View source for Siltʼe language

{{Short description|Semitic language spoken by Silt’e people in Ethiopia}}
{{More inline citations needed|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Siltʼe
|nativename= የስልጤ‎ (Yesiltʼe)
|states=[[Ethiopia]]
|region=[[Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region]]
|ethnicity={{sigfig|1.4100000|2}} million [[Siltʼe people|Silt'e]] (2018)<ref name=e27/>
|speakers={{sigfig|881,000|2}}
|date = 2007 census
|ref=e27
|script=[[Ge'ez script]]
|familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
|fam2=[[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
|fam3=[[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]]
|fam4=[[South Semitic languages|South Semitic]]
|fam5=[[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethiopic]]
|fam6=[[South Ethiopic languages|South]]
|fam7=[[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Transversal]] 
|fam8=[[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Harari – East Gurage]]
|fam9= [[Ethiopian Semitic languages |East Gurage]]|lc1=stv|ld1=Siltʼe
|lc2=wle|ld2=Wolane
|glotto=silt1239
|glottorefname=Silte–Wolane
|notice=IPA
}}
'''Siltʼe''' (ስልጥኘ {{IPA|[siltʼiɲɲə]}} or የስልጤ አፍ {{IPA|[jəsiltʼe af]}}) is an [[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethiopian Semitic language]]  spoken in South [[Ethiopia]]. A member of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic family]], its speakers are the [[Siltʼe people|Siltʼe]], who mainly inhabit the [[Siltʼe Zone]] in the [[Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region]]. Speakers of the Wolane dialect mainly inhabit the [[Kokir Gedebano]] district of [[Gurage Zone]], as well as the neighbouring [[Seden Sodo]] district of the [[Oromia Region]]. Some have also settled in urban areas in other parts of the country, especially [[Addis Ababa]].

==Speakers and dialects==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2023}}
Dialects of the Siltʼe language include: [[Azernet-Berbere]], [[Silti]], [[Wuriro]], [[Ulbareg]] and [[Wolane]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2023|reason=As far as I can tell, Wolane is not considered a dialect of Siltʼe, and there's no citation for the others.}} There are about 940,000 native Siltʼe speakers (2007 census); 125,000 speakers of Wolane.

==Phonology==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2023}}
===Consonants===
Siltʼe has a fairly typical set of consonants for an [[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethiopian Semitic]] language. There are the usual [[ejective consonant]]s, alongside plain voiceless and voiced consonants and all of the consonants, except {{IPA|/h/}} and {{IPA|/ʔ/}}, can be [[gemination|geminated]], that is, lengthened.

The charts below show the phonemes of Siltʼe. For the representation of Siltʼe consonants, this article uses a modification of a system that is common (though not universal), among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages, but differs somewhat from the conventions of the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]. When the IPA symbol is different, it is indicated in brackets in the charts.

:{| class="wikitable"  style="text-align:center"
|+ [[Consonant]]s
|-
!colspan="2"|
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br />[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]/<br />[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Plosive]]/<br />[[Affricate]]
!<small>[[Voiceless]]</small>
|{{IPAlink|p}}{{efn|{{IPA|/p/}} only plays a marginal role in the system, because it appears in only a few words in the Azarnat dialect.}}
|{{IPAlink|t}}
|{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}} {{angle bracket|č}}
|{{IPAlink|k}}
|{{IPAlink|ʔ}}{{efn|{{IPA|/ʔ/}} only plays a marginal role in the system, because (as in [[Amharic]]), it is often omitted.}}
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|Voiced]]</small>
|{{IPAlink|b}}
|{{IPAlink|d}}
|{{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}} {{angle bracket|ǧ}}
|{{IPAlink|ɡ}}
|
|-
!<small>[[Ejective consonant|Ejective]]</small>
|
|{{IPAlink|tʼ}}
|{{IPAlink|t͡ʃʼ}} {{angle bracket|čʼ}}
|{{IPAlink|kʼ}}
|
|-
!rowspan="2"|[[Fricatives]]
!<small>[[Voiceless]]</small>
|{{IPAlink|f}}
|{{IPAlink|s}}
|{{IPAlink|ʃ}} {{angle bracket|š}}
|
|{{IPAlink|h}}
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|Voiced]]</small>
|
|{{IPAlink|z}}
|{{IPAlink|ʒ}} {{angle bracket|ž}}
|
|
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Nasal stop|Nasals]]
|{{IPAlink|m}}
|{{IPAlink|n}}
|{{IPAlink|ɲ}} {{angle bracket|ñ}}
|
|
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Approximants]]
|{{IPAlink|w}}
|{{IPAlink|l}}
|{{IPAlink|j}} {{angle bracket|y}}
|
|
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Flap consonant|Flap/Trill]]
|
|{{IPAlink|r}}
|
|
|
|}
{{notelist}}

===Vowels===
Siltʼe vowels differ considerably from the typical set of seven vowels in languages such as [[Amharic]], [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]] and [[Geʽez]]. Siltʼe has the set of five short and five long vowels that are typical of the nearby Eastern Cushitic languages, which may be the origin of the Siltʼe system. There is considerable [[allophone|allophonic]] variation within the short vowels, especially for ''a''; the most frequent allophone of {{IPA|/a/}}, {{IPA|[ə]}}, is shown in the chart. All of the short vowels may be [[Vowel#Phonation|devoiced]] preceding a pause.

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+[[Vowel]]s
|-
!
!Front
!Central
!Back
|-
!High
|i, ii
|
|u, uu
|-
!Mid
|e, ee
|{{IPAblink|ə}} {{angle bracket|a}}
|o, oo
|-
!Low
|
|aa
|
|}

==Orthography==
Since at least the 1980s, Siltʼe has been written in the [[Geʽez script]], originally developed for the now-extinct Geʽez language and most familiar today in its use for [[Amharic]] and [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]].

This orthographic system makes distinctions among only seven vowels. Some of the short-long distinctions in Siltʼe are therefore not marked. In practice, this probably does not interfere with comprehension because there are relatively few [[minimal pair]]s based on vowel length.
In written Siltʼe, the seven Geʽez vowels are mapped onto the ten Siltʼe vowels as follows:
* ''ä'' → ''a'': አለፈ ''alafa'' 'he passed'
* ''u'' → ''u'', ''uu'': ሙት ''mut'' 'death', ''muut'' 'thing'
* ''i'' →
** ''ii'': ኢን ''iin'' 'eye'
** word-final ''i'': መሪ ''mari'' 'friend'
** ''i'' ending a noun [[word stem|stem]]: መሪከ ''marika'' 'his friend'
** impersonal perfect verb ''i'' suffix: ባሊ ''baali'' 'people said'; በባሊም ''babaalim'' 'even if people said'
* ''a'' → ''aa'': ጋራሽ ''gaaraaš'' 'your (f.) house'
* ''e'' → ''e'', ''ee'': ኤፌ ''eeffe'' 'he covered'
* ''ǝ'' →
** ''i'' (except as above): እንግር ''ingir'' 'foot'
** consonant not followed by a vowel: አስሮሽት ''asroošt'' 'twelve'
* ''o'' → ''o'', ''oo'': ቆጬ ''kʼočʼe'' 'tortoise', ''kʼoočʼe'' 'he cut'

==Language vitality==
Meshesha Make Jobo reports that the use of the Siltʼe language is being replaced by the use of Amharic by some speakers for some domains. He points to large political and social factors, many from the national level. He also points out smaller, local factors, such as the lack of creative genres.<ref>Meshesha Make Jobo. 2016. Indigenous language shift in Siltie: Causes, effects and directions for revitalization. ''Journal of Languages and Culture''  7(7): 69-78.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Dirk Bustorf 2011: ''Lebendige Überlieferung: Geschichte und Erinnerung der muslimischen Siltʼe Äthiopiens. With an English Summary''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Aethiopistische Forschungen 74).
*[[Marcel Cohen|Cohen, Marcel]] (1931). ''Études d'éthiopien méridional''. Société Asiatique, Collection d'ouvrages orientaux. Paris: Geuthner.
*Drewes, A.J. (1997). "The story of Joseph in Sïltʼi Gurage", in: Grover Hudson (ed.), ''Essays on Gurage language and culture: dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his 90th birthday, November 14, 1996'', Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp.&nbsp;69–92.
*Gutt, E.H.M. & Hussein Mohammed (1997). ''Siltʼe–Amharic–English dictionary'' (with a concise grammar by E-A Gutt). Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.
*Gutt, E.-A. (1983). Studies in the phonology of Silti. ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'' 16, pp.&nbsp;37–73.
*Gutt, E.-A. (1991). "Aspects of number in Siltʼi grammar", in: ''Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies'' (Addis Ababa), pp.&nbsp;453–464.
*Gutt, E.-A. (1997). "Concise grammar of Siltʼe", in: Gutt, E.H.M. 1997, pp.&nbsp;895–960.
*[[Wolf Leslau|Leslau, W.]] (1979). ''Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic)''. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. {{ISBN|3-447-02041-5}}
*Wagner, Ewald (1983). "Seltʼi-verse in arabischer Schrift aus dem Schlobies-Nachlass", in: Stanislav Segert & András J.E. Bodrogligeti (eds.), ''Ethiopian studies dedicated to Wolf Leslau'', Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp.&nbsp;363–374.

==External links==
*[http://shibal.com Silte Music Live]
*https://web.archive.org/web/20071008150243/http://www.siltie.com/
*[http://shibal.com/silteforum Webaja Silte Discussion Forum]

{{Languages of Ethiopia}}
{{Afro-Asiatic languages|state=collapse}}
{{Modern Semitic languages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silte}}
[[Category:Transverse Ethiopian Semitic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Ethiopia]]