Konso (Komso, Khonso, also ''Af Kareti, Afa Karatti, Conso, Gato, Karate, Kareti'') is a
Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
. 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
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
''—beyond the area of the
Konso people
The Konso, also known as the Xonsita, are a Lowland East Cushitic languages , Lowland East Cushitic-speaking ethnic group primarily inhabiting south-western Ethiopia.
History
According to Hallpike (1972), Konso family traditions indicate that the ...
. Blench (2006) considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages.
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.
Phonology
Consonants
Unlike its
Oromoid relatives and most East African languages in general, Konso distinguishes neither
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refe ...
nor
ejective consonants
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...
. Instead, it has a series of
implosive stops, including the extremely rare
uvular implosive /ʛ/.
Vowels
Typical of a Cushitic language, Konso distinguishes five short and five long vowels:
See also
*
Konso
Karat is a town in south-western Ethiopia and the capital of the Konso Zone in the new South Ethiopia Regional State. Situated 20 km north of the Sagan River at an elevation of , it is also called Pakawle by some of the neighboring inhabita ...
References
Literature on the Konso language
*
*
*
*Uusitalo, Mirjami (2007). Konso language. in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 3'', 424-425. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Languages of Ethiopia
East Cushitic languages
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