Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 19/04/2007 17:11, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
> On 4/19/07, Peter Kirk wrote:
>
>   
> > For more on Birale or Ongota, see
> > http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bxe. The population in
> > 2000 was reported as 19. The language is listed at
> > http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=89997 as an unclassified
> > branch of Afro-Asiatic, alongside Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian,
> > Omotic and Semitic.
> >     
>
> Be careful of the classifications on ethnologue though:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/4788
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/4786
>
>   
Fair enough, but these reservations apply only to dead languages, not to 
(just) living ones like Birale/Ongota. You can read the 2001 survey 
report on Birale at http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/SILESR2002-066.pdf, 
including a 320 item word list collected in 1994. But no reference is 
given for the linguistic classification.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/