Shabo language (proposed)

E49226

The Shabo language (proposed) is a little-documented and possibly endangered language of southwestern Ethiopia whose classification within African language families, including Nilo-Saharan, remains controversial among linguists.

Aliases (1)

Statements (45)
Predicate Object
instanceOf African language
endangered language
human language
language
alternativeName Mikeyir
Mikeyir-Shabo
Sabu
Shabo
classification classification controversial among linguists
continent Africa
country Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
dataAvailability based on limited field notes and wordlists
documentationStatus little-documented
endangermentStatus possibly endangered
hasLinguisticFeature shows both unique and contact-induced lexical items
hasResearcher Lionel M. Bender
Mauro Tosco
Roger Blench
hasSociolinguisticSituation spoken in multilingual environment
hasSpeakerCommunity Shabo people
hasVitalityConcern intergenerational transmission uncertain
hasWordOrder SOV (subject–object–verb) (proposed)
ISO639Status no ISO 639-3 code as of 2024
languageFamilyHypothesis Afroasiatic
Koman
Nilo-Saharan
Surmic
language isolate
languageFamilyStatus unclassified language
lexicalInfluenceHypothesis influenced by Koman languages
influenced by Surmic languages
linguisticStatus poorly described
neighboringLanguages Koman languages
Majang language
Surmic languages
phonologicalInfluenceHypothesis influenced by neighboring Nilo-Saharan languages
regionType lowland rainforest area
researchPriority high for language documentation
riskFactor pressure from dominant regional languages
small speaker population
spokenIn Ethiopia
Gambela Region
Sheka Zone
southwestern Ethiopia
writingSystem no widely used standardized writing system

Referenced by (1)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Nilo-Saharan languages
hasSubfamily

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