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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; SIEBERT, Ralph, authors. 1994. "Second S. L. L. E. survey of the Zay language area."

GARDNER, Simon; SIEBERT, Ralph, authors. 2001. "Sociolinguistic survey report of the Zay language area."  

HORDOFA, Kebbede; UNSETH, Peter, authors. 1985. "‘Bird talk’ in Oromo."

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

WEDEKIND, Klaus; YILMA, Aklilu, authors. 2002. "Oromo sentence repetition test and its development."  

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