Koegu Vocabulary, with a Reference to Kara

Abstract

The Koegu people, numbering about 300 individuals, live along the western bank of the Omo River in the extreme southwestern corner of Ethiopia. They are called Muguji by the Neighboring Kara, or Umucu by the Bume. The Koegu language is a variant of the Kwegu-Muguji languages, which belong to the southeast Surmic group within the Surmic languages in the Nilo-Saharan phylum. The Koegu language is quite unique lexically and even syntactically in the Surmic languages. The uniqueness is due to language contact with the Omotic languages, in particular the Kara language. This short vocabulary supplies also the reference to the Kara as much as possible, though it is not comprehensive. This vocabulary is organized into a classificatory system based on a simple semantic association, not on a theoretical principle. Ohta (1989) gives a good guide to it. This vocabulary is based on the data which were collected in the field research in Ethiopia between December 1987 and February 1988, between January and March 1989, and between January and March 1990.