Descriptive Studies on the Omolt and Cushitic Languages of Ethiopia, and Datahoro Construction based on GIS

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The purpose of this project is to research on the Omotic and Cushitic minority languages in Ethiopia and construct a database using GIS (Geographic Information System). We have conducted our linguistic field work in Ethiopia with the cooperation of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES), Addis Ababa University.Our project has performed two activities for three years.First, we have collected the linguistic data of Omotic languages (Basketo, Aari, Dime, Wolaytta, Hamer, Ganjule, Ganta and Malo) and Cushitic languages (Konso, Awngi and Khamtanga).(1) A basic vocabulary (Basketo, Aari (Galila dialect), Konso, Hamer and Malo).(2) Grammatical data (Basketo, Aari, Konso, Wolaytta and Malo).(3) Texts (Basketo, Awngi, Khamtanga and Wolaytta).(4) Sociolinguistic data (Basketo, Ganjule, Ganta and Konso).Second, we have made a digital map showing the distribution of a number of linguistic features of the Ethiopian languages based on GIS.(1) We have constructed a database on the internet, holding grammatical, lexical, sound and video data we collected in our filed surveys.(2) We have not only constructed GIS handling layers of linguistic features, but also improved the server function and constructed the reference system by the function of ASP(Active Server Pages) for the language maps on GIS.Although linguistic studies using GIS have only just started, there is no doubt that our project will throw new lights upon the studies of Omotic and Cushitic minority languages in Ethiopia.