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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Ethiopia > Sebat Bet Gurage

Sebat Bet Gurage

A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639-3: sgw

Population  2,320,000 (2006). Chaha 130,000, Gura 20,000, Muher 90,000, Gyeto 80,000, Ezha 120,000.
Region  West Gurage region. Chaha in Emdibir area; Gura in Gura Megenase and Wirir areas; Muher in Ch’eza area, mountains north of Chaha and Ezha; Gyeto south of Ark’it’ in K’abul and K’want’e; Ezha in Agenna.
Language map  Southwestern Ethiopia, reference number 68
Alternate names   Central West Gurage, Gouraghie, Guragie, Gurague, West Gurage
Dialects  Chaha (Cheha), Ezha (Eza, Izha), Gumer (Gwemarra), Gura, Gyeto, Muher. A member of the Gurage subgroup of languages.
Classification  Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, South, Outer, tt-Group
Language development  Literacy rate in L1: Below 1%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%. NT: 1983.
Writing system  Ethiopic script.
Comments  SOV.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

GUTT, Ernst-August, author. 1980. "Intelligibility and interlingual comprehension among selected Gurage speech varieties."

UNSETH, Peter, author. 2001. Review of: Sound mutations: the morphophonology of Chaha, by Degif Petros Banksira.  Available online