Kunama language

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

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

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]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless		t	tʃ	k
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	g
Fricative		f	s	ʃ		(h)
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic			r
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

• /h/ is only of marginal status.
• /k, ɡ/ are labialized as [kʷ, ɡʷ] after back vowels.
• /k/ is heard as aspirated [kʰ] in syllable-initial position.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː	(ɨ)	u uː
Mid	e eː	(ə)	o oː
Open		a aː

• /i, e/ can be heard as [ɨ, ə] when in unstressed syllable position.^[3]

See also

• Kunama word list (Wiktionary)