Me’en

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A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639-3
mym
Alternate Names
Me’enite, Mekan, Mela, Men, Meqan, Mie’en, Mieken, Suro, “Teshenna” (pej.), “Teshina” (pej.), “Tishana” (pej.), “Tishena” (pej.)
Autonym
Mɛʼɛnɛn‎ (Me’enen)
User Population

157,300, all users. L1 users: 151,000 (2007 census), increasing. Includes 5,770 Bodi (2010 UNSD). L2 users: 6,300. 143,000 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 157,000 (2007 census). Includes 6,980 Bodi (2007 census).

Location

Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region: Bench-Maji zone; highlanders (Banio dialect) in Bachuma area; lowlanders (Koruwo dialect) south; Bodi near Omo river.

Language Maps
Language Status

4 (Educational).

Classification
Nilo-Saharan, Satellite-Core, Core, Eastern Sudanic, Southern (n languages), Surmic, South, Southeast, Pastoral, Me’en
Dialects

Banio, Bodi (Mela, Podi), Koruwo. Lexical similarity: 65% with Tirmaga-Chai Suri [suq], 30% with Murle [mur]. Lexical differences between highland and lowland.

Typology

SVO; postpositions; genitives, adjective, articles, and relatives follow noun heads; question word final; prefixes and suffixes; verbs inflected; tonal.

Language Use

All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Also use Amharic [amh], in education and for reading the Bible. Used as L2 by Kwegu [xwg].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: 4%. Literates increasing. Kindergarten and adult literacy programs using Me’en as medium of instruction are piloted (2021 SIL). Taught in primary and secondary schools through grade 4 and as subject thereafter. Literature. Bible portions: 2008–2010.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Me’en
Writing

Ethiopic script [Ethi], used until 2009. Latin script [Latn], used since 2009, primary usage.

Other Comments

Traditional religion.