dictionaria/sidaama

Sidaama dictionary by Kjell Magne Yri and Steve Pepper # Sidaama dictionary > by Kjell Magne Yri and Steve Pepper This repository contains the data underlying the published version of the dictionary at Dictionaria as CLDF Dictionary Releases of this repository are archived with and accessible through ZENODO and the latest release is published on the Dictionaria website. Sidaama – the language and its speakers Location and genealogical affiliation Sidaama or Sidaamu afó, also called Sidamo in the literature, is spoken in the northern part of the former Sidamo province that covered most of Southern Ethiopia to the border with Kenya. It is to be noted that the Sidamo province had a much larger extension than the homeland of the Sidaama ethnic group. The latter is limited by the river Bilate in the west, borders to the Gedeo people in the south, and has the Gudji Oromo people to the south-east and the Arsi Oromo as neighbours to the east and north. According to the census of 2007, published by the Central Statistical Authority of Ethiopia in 2010, the number of speakers is 2.9 million. More recent estimates put the actual number to more than 4 million. The language is described as belonging to the branch of Cushitic languages which is called Highland East Cushitic, comprising also e.g. Gedeo, Burji, and Kambaata. For the position of Cushitic within Afroasiatic, see survey of suggestions in Edzard 2012:24-5. Sidamo or Sidaama? The Sidaama themselves, represented by Beetaanna Hott’eesso (1983 Ethiopian Calendar: 47-8), insist that Sidaama is the name of both the area and the people, and that Sidamo is a name only used by those who do not know the language. In linguistic circles in Ethiopia nowadays, there is great acceptance of the idea of assuming each people’s self-name of their language as the term with which to refer to it. It may be offensive to use the older names, as they were often coined by foreigners or by the Amharic speaking ruling class, and frequently had derogatory connotations. It is probable that the …