The Kunama language is a language isolate which has been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Kunama spoken by the Kunama people

Kunama people

The Kunama are a Nilotic people living in Eritrea and Ethiopia. 80% of Kunamas live in Eritrea yet make up only 2 percent of the population of Eritrea, where they are one of the smallest ethnic groups. Most of the estimated 100,000 Kunama live in the remote and isolated area between the Gash and...

 of western Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

 and just across the Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

n border. The language has several dialects including: Barka. Marda, Aimara, Odasa, Tika, Lakatakura, Sokodasa, Takazze-Selit, and Tigray. Ilit

Ilit language

Ilit is a divergent variety of Kunama that is mutually unintelligible enough to be considered a distinct language. It is spoken by the Kunama people who straddle the western Eritrean–Ethiopian border....

 and Bitama

Bitama language

Bitama is a divergent variety of Kunama that is mutually unintelligible enough to be considered a distinct language. It is spoken by the Kunama people who straddle the western Eritrean–Ethiopian border....

 are not mutually intelligible and so may be considered distinct languages.

External links

• Ethnologue
  Ethnologue
  Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
  
   information on Kunama
• World Atlas of Language Structures
  World Atlas of Language Structures
  The World Atlas of Language Structures is a database of structural properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-ROM in 2005, and was released as the second edition on the Internet in April 2008...
  
  information on Kunama