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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Ethiopia > Gamo-Gofa-Dawro

Gamo-Gofa-Dawro

A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639-3: gmo
This ISO 639-3 code has been retired after the publication of Ethnologue, 16th edition. For more information, see the code change history documentation.

Population  1,240,000 (1994 census). 1,046,084 monolinguals including 597,130 Gamo, 259,633 Dawro, 189,321 Gofa. 690,069 Gamo, 313,228 Dawro, 233,340 Gofa. Ethnic population: 1,292,860 (1994 census) including 719,847 Gamo, 331,483 Dawro, 241,530 Gofa (1994 census).
Region  Omo region, Arba Minch area; mountains west to Lake Abaya.
Language map  Southwestern Ethiopia, reference number 28
Dialects  Gamo (Gemu), Gofa (Goffa), Dawro (Dauro, Kullo, Cullo, Ometay). Subdialects of Dawro are Konta (Conta) and Kucha (Kusha, Koysha). Lexical similarity: 79%–91% between the Gamo and Gofa dialects, 79%–89% with Wolaytta [wal], 82%–87% with Dorze [doz], 73%–80% with the Dawro dialect, 49% with Koorete [kqy], 44% with Male [mdy]. 76% between the Dawro and Gofa dialects, 80% with Wolaytta, 73%–75% with Dorze, 48% with Koorete, 43% with Male.
Classification  Afro-Asiatic, Omotic, North, Gonga-Gimojan, Gimojan, Ometo-Gimira, Ometo, Central
Language use  77,883 L2 users including 24,438 Gamo, 19,996 Dawro, 33,449 Gofa. Neutral attitude.
Language development  Literacy rate in L1: Below 1%. Literacy rate in L2: Gamo: 18.2%, Gofa: 18.5%, Dawro: 23.8%. Taught in primary schools.
Writing system  Ethiopic script. Latin script.
Comments  The government is developing joint educational materials for these 3 groups. The dialectal variation of the Gamo language in this area is known as Dache, which is also a place name. SOV; derived nouns formed by suffixation of verbs; passives; case suffixes; postpositions; tonal.