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Oromo, West Central

A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639-3: gaz

Population	8,920,000 in Ethiopia (1994 census). Population total all countries: 8,922,200. Ethnic population: All ethnic Oromo are 30,000,000 in Ethiopia.
Region	West and central, Oromo region; Rift Valley escarpment east of Dessie and Woldiya. Also in Egypt.
Language maps	Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia, reference number 82 Southwestern Ethiopia, reference number 82
Alternate names	Afan Oromo, “Galla” , Oromiffa, Oromoo
Dialects	Western Oromo, Central Oromo. Subdialects are Mecha (Maccha, Wellaga, Wallaga, Wollega), Raya, Wello (Wollo), Tulema (Tulama, Shoa, Shewa). Harar and Boran are most divergent.
Classification	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, East, Oromo A member of macrolanguage Oromo [orm] (Ethiopia).
Language use	Trade language. Used by regional and national government. In Ethiopia, Oromo is viewed as one people speaking one language.
Language development	Literacy rate in L1: 1%–5%. Literacy rate in L2: 22%. Taught in primary schools. Newspapers. Radio programs. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 1899–1998.
Writing system	Ethiopic script, used until 1990s. Latin script, used since 1990s.
Comments	SOV. Agriculturalists: variety of crops, spices, coffee; animal husbandry; miners; tourism; textiles; meat packing; refineries. Traditional religion (Waaqqefata), Christian, Muslim.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

Gardner, Simon and Ralph Siebert. 1994. "Second S. L. L. E. survey of the Zay language area."

Gardner, Simon and Ralph Siebert. 2001. "Sociolinguistic survey report of the Zay language area."  

Hordofa, Kebbede and Peter Unseth. 1985-86. "‘Bird talk’ in Oromo."

Wedekind, Klaus. 2002. "Sociolinguistic survey report on the Amuru area of Ethiopia."  

Yilma, Aklilu and Klaus Wedekind. 2002. "Oromo sentence repetition test and its development."  

Yilma, Aklilu. 2002. "Fast linguistic assessment of multilingualism in Ethiopia (F.L.A.M.E.): a progress report."