Kunama language

Kunama
Native to	Eritrea, Ethiopia
Region	western Eritrea, northern Ethiopia
Native speakers	190,000 all Kunama (2006–2007)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Kunama Kunama
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kun
Glottolog	kuna1268[2]

The Kunama language is a language isolate which has been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Kunama is spoken by the Kunama people of western Eritrea and just across the Ethiopian border. The language has several dialects including: Barka, Marda, Aimara, Odasa, Tika, Lakatakura, Sokodasa, Takazze-Selit, and Tigray. Ilit and Bitama are not mutually intelligible and so may be considered distinct languages.

References

• Bender, M. Lionel. 1996. Kunama. Languages of the World/Materials 59. München: Lincom Europa.
• Idris, Nikodimos.1987. The Kunama and their language. Addis Ababa University BA thesis
• Thompson, E. D. 1983. "Kunama: phonology and noun phrase" in Bender, M. L. (ed.): Nilo-Saharan Language Studies. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University. pp. 280–322.
• Thompson, E. David. 1989. "Kunama Verb Phrase" in Bender, M. Lionel (ed.): Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. pp. 305–346.
• Tucker, A. N. and Bryan, M. A. 1966. "Kunama" in Linguistic Analyses: the Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. London: Oxford University Press.

External links

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Kunama

1. Kunama at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Kunama". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.