Aari language

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Aari
Spoken in: Ethiopia 
Region: north central Omo Region
Total speakers: 158,857 (1998 census)
129,350 monolinguals
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Omotic
  South
   Aari
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: afa
ISO 639-3: aiz
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Aari (also spelled Ari, Ara, Aro, Aarai) is an Omotic language of Ethiopia. The speakers of this language are also known as Shankilla (or Shanqella), a name which is considered derogatory. According to the 1998 census, over 150,000 people speak Aari as a mother tongue. [1]

There are many dialects including Gozza, Bako, Biyo, Galila, Laydo, Seyki, Shangama, Sido, Wubahamer, and Zeddo.

Literacy in Aari is less than 1%. The New Testament was first published in the language in 1997.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Richard Hayward. 1990. "Notes on the Aari Language," Omotic Language Studies. Ed. Richard Hayward. London: SOAS.

[edit] External links

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