Konso language


Konso is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia. Native speakers of Konso number about 200,000. Konso is closely related to Dirasha, and serves as a "trade language"—or lingua franca—beyond the area of the Konso people. Blench considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages.
The Grammar of Konso was first described by Hellenthal, and later, in more detail, by Ongaye. The New Testament was published in the Konso language in 2002.

Phonology

Consonants

Unlike its Oromoid relatives and most East African languages in general, Konso distinguishes neither voiced nor ejective consonants. Instead, it has a series of implosive stops, including the extremely rare uvular implosive /ʛ/.

Vowels

Typical of a Cushitic language, Konso distinguishes five short and five long vowels:
FrontCentralBack
Close
Mid
Open

Orthography

An alphabet for Konso was developed by the SSNPR education Bureau and SIL Ethiopia, with financial support by Wycliffe Norway. It is used in a Konso dictionary, and is currently adopted by the Konso people for general use.
  1. a: /a/
  2. b: /ɓ/
  3. c: /c/
  4. d: /ɗ/
  5. e: /e/
  6. f: /f/
  7. h: /h/
  8. i: /i/
  9. j: /ʄ/
  10. k: /k/
  11. l: /l/
  12. m: /m/
  13. n: /n/
  14. ny: /ɲ/
  15. o: /o/
  16. p: /p/
  17. q: /ʛ/
  18. r: /r/
  19. s: /s/
  20. sh: /ʃ/
  21. t: /t/
  22. u: /u/
  23. w: /w/
  24. x: /χ/
  25. y: /j/
  26. ': /ʔ/
Vowel length is indicated by doubling the vowel

Literature on the Konso language