Ometo languages

Ometo
Geographic distribution:	Ethiopia
Linguistic classification:	Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Ometo
Subdivisions:	South East North
Glottolog:	omet1238[1]

The Ometo languages of Ethiopia are a dialect cluster of the Omotic family, generally accepted as part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They include the most populous Omotic language, Wolaytta, with two million speakers.^[2]

Bender (2000) classifies them as,^[2]

• South: Maale
• Basketo
• Central: Wolaytta (Ometo), Oyda (Oyta), Melo (Malo), Dorze–Gamo-Gofa-Dawro
• East: Gats'ame (Kachama-Ganjule), Koorete (Koyra, Harro), Zayse-Zergulla

Hayward (2003) added Basketo to Central Ometo and called the result 'North Ometo',^[3] a position followed by Blench (2006). Blench lists several additional North Ometo languages, and lists Chara as unclassified within the family.^[4]

• North: Misketto (Basketto), Dokka, Doko-Dolo, Wolaitta (Welamo), Zala, Oyda, Malo, Dorze–Laha–Gamo–Gofa–Kullo-Konta–Dache, Ganjule, Gidicho, Kachama
• East: Gatame (Haruro), Zayse (+Zergula), Koorite/Koyra (Badittu)
• South: Maale
• ?: Ch'ara

He also lists Balta, a regional name for Wolaytta, as a possibly separate language.

Notes

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ometo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
2. Bender, M. Lionel. 2000. Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages. Munich: LINCOM. Classification copied in Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
3. Hayward, Richard J. 2003. 'Omotic: the "empty quarter" of Afroasiatic linguistics'. In Research in Afroasiatic Grammar II: selected papers from the fifth conference on Afroasiatic languages, Paris 2000, ed. by Jacqueline Lecarme, pp. 241-261. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
4. Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List