Mesqan (also Mäsqan or Meskan) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Gurage people in the Gurage Zone of Ethiopia. It belongs to the family's Ethiopian Semitic branch.

Mesqan
Mäsqan
Native toEthiopia
RegionGurage Zone
Native speakers
200,000 (2007)[1]
Unwritten
Language codes
ISO 639-3mvz
Glottologmesq1240

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab. plain lab.
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop/
Affricate
voiceless (p) t t͡ʃ c k
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɟ g ɡʷ
ejective (pʼ) t͡ʃʼ kʼʷ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ ç x h
voiced (v) z ʒ
ejective (sʼ)
Rhotic r
Lateral l
Approximant j w
  • Sounds /p, pʼ, v, sʼ/ occur in loanwords, mainly from Amharic.
  • /xʷ/ may also have an allophone of [hʷ].
  • /b/ may have an allophone of [β] in postvocalic and intervocalic positions.
  • /n/ may assimilate to [ŋ] when following a velar consonant.[2]
  • /k, ɡ/ can also be heard as palatalized [kʲ, ɡʲ] when before front vowels.[3][4]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Open a

References

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  1. ^ Mesqan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Shafi, Ousman; Meyer, Ronny (2016). Mesqan.
  3. ^ Eshetu, Meseret (2012). Tense, aspect and mood in Mesqan. Addis Ababa University. pp. 19–20.
  4. ^ Getachew, Alemayehu (2011). Mesqan folktales: A contribution to the documentation of the Mesqan language. Addis Ababa University. pp. 10–11.