Sheko language

language
name=Sheko
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
states=Ethiopia
speakers=23,785, 13,611 monolinguals (1998)
fam1=Afro-Asiatic
fam2=Omotic
fam3=North
fam4=Maji
iso3=she

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 1998 census listed 23,785 speakers, with 13,611 identified as monolinguals. [Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. "Ethnologue: Languages of the World". 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.]

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). The Ethnologue lists the following linguistic 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; CV, CVC, CVV, CV:C, CVCC; tonal, 3 tones."

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

Notes

References

* Breeze, Mary. 1988. "Phonological features of Gimira and Dizi."‭ In Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Fritz Serzisko (eds.), Cushitic - Omotic: papers from the International Symposium on Cushitic and Omotic languages, Cologne, January 6-9, 1986, 473-487. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
* http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=she
* Yilma, Aklilu. 1988. The phonology of Sheko. Addis Ababa University MA thesis.
* Yilma, Aklilu, Ralph Siebert and Kati Siebert. 2002. "Sociolinguistic survey of the Omotic languages Sheko and Yem."‭ SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-053. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-053