Oromo

Where it’s spoken

Oromo (Afaan Oromoo) is the most widely spoken first language in Ethiopia, used across Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. There are also Oromo speakers in northern Kenya. The language has several major dialect clusters: Borana-Arsi-Guji (south), Mecha (west), Tulama (central), and Wollo-Raya (north). The Oromo diaspora is significant in the United States, the UK, Sweden, and Germany.

What it sounds like

Oromo has glottalized consonants — implosive ɗ and ejective t’, k’, tʃ’, and p’ — as well as gemination distinguishing meaning. It has a vowel-length contrast and a system of grammatical gender on nouns. Stress is typically penultimate.

How it’s written

Oromo has been written in Geʽez script historically, but since 1991 the official orthography is Qubee, a modified Latin alphabet. Long vowels are marked by doubling letters, and ejective and implosive consonants are written with apostrophes or special letters (ph, c, x).

History

Oromo became an officially supported written language only after the fall of the Derg regime in 1991. Earlier, its use in writing was discouraged under successive Ethiopian governments. Its literary tradition is now expanding rapidly.