The Awngi language, in older publications also called Awiya (an inappropriate ethnonym),[2] is a endangered indigenous Central Cushitic language spoken by the Awi people, traditionally living in Central Gojjam in northwestern Ethiopia.
[6] Palmer[12] and Hetzron[13] both identified three distinctive tone levels in Awngi: high, mid and low.
Awngi is used as Medium of Instruction from Grade 1 to 6 in primary schools of Awi Zone.
The noun is marked for number and gender (masculine, feminine or plural) as well as case.
Other cases are accusative, dative, genitive, locative, directional, ablative, comitative, comparative, invocative and translative.
Hetzron[16] also mentions adverbial as a case of Awngi, but an interpretation as a derivational marker seems to be more appropriate.
Hetzron demonstrated that the Awngi verbal morphology is most economically described when it is assumed that for every verb there are four distinct stems, marked A, B, C, and D in the following table.
These four stems need to be noted for every verb in the lexicon and serve as the basis for all other verbal morphology.