 | This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines. (June 2024) |
| El Molo | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Kenya |
| Region | Lake Turkana |
| Ethnicity | 560 El Molo people[1] |
| Extinct | 1999, with the death of Kaayo[2] |
| Revival | [3][4] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | elo |
| Glottolog | elmo1238 |
| ELP | El Molo |
El Molo is a possibly extinct language belonging to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It was spoken by the El Molo people on the southeastern shore of Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya. Alternate names to El Molo are Dehes, Elmolo, Fura-Pawa, and Ldes.[1][2] It was thought to be extinct in the middle part of the 20th century, but a few speakers were found in the later 20th century. Most of the El Molo population have shifted to the neighboring Samburu language. El Molo also has no known dialects but it is similar to Daasanach.[2]
Oral tradition sees the El Molo people as an offshoot of the Arbore people in South Ethiopia.[5] This seems to be confirmed by El Molo's linguistic proximity to the Arbore language.[6]
- ^ a b "El Molo in Kenya". BBC News. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ a b c El Molo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ PawankaFund (2021-12-16). "El-molo language revival through learning, use and research". Pawankafund. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
- ^ Tosco, Mauro (2012-01-01). "What Terminal Speakers Can Do to Their Language: the Case of Elmolo". Federico Corriente, Gregorio del Olmo Lete, Ángeles Vicente & Juan-Pablo Vita (Eds.), Dialectology of the Semitic Languages. Proceedings of the IV Meeting on Comparative Semitics, Zaragoza 6/9-11/2010 ("Aula Orientalis – Supplementa 27"). Sabadell (Barcelona): Editorial AUSA: 2012: 131-143.
- ^ Sobiana 1980, p. 297.
- ^ Hayward 1984, p. 38.
