Qwara dialect explained

Qwara
Nativename:Qwareña
States:Ethiopia
Region:Amhara Region
Ethnicity:Beta Israel
Extinct:ca. 2000 (3,200 L2 speakers)
Familycolor:Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:Cushitic
Fam3:Central
Fam4:Northern
Fam5:Qimant
Isoexception:dialect
Glotto:hwar1238

Qwara, or Qwareña (called "Falasha" (Hwarasa) in some older sources), was one of two Agaw dialects, spoken by a subgroup of the Beta Israel (Jews of Ethiopia) of Qwara Province. It is a dialect of Qimant. It is nearly extinct. Several early Falashan manuscripts, using the Ge'ez script, exist; in more recent times, the language has been recorded by several linguists and travellers, starting with Flad in 1866.

Qwareña was on the decline in the early 20th century because it was being replaced by Amharic. During Operation Solomon, most of its remaining speakers were airlifted to Israel, where it continues to lose ground to Modern Hebrew.

See also

Further reading

    1. Flad, J. M. (1866). A Short Description of the Falasha and Kamants in Abyssinia: Together with an Outline of the Elements and a Vocabulary of the Falasha Language. Mission Press.
  1. Freeburg, E. (2013). The Cost of Revival: the Role of Hebrew in Jewish Language Endangerment (Doctoral dissertation, Yale University).

External links