Argobba language

Argobba
Native to	Ethiopia
Native speakers	44,000 (2007 census)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic South Semitic Ethiopian South Transversal Amharic–Argobba Argobba
Language codes
ISO 639-3	agj
Glottolog	argo1244[2]

Argobba is an Ethiopian Semitic language spoken in an area north-east of Addis Ababa by the Argobba people. It belongs to the South Ethiopian Semitic subgroup together with Amharic and the Gurage languages. Writing in the mid-1960s, Edward Ullendorff noted that it "is disappearing rapidly in favour of Amharic, and only a few hundred elderly people are still able to speak it."^[3] Today, many Argobba in the Harari region are shifting to the Oromo language.^[4]

The language is spoken in a number of pockets and has at least four regional variations (dialects) in Harar (extinct), Aliyu Amba, Shewa Robit and Shonke.

Notes

1. 2007 Census
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Argobba". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Ullendorff, Edward, (1965) The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People, second edition (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 131f. ISBN 0-19-285061-X.
4. Kifleyesus, Abbebe. 2006. The Argobba of Ethiopia are not the Language They Speak. Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 9:7-22.

References

• Cohen, Marcel (1931) Études d'éthiopien méridional (Collection d'ouvrages orientaux). Paris: Geuthner.
• Cohen, Marcel (1939) Nouvelles Études d'éthiopien méridional. Paris: Ancienne Honoré Champion.
• Leslau, Wolf (1997) Ethiopic Documents: Argobba. Grammar and dictionary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03955-8.
• Zelealem Leyew and Ralph Siebert (1994) Argobba. S.L.L.E. Linguistic Reports no. 22. Addis Ababa: SIL/Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University.
• Zelealem Leyew, Ralph Siebert (2002), Sociolinguistic Survey Report of the Argobba Language of Ethiopia SIL Electronic Survey Reports, SILESR 2002-026 (PDF)