TerraverbaAn atlas of the world’s languages 简体中文 Open the atlas

Northern Gumuz

Northern Gumuz is a Gumuz language spoken in Ethiopia and Sudan, by about 219 thousand people.

See it on the globeOpen in the family tree

Northern Gumuz · 11.1°N 35.9°E

Gumuz (also spelled Gumaz) is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. It has been tentatively classified within the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Ethiopian speakers live in Kamashi Zone and Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 reportedly live outside the town of Welkite (Unseth 1989). The Sudanese speakers live in the area east of Er Roseires, around Famaka and Fazoglo on the Blue Nile, extending north along the border. Dimmendaal et al. (2019) suspect that the poorly attested varieties spoken along the river constitute a distinct language, Kadallu.

An early record of this language is a wordlist from the Mount Guba area compiled in February 1883 by Juan Maria Schuver.

From Wikipedia · Gumuz language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Written down

Dubꞌaga bꞌaga metaam metaam alamaam kamaanzaakꞌoma kasꞌe bipokꞌoga kamadꞌab maafucꞌakꞌwa haaga bacꞌaga tso. Kábꞌaga jajanda kwa jala etigafalagash maꞌiiya nago metaagwa eyaal yida-eba bicꞌaga tso.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR in Unicode).

Words in Northern Gumuz

MeaningWordRomanization
personbEga*
namecea*
eyeLiCa*
earcea*
noseita*
toothkosa*
tonguekwotEta*
handerE*
bloodmEha*
boneZEkwa*
skinbea*
kneekwuCiCukwa*
breastkuwE*
liverandiya*
wateraya*
firemanja*
sunoka*
starbiZa*
stonegiSa*
mountainkirZa*
treejya*
leafsinja*
nightmEgakwa*
dogkowa*
fishwuha*
lousecukuna*
onemetam*
twomban*
Iada*
youama*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Grammar

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

Nearby languages

Elsewhere

Something wrong here? Tell us

Glottolog · gumu1244 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · guk