Ganza language

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Ganza
غانزا (Ganzo)
Native toSudan, Ethiopia
RegionAsosa Zone of Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Blue Nile State
Native speakers
3,000 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3gza
Glottologganz1246
ELPGanza

Ganza, also known as Ganzo or Koma, is an Omotic language spoken in the Al Kurumik District of the Blue Nile (state) in Sudan and in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, specifically in the village districts of Penishuba and Yabeldigis.

It also goes by the names Ganzo, Gwami, Koma, and Koma-Ganza.[1]

Phonology[edit]

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ ʔ̃
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
ejective
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ h
ejective
voiced z
Approximant l j w
Trill r

Ganza does not utilize consonant length phonemically.[2]: 106 

Vowels[2]: 107 
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Although vowel length is typically contrastive in Omotic languages, Ganza does not have a clear contrast between long and short vowel phonemes. Instead, Ganza has predictable utterance-final vowel lengthening and a set of monosyllabic words with double vowels.[2]: 109 

References[edit]

  • Smolders, Joshua. 2015. A Wordlist of Ganza. Addis Ababa: SIL Ethiopia

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Ganza at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b c Smolders, Joshua (2016). "A Phonology of Ganza" (pdf). Linguistic Discovery. 14 (1): 86–144. doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.470. Retrieved 2017-01-16.

External links[edit]