16th edition

US$ 100.00

Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Ethiopia > Qimant

Qimant

A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639-3: ahg

Population	1,650 in Ethiopia (1994 census). Ethnic population: 172,327 (1994 census).
Region	Northwest Amhara region, north of Lake Tana. Qwara or Kayla are near Addis Ababa. Also in Eritrea.
Language map	Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia, reference number 66
Alternate names	Kimanteney, Western Agaw
Dialects	Qimant (Kemant, Kimant, Kemanat, Kamant, Chemant, Qemant), Dembiya (Dembya, Dambya), Hwarasa (Qwara, Qwarina, “Kara” ), Kayla, Semyen, Achpar, Kwolasa (Kwolacha). Distinct from Awngi [awn], Bilen [byn], Xamtanga [xan].
Classification	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, Central, Western
Language use	3,181 L2 speakers. Qwara dialect has no remaining speakers. 170,747 ethnic Western Agaw are monolingual in Amharic [amh]. Also use Amharic, Ge’ez [gez] as liturgical language; a few Hebrew [heb] words used in prayer.
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 15%. Bible portions: 1885.
Writing system	Ethiopic script.
Comments	Kayla or Qwara people are called ‘Falashi’, the so-called ‘Black Jews’. 2,321 Falashas in Ethiopia. Most of the remaining Falasha went to Israel in 1999. No evidence of a distinct Jewish language. ‘Kara’ is an incorrect spelling. SOV. Christian (Qimant), Jewish (Kayla).

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

JOSWIG, Andreas, author. 2008. Review of Appleyard, David: A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages.

LEYEW, Zelealem, author. 1994. "First report on a survey of the Shinasha and Agew dialects and languages."

LEYEW, Zelealem, author. 1995. "Kemant (Qimant): a language on the brink of extinction."

LEYEW, Zelealem, author. 2002. "First report on a survey of the Shinasha and Agew dialects and languages."  

LEYEW, Zelealem, author. 2002. "Sociolinguistic survey report of the Kemant (Qimant) language of Ethiopia."