Gumuz language


Gumuz is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. It has been tentatively classified within the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Ethiopian speakers live in Kamashi Zone and Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 reportedly live outside the town of Welkite. The Sudanese speakers live in the area east of Er Roseires, around Famaka and Fazoglo on the Blue Nile, extending north along the border. Dimmendaal et al. suspect that the poorly attested varieties spoken along the river constitute a distinct language, Kadallu.
An early record of this language is a wordlist from the Mount Guba area compiled in February 1883 by Juan Maria Schuver.

Varieties

Varieties are not all mutually intelligible. By that standard, there are two or three Gumuz languages. Grammatical forms are distinct between northern and southern Gumuz.
Daats'iin, discovered in 2013, is clearly a distinct language, though closest to southern Gumuz. The poorly attested varieties in Sudan are likely a distinct language as well, Kadallu.
Ethnologue lists Guba, Wenbera, Sirba, Agalo, Yaso, Mandura, Dibate, and Metemma as Gumuz dialects, with Mandura, Dibate, and Metemma forming a dialect cluster.
Ahland provides comparative lexical data for the Guba, Mandura, North Dibat'e, Wenbera, Sirba Abay, Agelo Meti, Yaso, and Metemma dialects.

Phonology

Gumuz has both ejective consonants and implosives. The implosive quality is being lost at the velar point of articulation in some dialects. There is a series of palatal consonants, including both ejective and implosive. In some dialects, e.g. Sirba, there is a labialized palatalized bilabial stop, as in the word for 'rat' .
Tones are high and low, with downstep.

Grammar

Word order is AVO, with marked nominative case, though there is AOV order in the north, probably from Amharic influence.
In intransitive clauses, subjects in S–V order are unmarked, whereas those in V–S order are marked for nominative case.