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 (divergent)
- 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 Sidama, with close to two million speakers.
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