The Xamir people (also Ximre or Kamyr) are an ethnic group in

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 ...

and are one of the

Agaw people The Agaw or Agew (, modern ''Agew'') are a Cushitic peoples, Cushitic ethnic group native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, also known as the Central Cushitic languages, which belong to t ...

s. The Xamir live in

Wag Hemra Zone Wag Hemra (Amharic: ዋግ ኽምራ) is a Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Its name is a combination of the former province of Wag, and the dominant local ethnic group, the Kamyr (or "Hemra") Agaw. Wag Hemra is bordered on the south by ...

in the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

. The three main towns in that area are Sekota, Tsizika, and Dehana.

Population

The 2007 census lists 267,851 ethnic Xamirs, or 0.36% of the total population; 32,665 are urban inhabitants.

Language

The Xamirs speak Xamtanga (also known as Agawinya, Khamtanga, Simt 'anga, Xamta or Xamir), one of the

Agaw languages The Agaw or Central Cushitic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken by several groups in Ethiopia and, in one case, Eritrea. They form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages. Classification The Cen ...

, which are part of the Cushitic subfamily within Afroasiatic. Agaw languages form the main substratum influence on

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

and other

Ethiopian Semitic languages Ethio-Semitic (also Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic languages, ...

, which are also Afroasiatic languages.

References

{{authority control Ethnic groups in Ethiopia Cushitic-speaking peoples