| Also Known As: Damot,Agau,Agew,Kwollanyoch,Agaw,Awi,Awawar,Agow,Awiya
Description:
The Awngi language is a Central Cushitic language spoken by the Awi people, living in Central Gojjam in northwestern Ethiopia. The language is classified as Southern Central Cushitic or Southern Agaw in the literature, and as such belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family.
Most speakers of the language live in the Agew Awi Zone of the Amhara Region, but there are also communities speaking the language in various areas of Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The status of Kunfäl, another Southern Agaw language spoken in the area west of Lake Tana, is still not entirely clarified. It is very close to Awngi and could be a dialect of that language. In the 2009 edition of the Ethnologue Kunfäl has been re-classified as a dialect of Awngi.
The central vowel /ɨ/ is the default epenthetic vowel of the language and almost totally predictable in its occurrence.
Palmer and Hetzron both identified three distinctive tone levels in Awngi: High, Mid and Low. The Low tone, however, only appears in word-final position on the vowel a. A Falling tone (High-Mid) appears on word-final syllables only.
The Awngi syllable in most cases fits the maximum syllable template..... full article at Wikipedia |
