Ganza, also known as Ganzo or Koma, is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic family spoken in the Al Kurumik District of the Blue Nile (state) in Sudan and in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, specifically in the village districts of Penishuba and Yabeldigis.

It also goes by the names Ganzo, Gwami, Koma, and Koma-Ganza.

Phonology

BilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasalmnŋʔ̃
Plosivevoicelessptkʔ
ejective
voicedbdɡ
Fricativevoicelesssʃh
ejective
voicedz
Approximantljw
Trillr

Ganza does not utilize consonant length phonemically.

Vowels
FrontBack
Closeiu
Mideo
Opena

Although vowel length is typically contrastive in Omotic languages, Ganza does not have a clear contrast between long and short vowel phonemes. Instead, Ganza has predictable utterance-final vowel lengthening and a set of monosyllabic words with double vowels.

  • Smolders, Joshua. 2015. A Wordlist of Ganza. Addis Ababa: SIL Ethiopia

Notes

External links