Xamtanga language

Xamtanga
Xamtanga
Xamir
Pronunciation	ˈχamtaŋa
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	North Amhara Region
Native speakers	210,000 (2007 census)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Agaw Northern Xamtanga; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xan
Glottolog	xamt1239
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Xamtanga (also Agawinya, Khamtanga, Simt'anga, Xamir, Xamta) is a Central Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia by the .

Sound system[]

Vowels[]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid vowel	ə
Low vowel	a

The central vowels /ɨ ə a/ have fronted and backed allophones, depending on the adjacent consonant(s).

Consonants[]

		Labial	Coronal	Postalveolar or palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		Labial	Coronal	Postalveolar or palatal	Plain	Labialized	Plain	Labialized	Glottal
Plosives and affricates	Voiceless		t	t͡ʃ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
	Voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	Ejective		tʼ	t͡ʃʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
Fricatives	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ			χ	χʷ	h*
	Voiced		z
	Ejective		sʼ
Nasals		m	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Lateral			l
Tap			ɾ
Semivowels				j		w

/h/ is found only word-initial in loanwords, and may be glottal [h] or pharyngeal [ħ].
/t/ is alveolar before the vowel /i/, dental otherwise.
/q/ can be ejective [qʼ], and in some cases the ejectives appear to be in free variation with the voiceless plosives.

Phonological processes[]

Gemination[]

In positions other than word-initial, Xamtanga contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. With most consonants, the difference between a geminate and a non-geminate is simply one of length, but the cases of /b t q/ are more complex. When not word-initial, non-geminate /b/ is realized as a bilabial [β] or labiodental fricative [v], and /t/ and /q/ are realized as affricates: [tθ qχ]. Their geminate equivalents may be realized as prolonged [bː tː qː], or can simply be short [b t q].

In word-initial position, geminate consonants do not occur, and /b t q/ are realized as plosives.

Notes[]

^ Ethiopia 2007 Census

Bibliography[]

D.L. Appleyard (1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga—I". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 50 (2): 241–266. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00049028.
D.L. Appleyard (1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga—II". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 50 (3): 470–507. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00039471.
Appleyard, David L. (1988) "A Definite Article in Xamtanga", African Languages and Cultures 1/1, pp. 15–24.
Appleyard, David L. (2006) A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages (Kuschitische Sprachstudien – Cushitic Language Studies Band 24). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Chloé Darmon, L'agäw xamtanga : une langue couchitique en contact avec l'amharique, In Pount. Cahiers d'études : Corne de l'Afrique - Arabie du Sud, 4, pp. 169–195, 2010

This Ethiopia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

This Afroasiatic languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

[1] Ethiopia 2007 Census

[1]