Sheko language

Sheko is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the area between Tepi and Mizan Teferi in western Ethiopia, in the Sheko district in the Bench Maji Zone. The 2007 census lists 38,911 speakers; the 1998 census listed 23,785 speakers, with 13,611 identified as monolinguals.^[2]

Sheko
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	Bench Maji Zone, Kafa region
Native speakers	39,000 (2007 census)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Dizoid Sheko
Language codes
ISO 639-3	she
Glottolog	shek1245
ELP	Sheko

Sheko, together with the Dizi and Nayi languages, is part of a cluster of languages variously called "Maji" or "Dizoid".

The language is notable for its retroflex consonants (Aklilu Yilma 1988), a striking feature shared with closely related Dizi and nearby (but not closely related) Bench (Breeze 1988).

Phonology

Apart from the above-mentioned retroflex consonants, the phonology of Sheko is characterized by a total 28 consonant phonemes,^[3] five long vowels and six short vowels,^[4] plus four phonemic tone levels.^[5]

Consonants

Hellenthal (2010, p. 45) lists the following consonant phonemes of Sheko:

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	Ejective	pʼ	tʼ			kʼ
	Voiceless		t			k	ʔ
	Voiced	b	d			ɡ
Affricate	Ejective		tsʼ	tʃʼ	tʂʼ
	Voiceless		ts	tʃ	tʂ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ	ʂ		h
	Voiced		z	ʒ	ʐ
Nasal		m	n
tap			r [ɾ]
Approximant		w		j

Unlike other Dizoid languages, Sheko has no contrast between /r/ and /l/.^[6] Consonants are rarely geminated,^[7] and there is a syllabic nasal /n̩/^[8]

Vowels

Hellenthal (2010, p. 56) lists the following long and short vowels of Sheko: /i/, /iː/, /e/, /eː/ /ə/, /a/, /aː/, /u/, /uː/, /o/, /oː/.

Tones

Sheko is one of very few languages in Africa that have four distinct phonemic tone levels.^[9] Tone distinguishes meaning both in the lexicon and in the grammar, particularly to distinguish persons in the pronominal system.^[10]

Grammar

Ethnologue lists the following morphosyntactic features: "SOV; postpositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals, relatives after noun heads; question word initial; 1 prefix, 5 suffixes; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects; affixes indicate case of noun phrases; verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject; passives, causatives, comparatives."