Sebat Bet Gurage language

Sebat Bet ("Seven houses") is an Ethiopian Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in Ethiopia.

Sebat Bet Gurage
ሰባት ቤት ጉራጌ‎ (Səbat Bet Gurage)
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	West Gurage Zone
Ethnicity	3.2 million Gurage (2022)
Native speakers	2.5 million (2022)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic South Semitic Ethiopic South Outer South West Gurage Sebat Bet Gurage
Dialects	Chaha Ezha Gumer Endegegn Gyeto Muher Enemor
Writing system	Geʽez script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sgw
Glottolog	seba1251

Overview

One of the Gurage languages, Sebat Bet is divided into several dialects. The latter are spoken in the western Gurage Region:

• Chaha (Cheha) is spoken in Cheha and is the best studied of these varieties
• Mesqan is spoken in Meskan
• Ezha (Eza, Izha) is spoken in Ezhana Wolene
• Muher is spoken in the mountains north of Cheha and Ezhana Wolene
• Geta is spoken in Geta
• Gumer (Gwemarra, Gʷəmarə), spoken in Gumer
• Inor (Ennemor), spoken in Enemorina Eaner

• Endegegn and the extinct Mesmes language are sometimes considered subdialects of Inor.

Further reading

• Leslau, Wolf. 1997. "Chaha (Gurage) Phonology" in Kaye, Alan S. (ed.): Phonologies of Asia and Africa 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. pp. 373–397.
• Rose, Sharon. 2007. "Chaha (Gurage) Morphology" in Kaye, Alan D. (ed.): Morphologies of Africa and Asia 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. pp. 403–427.

External links

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Chaha