| Also Known As: Mekeyer,Mikair,Mikeyir,Shako
Description:
Shabo (also called Mikeyir) is an endangered language spoken by about 600 hunter-gatherers in southwestern Ethiopia, in the westernmost part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region. They live in three places in the Keficho Shekicho Zone: Anderaccha, Gecch'a, and Kaabo. Many of its speakers are shifting to other neighboring languages, in particular Majang language and Shekkacho (Mocha); its vocabulary is heavily influenced by loanwords from both these languages, particularly Majangir, as well as Amharic. Its classification is uncertain; it may be Nilo-Saharan (Anbessa & Unseth 1989, Fleming 1991), or may be a language isolate (Ehret 1995). It was first reported to be a separate language by Lionel Bender in 1977, using a wordlist gathered by the missionary Harvey Hoekstra. It is currently (as of 2004) being studied by Daniel Aberra of Addis Ababa University.
Once the many loanwords from its immediate neighbors, Majang and Shakicho, are removed, the wordlists collected show a significant number of Koman words side by side with a larger number of words with no obvious external relationships. The tentative grammar so far collected offers few obviously convincing..... full article at Wikipedia |
