Nilo-Saharan language family spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia
Kunama
Baada, Baazayn, Diila
Native to
Eritrea, Ethiopia
Region
western Eritrea, northern Ethiopia
Ethnicity
Kunama
Native speakers
180,000 (2022)[1]
Language family
Nilo-Saharan?
Kunama
Kunama
Dialects
Barka (Berka)
Marda
Aymasa
Tika (Lakatakura-Tika)
Sokodasa
Takazze-Setit
Tigray
Writing system
Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in
Eritrea
Language codes
ISO 639-3
kun
Glottolog
kuna1268
Map of the Kunama Languages
The Kunama language has been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family, though it is distantly related to the other languages, if at all. Kunama is spoken by the Kunama people of the Gash-Barka Region in western Eritrea and just across the Ethiopian border. The language has several dialects including: Barka, Marda, Aimara, Odasa, Tika, Lakatakura, Sokodasa, Takazze-Setit and Tigray. Ilit and Bitama are not mutually intelligible and so may be considered distinct languages.
There have been some use of the Kunama language in publications. "The first Bible translation product in Kunama was the Gospel of Mark prepared by Andersson and published in 1906."[2]
^Kunama at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^Andemariam, Senai Woldeab (2020). "The Polygon of the Bible Translation Efforts in Eritrea 1880–2012". Journal of Translation. 16 (1): 1–16. doi:10.54395/jot-d389t.
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divergent variety of Kunama that is mutually unintelligible enough to be considered a distinct language. It is spoken by the Kunama people who straddle...
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