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Ethiopia Ethnic Groups, Ethnicity, and Language
One way of segmenting Ethiopia's population is on the basis
of language. However, the numbers in each category are
uncertain, and estimates are often in conflict. At present,
at least seventy languages are spoken as mother tongues, a
few by many millions, others by only a few hundred persons.
The number of distinct social units exceeds the number of
languages because separate communities sometimes speak the
same language. More than fifty of these languages--and
certainly those spoken by the vast majority of Ethiopia's
people--are grouped within three families of the
Afro-Asiatic super-language family: Semitic (represented by
the branch called Ethio-Semitic and by Arabic), Cushitic,
and Omotic. In addition, about 2 percent of the population
speaks the languages of four families--East Sudanic, Koman,
Berta, and Kunema--of the Nilo-Saharan super-language
family.
Most speakers of Ethio-Semitic languages live in the
highlands of the center and north. Speakers of East Cushitic
languages are found in the highlands and lowlands of the
center and south, and other Cushitic speakers in the center
and north; Omotic speakers live in the south; and
Nilo-Saharan speakers in the southwest and west along the
border with Sudan. Of the four main ethno-linguistic groups
of Ethiopia, three--the Amhara, Tigray, and Oromo--generally
live in the highlands; the fourth--the Somali--live in the
lowlands to the southeast (see
fig. 8).
Data as of 1991
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