Kambaata is a
Highland East Cushitic language, part of the larger
Afro-Asiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...
family and spoken by the
Kambaata people. Closely related
varieties are Xambaaro (T'ambaaro, Timbaaro), Alaba, and Qabeena (K'abeena), of which the latter two are sometimes divided as a separate
Alaba language. The language has many verbal affixes. When these are affixed to verbal roots, there are a large amount of
morphophonemic changes.
[Sim 1985, 1988.] The language has subject–object–verb order. The phonemes of Kambaata include five vowels (which are distinctively long or short), a set of
ejective
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 ...
s, a retroflexed
implosive
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in additi ...
, and glottal stop.
The New Testament and some parts of the Old Testament have been translated into the Kambaata language. At first, they were published in the Ethiopian syllabary (New Testament in 1992), but later on, they were republished in Latin letters, in conformity with new policies and practices.
Phonology
Here is the phonology of the Kambaata language.
Kambaata has a simple five vowel system , contrasting
long vowels and
nasalized vowels (but only marginally).
Notes
References
*ALAMU BANTA ATAARA, Kookaata. Kambaatissa–Amaarsa–Ingiliizissa Laaga Doonnuta. ከምባትሳ–ኣማርኛ–እንግሊዝኛ መዝገበ ቃላት. ''Kambatissa–Amharic–English Dictionary'' (Addis Abäba: Bǝrhanǝnna sälam mattämiya dǝrǝǧǧǝt, 2009 EC = 2016/2017 CE); 1165 pp.
*Korhonen, Elsa, Mirja Saksa, and Ronald J. Sim. 1986. "A dialect study of Kambaata-Hadiyya (Ethiopia)
art 1" ''Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere'' 5: 5-41.
*Korhonen, Elsa, Mirja Saksa, and Ronald J. Sim. 1986. "A dialect study of Kambaata-Hadiyya (Ethiopia), part 2: Appendices." ''Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere'' 6: 71-121.
* Sim, Margaret G. 1985. "Kambaata Verb Morphophonemics," ''The morphophonemics of five Highland East Cushitic languages including Burji''. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 2. Köln: Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität zu Köln. Pages 44–63.
* Sim, Margaret. 1988. "Palatalization and gemination in the Kambaata verb." ''Journal of Afroasiatic Languages'' 1.58-65.
*
External links
* Treis, Yvonne. 2006
"Form and Function of Case Marking in Kambaata."
Languages of Ethiopia
East Cushitic languages
{{AfroAsiatic-lang-stub