| Meʼen | |
|---|---|
| Mɛʼɛn | |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | Eastern Africa |
| Ethnicity | Me'en |
Native speakers | 150,000 (2007 census)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mym |
| Glottolog | meen1242 |
| ELP | Bodi |
Meʼen (also Mekan, Mieʼen, Mieken, Meqan, Men) is a Nilo-Saharan language (Eastern Sudanic, Surmic, Southeast Surmic[2]) spoken in Ethiopia by the Meʼen people. In recent years, it has been written with the Geʽez alphabet, but in 2007 a decision was made to use the Latin alphabet. Dialects include Bodi (Podi) and Tishena (Teshina, Teshenna).
Meʼen and Kwegu are unique among Surmic languages in that they have ejective consonants.
Reliable descriptions of some parts of the language have been produced by Hans-Georg Will, often contradicting Carlo Conti Rossini's work, the editing of the extensive language notes of a non-linguist.
| Bilabial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| ejective | tʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | |||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (f) | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | z | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
| Glide | w | l | j | |||
/p/ can be realized as a fricative [f] in initial and medial positions.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
/i, u/ can have lax variants as [ɪ, ʊ].
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