Sheko language
Sheko | |
---|---|
Native to | Bench Maji Zone, Kafa region |
Native speakers | 39,000 (2007 census)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | she |
Glottolog | shek1245 |
ELP | Sheko |
Sheko is an
Sheko, together with the
The language is notable for its
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/.
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
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."
Notes
- ^ Sheko at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 45
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 56
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 111
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 47
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 47
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 58
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 111
- ^ Hellenthal 2010, p. 113
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.
- Hellenthal, Anneke Christine. 2009. Handout on Sheko subject clitics. download
- Hellenthal, Anneke Christine (2010). A grammar of Sheko (Ph.D. thesis). Leiden University. hdl:1887/15692.
- Yilma, Aklilu (1988). The phonology of Sheko (MA thesis). Addis Ababa University.
- Yilma, Aklilu, Ralph Siebert and Kati Siebert. 2002. "Sociolinguistic survey of the Omotic languages Sheko and Yem." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-053.