To live with others: essays on cultural neighborhood in southern Ethiopia''", edited by E. Gabbert, & S. Thubauville, (pp. 213‐235). Koln: Koppe.

Classification

Ongota has features of both

Afroasiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

and

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. ...

languages that confuse its classification, and linguists and anthropologists have been unable to clearly trace its linguistic roots so far. Savà and Tosco (2007) claim that Ongota's morphology is Ts'amakko and that ~50% of the lexicon can be connected to Ts'amakko roots. They also report that Aklilu Yilma of

Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa University (AAU) ( am, አዲስ አበባ ዩኒቨርሲቲ) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa ...

considers Ongota to be a pidginised creole. They state that this "conclusion is strengthened by a local legend stating that Ongota originated from a multiethnic melting pot." They further report that

Lionel Bender Marvin Lionel Bender (August 18, 1934 – February 19, 2008) was an American linguist. Life Bender was born August 18, 1934, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He travelled throughout the world, particularly in Northeast Africa, and was an accompli ...

considers Ongota to be

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...

, Václav Blažek (1991, 2001, and forth.) Nilo-Saharan, and Cushiticist Maarten Mous (2003)Savà, Graziano and M. Tosco (2007). Review article of: Harold C. Fleming Ongota: A Decisive Language in African Prehistory. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 2006. In: Aethiopica 10 (2007): 223-232.p. 1. - "Ongota is also mentioned as an isolate (see, for example, Mous 2003)" http://www.maurotosco.net/ewExternalFiles/SAVA%26TOSCO_review_FLEMING_Aethiopica_2007.pdf , , , Mous, Maarten (2003). “Loss of linguistic diversity in Africa”. In: Mark Janse – Sijmen Tol (eds.) Language Death and Language Maintenance: Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive Approaches. Benjamins, Amsterdam: 157–170. p. 164. 5. Isolates - "Ongota is an unclassified language with 8 speakers in southwest Ethiopia shifting to a minority Cushitic language, Ts'amakko (Savä, this volume)." http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?rep=rep1&type=pdf&doi=10.1.1.218.5996 mentions it as a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

. Savà and Tosco (2003, 2007), themselves, believe it to be an East Cushitic language with a Nilo-Saharan

substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...

—that is, that Ongota speakers shifted to East Cushitic from an earlier Nilo-Saharan language, traces of which still remain. Fleming (2006) considers it to be an independent branch of Afroasiatic. Bonny Sands (2009) believes Savà and Tosco's proposal to be the most convincing proposal. Sava & Tosco (2015) leave it unclassified, possibly an isolate but possibly so affected by superstrate influence that the original affiliation of the language has been obscured.

Decline

The main mechanism behind the decline of Ongota is marriage with other communities. In a brief expedition in the early 1990s, a number of researchers made the observation that many Ongota men married Tsamakko women. The child would grow up speaking only the mother's language, but not the father's. (Mikesh, P. et al., 1992–1993) This trend has continued through the recent years.

References

Bibliography

* Fleming, Harold, 2002. "Ongota Lexicon: English-Ongota". ''Mother Tongue'', VII, pp. 39–65. * Fleming, Harold, 2006. ''Ongota: A Decisive Language in African Prehistory.'' – Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz. {{ISBN, 3-447-05124-8 * Mikesh, P. et al., 1992–1993. "Ongota or Birale: a moribund language of Gemu-Gofa (Ethiopia)". ''Journal of Afroasiatic Languages'', 3,3:181–225. * Militarev, Alexander, 2005. “Towards the genetic affiliation of Ongota, a nearly-‐extinct language of Ethiopia.” In ""Memoriae Igor M. Diakonoff"", by Leonin E. Kogan, (pp. 567-‐607). Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. * Sands, Bonny (2009). "Africa’s Linguistic Diversity". Language and Linguistics Compass 3/2 (2009): 559–580, 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00124.x * Savà, Graziano, 2003. “Ongota (Birale), a Moribund Language of Southwest Ethiopia.” In ""Language Death and Language Maintenance: Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive Approaches"" by M. Janse, S. Tol, & V. Hendriks. Amsterdam: Benjamins. * Savà, Graziano and Mauro Tosco 2000. A sketch of Ongota, a dying language of southwest Ethiopia. ''Studies in African Linguistics'' 29.2.59–136. * Savà, Graziano and Mauro Tosco 2003. "The classification of Ongota". In Bender et al. eds, ''Selected comparative-historical Afrasian linguistic studies.'' LINCOM Europa. * Savà, Graziano and Mauro Tosco 2007. Review article: HAROLD C. FLEMING, ''Ongota: a Decisive Language in African Prehistory.'' Aethiopica 10. * Savà, Graziano and Mauro Tosco 2015. The Ongota language – and two ways of looking at the history of the marginal and hunting-gathering peoples of East Africa. ''Rivista annuale dell’associazione Ethnorêma'' XI - N. 11, pp. 1–18
open access
* Savà, Graziano, & Thubauville, Sophia, 2010. “The Ongota : a branch of the Maale? ; ethnographic, historic and linguistic traces of contact of the Ongota people.” In ''"To live with others: essays on cultural neighborhood in southern Ethiopia''", edited by E. Gabbert, & S. Thubauville, (pp. 213‐235). Koln: Koppe.

External links

Ongota entry in the Endangered Languages Project

A short preview of a film with spoken Ongota by Robert Weijs

A socio-linguistic survey that includes a wordlist of Ongota

Another Ongota worldist by the Rosetta Project

A news article metaphorically extends language death from Ongota to radio

Mauro Tosco's Ongota entry
(in the ''

Encyclopaedia Aethiopica The ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' (''EAe'') is a basic English-language encyclopaedia for Ethiopian and Eritrean studies. The ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' provides information in all fields of the discipline, i.e. anthropology, archaeology, ethno ...

'')
Mauro Tosco presenting paper on Ongota as an isolate

Documentation of Ongota in Endangered Languages Archive (deposited by Graziano Savà)
Afroasiatic languages Languages of Ethiopia Endangered languages of Africa Language isolates of Africa Endangered Afroasiatic languages Endangered language isolates Subject–object–verb languages