Ta-Ne-Omotic · ISO 639-3 wal
Wolaytta Language
Wolaytta is a Ta-Ne-Omotic language spoken by about 5.8 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Wolaytta is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Wolaytta language
Wolaytta is spoken by about 5.8 million people, which makes it the 167th most spoken language in the world — just behind Tswana (6.0 million) and ahead of Libyan Arabic (5.6 million). It belongs to the Ta-Ne-Omotic language family and, more precisely, to the Central Ometo group within the North-West Ometo branch.
Where is Wolaytta spoken?
Wolaytta is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Ethiopia (2.1 million).
Wolaytta is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Wolaytta is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Gamo.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 wal.
Frequently asked questions about Wolaytta
How many people speak Wolaytta?
Where is Wolaytta spoken?
What language family does Wolaytta belong to?
Is Wolaytta an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.