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2012-10-07T21:22:27Z

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{{Infobox language family
|name=Lowland East Cushitic
|region=[[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]], [[Djibouti]], [[Somalia]], [[Kenya]]
|familycolor=Negro-Egyptian
|fam2=[[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]]
|child1=[[Saho–Afar languages|Saho–Afar]]
|child2=[[Oromo language|Oromo]]–[[Waata language|Waata]]
|child3=[[Western Omo–Tana languages|(Western) Omo–Tana]]
|child4=[[Macro-Somali languages|Macro-Somali]]
|child5=?[[Konsoid languages|Konsoid]]
|child6=?[[Girirra language|Girirra]]
|child7=? [[Dahalo language|Dahalo]]
|child8=? [[Rift languages|Rift]]
|child9=? [[Ongota language|Ongota]]
}}

'''Lowland East Cushitic'''<ref>Richard Hayward, "Afroasiatic", in Heine & Nurse, 2000, ''African Languages''</ref> comprises two dozen diverse languages of the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic family]] within [[Negro-Egyptian languages|Negro-Egyptian]]. They are spoken mainly in [[Djibouti]], [[Eritrea]], [[Ethiopia]], and [[Somalia]], and by Cushitic groups in northern [[Kenya]].

Lowland East Cushitic is often grouped with [[Highland East Cushitic languages|Highland East Cushitic]] (the Sidamic languages), [[Dullay languages|Dullay]], and [[Yaaku language|Yaaku]] as ''East Cushitic'', but that group is not well defined and considered dubious.

The most prominent Lowland East Cushitic language is [[Oromo language|Oromo]], with about 21 million speakers. Other prominent languages include [[Somali language|Somali]] (spoken by ethnic Somalis in [[Somalia]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Yemen]], [[Djibouti]], and [[Kenya]]) with about 15 million speakers, and [[Afar language|Afar]] (in [[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]] and [[Djibouti]]) with about 1.5 million.

[[Robert Hetzron]] has suggested that the [[Rift languages]] ''(South Cushitic)'' are a part of Lowland East Cushitic,<ref>Robert Hetzron, "The Limits of Cushitic", ''Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika'' 2. 1980, 7–126. </ref> and Kießling & Mous (2003) have suggested more specifically that they be linked to a Southern Lowland branch, together with Oromo, Somali, and Yaaku–Dullay.

The vocabulary of the [[mixed language|mixed]] [[register (sociolinguistics)|register]] of [[Mbugu language|Mbugu]] (Ma'a) may also be East Cushitic (Tosco 2002), though the grammatical basis and the other register are Bantu.

Unclassified within the Lowland languages are [[Konsoid languages|Konsoid]], [[Girirra language|Girirra]], and perhaps the endangered [[Boon language|Boon]].

==See also==
*[[Languages of Ethiopia]]

==References==
*Roland Kießling & Maarten Mous. 2003. ''The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic.'' Cushitic Language Studies Volume 21
*Tosco, Mauro. 2000. 'Cushitic Overview.' ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies'' 33(2):87-121.
*Savà, Graziano and Mauro Tosco. 2003. "The classification of Ongota". In Bender ''et al.'' eds, ''Selected comparative-historical Afrasian linguistic studies.'' LINCOM Europa.

==External links==
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90096 Ethnologue entry for East Cushitic languages]

[[Category:East Cushitic languages|*]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{NegroEgyptian-lang-stub}}

Lowland East Cushitic languages - Revision history

imported>Kofi: Created page with "{{Infobox language family |name=Lowland East Cushitic |region=Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya |familycolor=Negro-Egyptian |fam2=[[Cushitic lang..."