Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa)

Hadiyya is a Highland East Cushitic language spoken by about 1.3 million people mainly in the Hadiya Zone in the Central Ethiopia Regional State in the southwest of Ethiopia. The language is spoken by people of all ages. However, not all parents are passing the language to their children, and the younger generation of Hadiya people are shifting to Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, especially in urban areas. Older Hadiyya speakers are also mixing Amharic with their Hadiyya.

Hadiyya is also known as Hadiyigna, Hadeya, Adiya, Adea, Adiye, Hadia, Hadiya or Hadya. Native speakers call it Hadiyyisa It is closely related to Libido, another Highland East Cushitic language spoken to the north of Hadiyya in the Gurage Zone of the Central Ethiopia Regional State.

Haddiya was mainly an oral language without a written tradition until the 1970s, when the Ethiopian government developed a way to write it with the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) script. Since 1994, instruction in Hadiyya, and other local languages, has been permitted in Ethiopian schools - before then only Amharic was used. People were also permitted to develop their own ways to write their languages, and the Hadiyya people chose to write Hadiyya with the Latin alphabet. A translation of the New Testament was published in 1993, in the Ethiopic script at first, and later in the Latin alphabet.

Hadiyya is currently used as a language of instruction in schools for children from 7 to 14 years old, and taught as a subject after that.

Latin alphabet for Hadiyya

Latin alphabet for Hadiyya

Download alphabet charts for Hadiyya (Excel)

This is one way to write Hadiyya. Others have been proposed, and the alphabetical order may differ in other orthographies.

Sample text (The Lord's Prayer - Luke 11: 2-4)

  1. Ixxim ixxuwwina dabaraa «Waa'a uunxitakkam ammane ‹Niyyanna! Ki summi keesamaakkoohan ihona. Ki adillan waarona.
  2. Ballina ballina hasisoo hurbaata niina uwwe.
  3. Neese hawwodu keenina hundinam neese haafinoommisam ni baaxiilom haafihe.

Source: Bible.com

Translation

  1. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
  2. Give us day by day our daily bread.
  3. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Source: Bible.com

Sample videos

Information about Hadiyya | Tower of Babel

Links

Information about Hadiyya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadiyya_language
https://hadiyajourney.com/hadiyya-hadiyyisa-language-orthography-alphabet-and-writing/
https://hadiyajourney.com/state-of-hadiyya-hadiyyisa-language-of-ethiopia/
https://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/hdy
http://www.language-archives.org/language/hdy

Cushitic languages

Afaan-Oromo, Afar, Awngi, Beja, Blin, Daasanach, Dirasha, Gawwada, Hadiyya, Iraqw, Maay Maay, Saho, Sidama, Somali, Southern Oromo, Waata, Xamtanga

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page created: 02.10.23. Last modified: 05.10.23

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