Dime language

Dime
Native toEthiopia
RegionDebub (South) Omo Zone
Native speakers
11,000 (2007 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3dim
Glottologdime1235
ELPDimé

Dime or Dima is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in the northern part of the Selamago district in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNP) of Ethiopia, around Mount Smith.[1] Dime divides into at least two dialects, which include Us'a and Gerfa. It has six case suffixes in addition to an unmarked nominative. It is overwhelmingly suffixing, but uses prefixes for demonstratives and has reduplication. Phonologically, it is noteworthy among the Omotic languages for having phonemic velar and uvular fricatives.[2] The basic word order is subject–object–verb (SOV), as in other Omotic languages, and indeed in all members of the core of the Ethiopian Language Area.

The language, as well as the Dime people themselves, reportedly decreased in number over the 20th century due to predations from their neighbors the Bodi, and both are in danger of extinction.[3] According to official Ethiopian figures, the 1994 census reported 6293 speakers of the Dime language in the SNNP region alone;[4] in the 2007 census, only 574 speakers were reported for all of Ethiopia.[5] Further, because the Dime language still lacks a writing system and there are no local schools to promote the use of the language, it is even more threatened.[2]

  1. ^ a b Dime at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Seyoum, Mulugeta (2008). A grammar of Dime (Ph.D. thesis). Leiden University. hdl:1887/12833.
  3. ^ Fleming, Harold (1990). Richard Hayward (ed.). Omotic Language Studies. London: SOAS. p. 495. ISBN 9780728601666.
  4. ^ 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, Vol. 1, part 1, Table 2.14
  5. ^ Central Statistical Agency. "Ethiopia - Population and Housing Census 2007 Report, National". International Household Survey Network.