Me'en language

Me'en
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	Eastern Africa
Native speakers	150,000 (2007 census)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Kir–Abbaian Surmic South Southeast Me'en
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mym
Glottolog	meen1242[2]

Me'en (also Mekan, Mie'en, Mieken, Meqan, Men) is a Nilo-Saharan language (Eastern Sudanic, Surmic, Southeast Surmic^[3]) spoken in Ethiopia by the Me'en people. In recent years, it has been written with the Ge'ez alphabet, but in 2007 a decision was made to use the Latin alphabet. Dialects include Bodi (Podi) and Tishena (Teshina, Teshenna).

Me'en is unique among Surmic languages in that it has ejective consonants.

Reliable descriptions of some parts of the language have been produced by Hans-Georg Will, often contradicting Carlo Conti Rossini's work, the editing of the extensive language notes of a non-linguist.

Notes

1. Ethiopia 2007 Census
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Me'en". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Peter Unseth. 1988. The Validity and Unity of the Southeast Surma Language Grouping. Northeast African Studies 10.2/3:151-163

References

• Conti Rossini, Carlo. (1913). "I Mekan o Suro nell'Etiopia meridionale e il loro linguaggio." Rend. R. Acc. Lincei XXII (7-10): 397-463.
• Diehl, Achim and Hans-Georg Will. (2007). "Meˀen language." In Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 3, 907-909. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Will, Hans-Georg. 1989. "Sketch of Me'en grammar." In M. Lionel Bender (ed.), Topics in Nilo-Saharan linguistics, 129-50. Nilo-Saharan, 3. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
• Will, Hans-Georg. 1998. "The Me'en verb system: Does Me'en have tenses?." In Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and Marco Last (eds.), Surmic languages and cultures, 437-58. Nilo-Saharan, 13. Cologne: R. Köppe

External links

• Me'en basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Me'en