Kafa language explained

Kafa
Nativename:	Kafi noono
States:	Ethiopia
Region:	Keffa Zone
Ethnicity:	Kafficho
Ref:	^[1]
Date:	2007 census
Familycolor:	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:	Omotic
Fam3:	North
Fam4:	Gonga
Fam5:	Kafa–Shekkacho
Dia1:	Bosha
Iso3:	kbr
Glotto:	kafa1242
Glottorefname:	Kafa

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.

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		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/				pronounced as /ink/
				pronounced as /ink/
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Rhotic				pronounced as /ink/
Approximant		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/

• /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	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Mid	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Open	pronounced as /ink/

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

Manjo

Manjo
Also Known As:	Mangiò
Acceptance:	speculative
Familycolor:	unclassified
Family:	unattested
Iso3:	none
Glotto2:	mang1364
Glottorefname2:	Mangio

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]

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

Notes and References

1. http://www.csa.gov.et/index.php?option=com_rubberdoc&view=doc&id=264&format=raw&Itemid=521 Ethiopia 2007 Census
2. 2012. Functions and Formal and Stylistic Features of Kafa Proverbs: Functional and Structural Approach. Lambert Academic Publishing.
3. Book: Theil, Rolf . Kafa phonology . DeGruyter Mouton . 2007 . Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, Vol. 28, No. 2 . 193–216.
4. Leikola, Kirsi. 2014. Talking Manjo: Linguistic repertoires as means of negotiating marginalization. University of Helsinki: PhD dissertation.