Social:Ganza language

Short description: Omotic language of Sudan and Ethiopia

Ganza
غانزا Ganzo
Native to	Sudan, Ethiopia
Region	Asosa Zone of Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Blue Nile State
Native speakers	3,000 (2007)e25
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Mao Ganza
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gza
Glottolog	ganz1246

Ganza, also known as Ganzo or Koma, is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic family 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.

Phonology

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

Ganza does not utilize consonant length phonemically.

Vowels

	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.

References

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

External links

• Link to ELAR documentation of Ganza and Ganza verb mophology