Afar language

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Afar, also known as Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang"., or Script error: No such module "Lang"., is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Afar people, native to parts of Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is an official language in Ethiopia; and a national language in Djibouti and Eritrea. Afar is officially written in the Latin script and has over 2.6 million speakers.

Classification

Afar is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. It is further categorized in the Lowland East Cushitic sub-group, along with Saho and Somali.[1] Its closest relative is the Saho language.[2]

Geographic distribution

The Afar language is spoken as a mother tongue by the Afar people in Djibouti, Eritrea, and the Afar Region of Ethiopia.[2]

According to Ethnologue, there are Template:Sigfig total Afar speakers. Of these, 1,280,000 were recorded in the 2007 Ethiopian census, with 906,000 monolinguals registered in the 1994 census.[2]

File:Languages of Ethiopia piechart.svg

Official status

In Djibouti, Afar is a recognized national language.[3] It is also one of the broadcasting languages of the Radio Television of Djibouti public network.

In Eritrea, Afar is recognized as one of nine national languages which formally enjoy equal status although Tigrinya and Arabic are by far of greatest significance in official usage. There are daily broadcasts on the national radio and a translated version of the Eritrean constitution. In education, however, Afar speakers prefer Arabic – which many of them speak as a second language – as the language of instruction.[4]

In the Afar Region of Ethiopia, Afar is also recognized as an official working language.[5] Since 2020, Afar is one of the five official working languages of Ethiopia.[6]

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of the Afar language in the standard orthography are listed below in angle brackets (preceded by the IPA notation):

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Pharyngeal Glottal
Plosive voiceless Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
voiced Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Fricative voiceless Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
voiced Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Nasal Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Approximant Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Tap Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr[7]

Voiceless stop consonants which close syllables are released, e.g., Script error: No such module "IPA"..

Vowels and stress

Front Central Back
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Close Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Mid Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Open Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr

Sentence final vowels of affirmative verbs are aspirated (and stressed), e.g.

Sentence final vowels of negative verbs are not aspirated (nor stressed), e.g.

Sentence final vowels of interrogative verbs are lengthened (and stressed), e.g.

Otherwise, stress in word-final.

Phonotactics

Possible syllable shapes are V, VV, VC, VVC, CV, CVV and CVVC.[8]

Syntax

As in most other Cushitic languages, the basic word order in Afar is subject–object–verb.[2]

Writing system

In Ethiopia, Afar used to be written with the Ge'ez script (Ethiopic script). Since around 1849, the Latin script has been used in other areas to transcribe the language.[2] Additionally, Afar is also transcribed using the Arabic script.[9]

In the early 1970s, two Afar intellectuals and nationalists, Dimis and Redo, formalized the Afar alphabet. Known as Qafar Feera, the orthography is based on the Latin script.[10]

Officials from the Institut des Langues de Djibouti, the Eritrean Ministry of Education, and the Ethiopian Afar Language Studies and Enrichment Center have since worked with Afar linguists, authors and community representatives to select a standard orthography for Afar from among the various existing writing systems used to transcribe the language.[9]

Latin alphabet

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a ba ca da e fa ga ha i ja ka la ma na o pa qa ra sa ta u va wa xa ya za
[11]
A B T S E C K X I D Q R F G O L M N U W H Y
a ba ta sa e ca ka xa i da qa ra fa ga o la ma na u wa ha ya
[12]
Afar alphabet[13][14][15]:
IPA Djibouti,
Ethiopia		 Eritrea
/a/ A a
/b/ B b
/t/ T t
/s/ S s
/e/ E e
/ħ/ C c X x
/k/ K k
/ɖ/ X x Dh dh
/i/ I i
/d/ D d
/ʕ/ Q q C c
/r/ R r
/f/ F f
/g/ G g
/o/ O o
/l/ L l
/m/ M m
/n/ N n
/u/ U u
/w/ W w
/h/ H h
/j/ Y y

Long vowels are represented by doubling. The letters P p, J j, V v and the digraphs Ch ch, Kh kh, Sh sh[13] are used in loanwords.

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  8. ↑ Template:Cite thesis
  9. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Template:Cite thesis

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Bibliography

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External links

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Template:Languages of Djibouti Template:Languages of Eritrea Template:Languages of Ethiopia Template:Cushitic languages Template:Afroasiatic languages Template:Authority control

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