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| Xamtanga | |
|---|---|
| ኽምጣጘ (X’imt’a-nga) | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈχamtaŋa] |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | North Amhara Region |
| Ethnicity | Xamirs |
| speakers | L1: 210,000 (2010) [1] L2: 11,000 [1] |
| Ge'ez script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xan |
| Glottolog | xamt1239 |
Xamtanga (also Agawinya, Khamtanga, Simt'anga, Xamir, Xamta) is a Central Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Xamir people.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid vowel | ə | ||
| Low vowel | a | ||
The central vowels /ɨəa/ have fronted and backed allophones, depending on the adjacent consonant(s).
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | plain | labialized | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | t | t͡ʃ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ||
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||
| ejective | tʼ | t͡ʃʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | χ | χʷ | h * | ||
| voiced | z | ||||||||
| ejective | sʼ | ||||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||||
| Tap | ɾ | ||||||||
| Semivowel | j | w | |||||||
In positions other than word-initial, Xamtanga contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. With most consonants, the difference between a geminate and a non-geminate is simply one of length, but the cases of /btq/ are more complex. When not word-initial, non-geminate /b/ is realized as a bilabial [ β ] or labiodental fricative [ v ], and /t/ and /q/ are realized as affricates: [tθqχ]. Their geminate equivalents may be realized as prolonged [bːtːqː], or can simply be short [btq].
In word-initial position, geminate consonants do not occur, and /b t q/ are realized as plosives.
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