Gumuz
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A language of Ethiopia
165,380 in Ethiopia, all users. L1 users: 161,000 in Ethiopia (2007 census). L2 users: 4,380. 88,200 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 164,000 (2007 census). Total users in all countries: 205,380 (as L1: 201,000; as L2: 4,380).
Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Oromia regions: Metemma area on Sudan border south through Gonder and Metekel zones; along Blue Nile south into Wellaga and Didessa valley up to Neqemt-Gimbi road; southwest of Addis Ababa, Welqite area villages.
4 (Educational).
Guba, Wenbera, Sirba, Agalo, Yaso, Mandura, Dibate, Metemma. Noticeable dialect differences, and not all dialects are inherently intelligible. Mandura, Dibate, and Metemma form a distinct dialect subgroup.
AVO and SV but word order is variable depending on discourse context; tonal, 2 tones plus downstep; large consonant inventory (38 for Southern Gumuz and 39 for Northern Gumuz); verbs are highly polysynthetic:verb affixes show person (number of subject, first plural inclusive and exclusive, A versus S bound pronominals, Northern Gumuz has O bound pronominals in addition to A and S), direction, mood, middle voice, aspect,uncertainty, pluractional, reciprocal, tense, incorporated prepositions (dative, comitative and locative); verbs are divided into two templates: future and nonfuture; external possession constructions via noun incorporation; simple verb roots plus verbal classifiers form complex verbal stems; nouns are mostly transnumeral or general and not typically marked for number; N-N collocations exhibit construct form cf. (Creissels 2009); inherently possessed nouns; relator nouns; marked nominative alignment with a split system.
Despite a shift toward urbanization, it is still a primary marker of identity (2017 T. Williamson). Traditional religion.