Omotic languages

Omotic
Geographic
distribution
Ethiopia, Sudan
Native speakers
7.9 million
Linguistic classificationAfro-Asiatic
  • Omotic
Proto-languageProto-Omotic
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-5omv
GlottologNone
Omotic languages:
Neighboring languages:

The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region and southeastern Sudan in Blue Nile State. The Geʽez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have complex tonal systems (for example, the Bench language). The languages have around 7.9 million speakers. The group is generally classified as belonging to the Afroasiatic language family, but this is disputed by some linguists.

Four separate "Omotic" groups are accepted by Glottolog 4.0 and Güldemann (2018): North Omotic, Dizoid (Maji), Mao, and Aroid ("South Omotic").