[1][2] Prominent East Cushitic languages include Oromo, Somali, and Sidama.
Highland East Cushitic is commonly seen as a primary branch, also in the "traditional" or "classical" view which groups Yaaku with Dullay and groups the rest as Lowland East Cushitic.
[9] It is also used as the citation form of the noun, and as the non-verbal predicate (examples from Borana:[9] Most East Cushitic languages have a gender distinction.
[3] Another cross-linguistically rare feature of East Cushitic gender is that the singular and plural of the same lexeme often differ in gender, as in Somali, where most masculine singulars have a feminine plural, and vice versa.
A typically East Cushitic feature is the threefold distinction between imperfective, perfective, and jussive forms, marked by a changing vowel.