Qimant language

Kemant ( proper name Kemantney, another name Qimant ) is an endangered language that is spoken only by a few older members of the ethnic group of the Kemant in northern Ethiopia, especially in Chilga ( Woreda ) in the Semien Gondar region between Gondar and Metemma.

• 4.1 morphology
• 4.2 syntax

Classification

The language belongs to the western branch of the zentralkuschitischen languages ​​to which also the now extinct languages ​​Kwara and Kayla count. As a Cushitic language Qimant belongs to the language family of Afro-Asiatic languages.

Geographic and social distribution

The Kemant is the original language of the ethnic group of the Semien Gondar Kemant from the region of Ethiopia. Although this ethnic group according to the census of 1994 still 172 327 people belonged to, the language is now spoken by only a small part of them. The number of native speakers amounted to 1625, as a second language Kemant is used by other 3450 speakers. All the speakers either live in or Chilga Lay Armachiho and older than 30 years, with about 75 % are older than 50 years. The language is no longer taught to the next generation speakers, as most Kemant speak Amharic. Neither the public nor at home is the language as a common means of communication use, but is only used as a kind of secret code.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants (except the plosives and nasals ) can be geminiert in the word inside.

Vowels

Phonotaktik

The maximum syllabic structure is consonant-vowel -consonant. Consonant clusters are thus possible only in the word inside, but in loanwords from Amharic they can occur within a syllable. Vowel clusters are not possible. Consonant clusters with more than two consonants will be broken by epenthesis ( According inset) of the vowel / ɨ /.

Grammar

Morphology

Regarding the person is between first person singular / plural, 2 male / female / most distinguished person singular / polite / plural and third person. On the inflectional verb are marked by suffixes. Zelealem (2003, p 192 ) identifies three different aspects: perfective, imperfective and progressive.

Syntax

The basic form of the word order in Kemant, as in all other Afro-Asiatic languages ​​of Ethiopia, is subject-object - verb. The presence of a Kasusdeklination other, marked record positions are also possible. While in noun phrases generally prevails Rechtsköpfigkeit, number words, however, the noun can be adjusted. Subordinate clauses precede the main verb of the sentence.

Lexicon

As a result of the progressive extinction of the language many words have already been replaced by Amharic words.