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Kachama-Ganjule language

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(Redirected from Gatsame language)
Kachama-Ganjule
Native toEthiopia
Regionon islands in Lake Chamo and Lake Abaya
Native speakers
2,800 (2007 census for Qechemigna)[1]
Dialects
  • Kachama
  • Ganjule
  • ?Gidicho
Language codes
ISO 639-3kcx
Glottologkach1284
ELPGats'amé

Kachama-Ganjule is an Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia on islands in Lake Chamo and Lake Abaya. Kachama is spoken on Gidicho island in Lake Abaya, whereas Ganjule was originally spoken on a small island in Lake Chamo. Now the Ganjule speakers have relocated to the west shore of the Lake. There still are about 1,000 monolinguals in this language.[2]

Blench (2006) lists Gidicho, Kachama, and Ganjule as separate languages. Ethnologue gives Gatame/Get'eme/Gats'ame as a synonym; however, Blench treats that as a separate language as well, a synonym with Haruro/Harro. While he moves the others to the northern branch of the Ometo languages, he leaves Gatame/Haruro in the eastern branch.[3] No evidence is presented for treating these as separate languages.

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census Archived 2010-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  3. ^ Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List