K'emant
[également appelé Qimant, Kimanteney, Western Agaw]Classification : Afro-Asiatic
·en grand danger
Classification : Afro-Asiatic
·en grand danger
Informations incomplètes “ELF Grant Abstract: Recording the Last Fluent Speakers of Kemantney” . Zelealem Leyew (2005)
"According to the 1994 census, there are around 1,625 speakers of Kemantney, but following the death of many of the older members of the community, the speaker population been reduced to only a few hundred. Most of the fluent speakers of Kemantney are in their 60's or above, and the well-known storytellers are older. "
Informations incomplètes “Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)” . M. Paul Lewis · SIL International
172,327
1,650 in Ethiopia. Data for the number of native speakers and the ethnic population are from the 1994 census.
Northwest Amhara region, north of Lake Tana. Qwara or Kayla are near Addis Ababa. Also in Eritrea.
Informations incomplètes “Sociolinguistic survey report of the Kemant (Qimant) language of Ethiopia” (33) . Zelealem, [Mollaligne] Leyew (2002) SIL International
0
0
0
0
"Kemant certainly is one of the most 'endangered' languages in Ethiopia,
already considered 'dead' by some linguists... it has become very unlikely the Kemant people will preserve a distinct religion and culture.
Those who speak the language fluently are elderly people beyond the age of sixty... the extinction of Kemant is conceivable within the next 40–50 years."
A typical speaker: "He prays and dreams in Kemant. He also speaks about secrets in Kemant" [only domains which Kemant is used]
Amharic
"A strong process of Amharization seems to have made a strong impact on the size of the 'Kemant' population"
Informations incomplètes “First report on a survey of the Shinasha and Agew dialects and languages” (1-8) . Zelealem, [Mollaligne] Leyew (1994)
>1,000,000
"According to Ato Nega there are more than one million Qemant people, of whom 350,000 still speak the language... Qemant is being replaced by Amharic, and there is a tendency for the language to die"
"We have gathered evidence that Qemant is not a 'dead' language, but it must be considered endangered. [...] We have met a number of elderly bilingual people who speak both Amharic and Qemant. However, even these people seem to be more proficient in Amharic than in Qemant, and they seem to use Amharic more than Qemant. [...] Linguistically speaking, one could say that Qemant is being replaced by Amharic, and there is a tendency for the language to die."
Amharic
Chilga, Armachoho, Gonder, Zuria, Wogera, Matebia, Qara, and others.
Informations incomplètes “The World Atlas of Language Structures” . Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer · Oxford University Press
Informations incomplètes “A survey on language death in Africa” (402) . Sommer, Gabriele (1992) , Brenzinger, Matthias · Mouton de Gruyter
Amharic
"North of Lake Tana, Central Begendir Province, northwest, also Sudan... the countryside extending to the north and south of the east-to-west Gonder-Aykel road as well as the east of Gonder and the west of Aykel"
Informations incomplètes “The Kemantney Language: A Sociolinguistic and Grammatical Study of Language Replacement” . Zelealem Leyew (2003) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe
"Kemantney has been reduced to a secret (in-group) code like Tenet (Surma) (Dimmendaal, 1983) and Elmolo (Heine, 1980). The Kemant people are never heard speaking their language in normal situations. The negative attitude people show and the consequential decline of its use have led to the decline of confidence and competence among TSs."
Amharic
"Kemantney has been stigmatized by two groups: Amharic speakers of Amharic descent, and Amharic speakers of Kemant descent. It is not uncommon for Kemant speakers to be ashamed of using it for fear of being humiliated by these two groups. Everyone who wants to speak the language smiles and looks around before (s)he starts speaking. The smile is a sign of bewilderment and anxiety, not of courage and excitement."
"Because of shortage of cultivable land, the people have always been moving to Amharic speaking places and work as farmers or shepherds. The movement to such Amharic-speaking areas has contributed to the obsolescence of their language."