Qwara dialect

Qwara, or Qwareña (called "Falasha" (Hwarasa) in some older sources), was one of two Agaw dialects, spoken by a subgroup of the Beta Israel (Jews of Ethiopia) of Qwara Province. It is a dialect of Qimant. It is nearly extinct. Several early Falashan manuscripts, using the Ge'ez script, exist; in more recent times, the language has been recorded by several linguists and travellers, starting with Flad in 1866.

Qwara
Qwareña
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	Amhara Region
Ethnicity	Beta Israel
Extinct	ca. 2000 (3,200 L2 speakers)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Central Northern Qimant Qwara
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	hwar1238
ELP	Hwarasa

Qwareña was on the decline in the early 20th century because it was being replaced by Amharic. During Operation Solomon, most of its remaining speakers were airlifted to Israel, where it continues to lose ground to Modern Hebrew.

See also

• Kayla dialect

Further reading

1. Appleyard, David (1996), "Kaïliña – a 'new' Agaw dialect and its implications for Agaw dialectology", in Hayward, R.J.; Lewis, I. (eds.), Voice and Power: The Culture of Language in North-East Africa, London: SOAS, pp. 1–19, ISBN 0-7286-0257-1
2. Flad, J. M. (1866). A Short Description of the Falasha and Kamants in Abyssinia: Together with an Outline of the Elements and a Vocabulary of the Falasha Language. Mission Press.
3. Freeburg, E. (2013). The Cost of Revival: the Role of Hebrew in Jewish Language Endangerment (Doctoral dissertation, Yale University).

External links

• Endangered Languages Profile for Hwarasa
• SIL – Sociolinguist report of the Kemant (Qimant) Language of Ethiopia
• Qwara language map