Dime

A language of Ethiopia

ISO 639: dim
Alternate Names: Dim-af, Dim-ap, Dima
Population: 1,100, all users. L1 users: 570 (2007 census), decreasing. L2 users: 530. Ethnic population: 870 (2007 census).
Location:: Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region: north of Omo river, just before it turns south.
Language Status: 6a (Vigorous).
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Omotic, South
Dialects: None known. Lexical similarity: 47% with Hamer-Banna [amf].
Typology: SOV; nominal morphology includes plural, definiteness and gender; case suffixes on NP; modifiers may precede or follow their head; subject agreement marking is minimal and shows a distinction of first person vs others in the indicative; these subject agreement markers are absent in interrogatives; verbal morphology further includes aspect, negation and derivational suffixes (causative, passive, reciprocal); 7 vowels; tonal (2 tones).
Language Use: Used by all. Also use Aari [aiw].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 10%. Grammar.
Language Resources: OLAC resources in and about Dime
Writing: Unwritten [Qaax].
Other Comments: Population diminished through disease and war.

Location: Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region: north of Omo river, just before it turns south.