Omotic: a new Afroasiatic language family.

Beginning in the 9th century with the Jewish grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh, a relationship between the Semitic and Cushitic languages was seen ; modern linguists group these two families, along with the Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, and Omotic language groups into the larger Afro-Asiatic language family.

A few scholars have raised doubts that the Omotic languages are part of the Afroasiatic language family at all,

Omotic: a new Afroasiatic language family.

* Bench language ( Bench-non ), a Northern Omotic language spoken in Kaffa ( southeastern Ethiopia )

Language families which distinguish ejective consonants include all three Caucasian families ( Northwest Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian languages and Kartvelian Georgian language ); the Athabaskan, Siouan and Salishan families of North America, along with the many diverse families of the Pacific Northwest from central California to British Columbia ; the Mayan family and Aymara ; the southern varieties of Quechua ( Qusqu-Qullaw ); the Afro-Asiatic family ( notably most of the Cushitic and Omotic languages, Hausa and South Semitic languages like Amharic and Tigrinya ) and a few Nilo-Saharan languages ; Sandawe, Hadza, and the Khoisan families of southern Africa.

Aari ( also spelled Ari, Ara, Aro, Aarai ) is an Omotic language of Ethiopia.

Bench ( Benc ’, also called Gimira, considered derogatory, or She ) is a Northern Omotic language of the " Gimojan " subgroup, spoken by about 174, 000 people ( as of 1998 ) in the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, in southern Ethiopia, around the towns of Mizan Teferi and Shewa Gimira.

* Borna language ( Ethiopia ), a North Omotic language spoken in western Ethiopia

Anfillo ( also known as Southern Mao ) is a Northern Omotic language spoken in western Ethiopia by a few hundred people.

The native language, also known as Kaffa, is one of the Omotic group of languages.

Kaffa was divided into four sub-tribes, who spoke a common language Kefficho, one of the Gonga / Kefoid group of Omotic languages ; a number of groups of foreigners, Muslim traders and members of the Ethiopian Church, also lived in the kingdom.

Two, Chadic is closest to Cushitic and Omotic than any other branch.

However, this view has largely been abandoned, with Omotic generally agreed to be an independent branch of Afroasiatic, primarily due to the work of Harold C. Fleming ( 1974 ) and M. Lionel Bender ( 1975 ).

The Omotic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic family spoken in southwestern Ethiopia.

Hayward ( 2003 ) separates out the Mao languages as a third branch of Omotic, and breaks up Ometo – Gimira:

Omotic is generally considered the most divergent branch of the Afroasiatic languages.

or that only South Omotic forms a separate branch, with North Omotic remaining part of Cushitic.

The Ge ' ez alphabet is used to write some Omotic languages, the Roman alphabet for some others.

Like most other Ethiopian languages, whether Semitic, Cushitic, or Omotic, Oromo has a set of ejective consonants, that is, voiceless stops or affricates that are accompanied by glottalization and an explosive burst of air.

Bussa is highly influenced by surrounding Cushitic and Omotic languages and should be considered endangered according to Gurmu ( 2005 ).

The Kru languages are known for some of the most complex tone systems in Africa, rivaled perhaps only by the Omotic languages.

Omotic as an Afroasiatic family.

The Chadic, Omotic, and to some extent Cushitic branches of Afroasiatic are tonal — the Omotic languages heavily so — though their sister families of Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian are not.

* Many Afroasiatic languages in the Chadic, Cushitic and Omotic families have register-tone systems, such as Chadic Hausa.

Blench ( 2006 ) notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary with the rest of Afroasiatic, but not cattle-related vocabulary, suggesting that the split occurred before the advent of pastoralism.

Omotic: the " empty quarter " of Afroasiatic linguistics.

This has since been emended by changing the status of " Western Cushitic ", making it an independent subfamily of Afroasiatic called Omotic.

It was founded in March 1992, when a number of political parties formed a coalition, which included the Gurage People's Democratic Front, the Omotic People's Democratic Front, the Kaffa People's Democratic Union, the Hadiya National Democratic Organization, the Yem National Democratic Movement, the Wolaita People's Democratic Front, the Sidama Liberation Movement, the Gedeo People's Democratic Organization, and Burji People's Democratic Organization.

Among the Omotic peoples of southwestern Ethiopia ( whom Ehret and many other linguists consider to be Afrasan-speaking ) Afrasan henotheism has been preserved relatively unchanged.

Cushitic was traditionally seen as also including the Omotic languages, then called West Cushitic.

Bender ( 2000 ) classifies Omotic languages as follows:

Category: Omotic languages

* Mao ( languages ), a group of Omotic languages in western Ethiopia

In southwest Ethiopia, phonemically distinctive retroflex consonants are found in Bench and Sheko, two contiguous, but not closely related, Omotic languages .‬

Category: South Omotic languages

and Theil ( 2006 ) proposes that Omotic be treated as an independent family.

They are only well documented in two regions of the world: in northeast Africa, where they occur in several branches of the Cushitic and Omotic families of Afro-Asiatic, as well as in the Surmic and Nilotic languages of the Eastern Sudanic family ; and in the southwestern United States and adjoining parts of Mexico, where they are characteristic of the Yuman family.

Many of the Omotic tone systems are quite complex.

The North and South Omotic branches (" Nomotic " and " Somotic ") are universally recognized.

Speakers of the North Bussa variety are shifting to Oromo, Dirasha or Amharic, whereas speakers of the West Bussa variety are shifting to the Omotic languages Zargulla, Zayse and Gamo.