Kafa language

Kafa or Kefa (Kafi noono) is a North Omotic language spoken in Ethiopia at the Keffa Zone. It is part of the Ethiopian Language Area, with SOV word order, ejective consonants, etc.

Kafa
Kafi noono
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	Keffa Zone
Ethnicity	Kafficho
Native speakers	830,000 (2007 census)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Gonga Kafa–Shekkacho Kafa
Dialects	Bosha
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kbr
Glottolog	kafa1242

A collection of proverbs in the language has been published by Mesfin Wodajo.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
		plain	gem.	plain	gem.	plain	gem.	plain	gem.
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	pː	t	tː	tʃ	tʃː	k	kː	ʔ
	voiced	b	bː	d	dː	dʒ	dʒː	g	ɡː
	ejective	pʼ	pːʼ	tʼ	tːʼ	tʃʼ	tʃːʼ	kʼ	kːʼ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	sː	ʃ				h
	voiced			z
Nasal		m	mː	n	nː
Rhotic				ɾ
Approximant		w		l	lː	j

• /f/ may also be heard as [ɸ] in free variation.
• /b/ can be heard as a bilabial approximant [β̞] in intervocalic positions.
• /t/ can be realized as [ts] in word-final position.^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid	ɛ ɛː	ɔ ɔː
Open	a aː

• /a/ may also have an allophone of [ə].^[3]

Manjo

Manjo
Mangiò
(speculative)
Language family	unattested
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	mang1364

Within the Kafa culture there is a caste of traditional hunters called the Manja/Manjo 'hunters'. They may once have spoken a different language. However, Leikola has shown that currently they speak Kafa with a number of distinctive words and constructions that they use, reinforcing the distinctions between themselves and the larger Kafa society.^[4]

References

1. Ethiopia 2007 Census Archived 2010-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
2. 2012. Functions and Formal and Stylistic Features of Kafa Proverbs: Functional and Structural Approach. Lambert Academic Publishing.
3. Theil, Rolf (2007). Kafa phonology. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, Vol. 28, No. 2: DeGruyter Mouton. pp. 193–216.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
4. Leikola, Kirsi. 2014. Talking Manjo: Linguistic repertoires as means of negotiating marginalization. University of Helsinki: PhD dissertation.

Further reading

• Brockelmann, Carl (1950): Zur Grammatik der Kafa-Sprache. in: Brockelmann, Carl (ed.): Abbessinische Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Leipzig. pp 40–60.
• Cerulli, Enrico (1951), Studi etiopici. Vol. IV: La lingua Caffina. Roma: Istituto Per L'oriente.
• Fleming, Harold C. (1976), "Kefa (Gonga) Languages", in The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. Bender, M. L. (ed.)

External links

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Kefa