Koorete

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A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639-3
kqy
Alternate Names
Amaarro, Amarro, Badittu, Haro, Harro, Koore, Kore, Koyra, Kwera, Nuna
Autonym
Koorete, Koori Nuuna
User Population

159,370, all users. L1 users: 157,000 (2007 census), increasing. L2 users: 2,370. 84,400 monolinguals (1994 census). Ethnic population: 157,000 (2007 census).

Location

Oromia region: Lake Abbaya, Harro village; Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region: Amaro Woreda; mountains east of Lake Abaya and Lake Chamo.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Afro-Asiatic, Omotic, North, Gonga-Gimojan, Gimojan, Ometo-Gimira, Ometo, East
Dialects

South Koorete, North Koorete, Middle Koorete. Dialects are mutually intelligible. Lexical similarity: 54% with Dorze [doz], 53% with Wolaytta [wal], 52% with Gofa [gof], 49% with Gamo [gmv], 48% with Dawro [dwr], 45% with Male [mdy].

Typology

SOV.

Language Use

Vigorous. All domains. Used by all. Also use Amharic [amh].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: 24%. Offered at the university as a major. Taught as subject in primary schools in grades 1–4. Offered at the Teacher Training College as a major (2021 SIL). Literature. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. NT: 2011.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Koorete
Writing

Ethiopic script [Ethi], used in some church literature. Latin script [Latn], primary usage.

Other Comments

Baiso [bsw] and Oromo [orm] are replacing Harro on Gidiccho Island (Dimmendaal and Voeltz 2007).