Chara language

Chara (alternatively Ciara or C’ara) is an Afro-Asiatic language of the North Omotic variety spoken in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia by 13,000 people.

Status

Chara is geographically situated to the southeast of Nayi, west of Kullo, northeast of Mesketo, and northwest of Gofa. Chara speakers live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, in the Debub Omo Zone, on both sides of the Omo river. Chara speakers are scattered in three villages in Ethiopia: Geba a meša, Buna Anta, and Kumba. Native speakers may also speak Melo, Wolaytta (54% lexical similarity with Chara) to the east, and Kafa to the west.

Phonology

Consonants

[p] and [f] are in free variation. /ɗ/ only occurs in the word /jalɗa~jaltʼa/ 'crooked'. Yilma (2002) found /ɓ/ to occur five times in around 550 lexical items. He also found /ʑ/ occurring in two, both in the sequence /iʑa/. Occurrence of /ɗ/ and /pʼ/ may be governed by dialectual variation.

Vowels

/a/ is realized as [ə] in unstressed word-medial syllables.

Cara language

Cara (Chara, Fachara), also called Teriya after the village it is spoken in, is a small Plateau language of Nigeria.

Ethnologue places Cara in Central Plateau. The assignment to Beromic follows Blench (2008).

References