Amharic-Argobba Dictionary

Argobba is a South Ethio-Semitic language. Its closest relative is Amharic. Once a vibrant language, now it is reduced to being an endangered one with only few thousand speakers. According to the latest national census of Ethiopia ethnic Argobba are 140,134. Unfortunately, the number of Argobba speakers is not mentioned in this report. UNESCO's estimate of Argobba speakers is 8000 (cf. Linguist List). The Linguist List labeled Argobba as extinct as do some other earlier works such as Siebert and Liyew (2001) and Lesalu (1997). UNESCO considers Argobba as a critically endangered language (cf. UNESCO Report). The Argobba Development Association in collaboration with the Argobba community and the present author is currently undertaking a revitalization project. This dictionary is part of the revitalization effort.

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