Eastern Oromo is a dialect of the Oromo language

Oromo language

Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...

. According to the Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

 map of Ethiopian languages, it is spoken in the Mirab Hararghe Zone

Mirab Hararghe Zone

Mirab Hararghe is one of the 17 Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. Mirab Hararghe takes its name from the former province of Hararghe. Mirab Harerge is bordered on the south by the Shebelle River which separates it from Bale, on the southwest by Arsi, on the northwest by the Afar Region, on...

 and Misraq Hararghe Zone

Misraq Hararghe Zone

Misraq Hararghe is one of the 17 Zones of the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. Misraq Hararge takes its name from the former province of Hararghe. Misraq Hararge is bordered on the southwest by the Shebelle River which separates it from Bale, on the west by Mirab Hararghe, on the north by Dire Dawa and...

s of the Oromia Region

Oromia Region

Oromia is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia...

 of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

.

According to Ethnologue, a 1994 census reported 4,530,000 speakers of this dialect. However, the 1994 Ethiopian national census did not break down language speakers according to dialect, although it reported 2,570,293 speakers of Oromo in those two zones.

Literature

• Owens, Jonathan. 1985. A grammar of Harar Oromo (Northeastern Ethiopia): including a text and a glossary. Cushitic language studies; Bd. 4) Hamburg: Buske.