Highland East Cushitic languages
Highland East Cushitic, or Sidamic, is a branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in south-central Ethiopia. They are often grouped with Lowland East Cushitic, Dullay, and Yaaku as East Cushitic, but that group is not well defined and considered dubious.
The languages are:
- Burji
- Sidamic proper
- *Sidamo
- *Gedeo
- *Hadiyya–Libido
- *Kambaata–Alaba.
Except for Burji, they are closely related. Hadiyya and Libido are especially close, as are Kambaata and Alaba. The most populous language is Sidamo, with close to two million speakers.