Xamtanga language

Xamtanga
Xamtanga
Xamir
Pronunciation	[ˈχamtaŋa]
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	North Amhara Region
speakers	Native: 210,000 (2010)[1]; L2: 11,000[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Agaw Northern Xamtanga; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xan
Glottolog	xamt1239

Xamtanga (also Agawinya, Khamtanga, Simt'anga, Xamir, Xamta) is a Central Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Xamir people.

Sound system

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid vowel	ə
Low vowel	a

The central vowels /ɨ ə a/ have fronted and backed allophones, depending on the adjacent consonant(s).

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	plain	labialized	plain	labialized	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless		t	t͡ʃ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	ejective		tʼ	t͡ʃʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ			χ	χʷ	h*
	voiced		z
	ejective		sʼ
Lateral			l
Tap			ɾ
Semivowel				j		w

/h/ is found only word-initial in loanwords, and may be glottal [h] or pharyngeal [ħ].
/t/ is alveolar before the vowel /i/, dental otherwise.
/q/ can be ejective [qʼ], and in some cases the ejectives appear to be in free variation with the voiceless plosives.

Gemination

In positions other than word-initial, Xamtanga contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. With most consonants, the difference between a geminate and a non-geminate is simply one of length, but the cases of /b t q/ are more complex. When not word-initial, non-geminate /b/ is realized as a bilabial [β] or labiodental fricative [v], and /t/ and /q/ are realized as affricates: [tθ qχ]. Their geminate equivalents may be realized as prolonged [bː tː qː], or can simply be short [b t q].

In word-initial position, geminate consonants do not occur, and /b t q/ are realized as plosives.

Notes

Xamtanga at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

Bibliography

D.L. Appleyard (1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga—I". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 50 (2): 241–266. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00049028. S2CID 123007452.
D.L. Appleyard (1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga—II". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 50 (3): 470–507. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00039471. S2CID 246637332.
Appleyard, David L. (1988) "A Definite Article in Xamtanga", African Languages and Cultures 1/1, pp. 15–24.
Appleyard, David L. (2006) A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages (Kuschitische Sprachstudien – Cushitic Language Studies Band 24). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Chloé Darmon, L'agäw xamtanga : une langue couchitique en contact avec l'amharique, In Pount. Cahiers d'études : Corne de l'Afrique - Arabie du Sud, 4, pp. 169–195, 2010

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[e25-1] Xamtanga at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)