Saho is spoken natively by the
Saho people. Traditionally, they inhabit the territory in Eritrea bounded by the bay of Erafayle (ዓራፋሊ) in the east, the Laacasi Gade (ላዐሲ ጋደ) valleys in the south, and the
Eritrean Highlands to the west (the Shimejana district on the eastern flank of the South- or
Debub region in what was formerly known as
Akele Guzai province). This speech area is bordered by other
Afro-Asiatic-speaking communities, with
Tigre speakers on the west and
Afar speakers on the east. In Ethiopia, Saho is primarily spoken in the
Tigray Region. It has about 250,000 speakers in total and four main dialects: Northern dialect, mainly spoken by Casawurta (ዓሳኣዉርታ), Tharuuca (ጣሩዓ), Casabat Care (ዓሳባት ካረ), etc.; Central dialect is mainly spoken by Faqhat Xarak (ፋቃት ሓራክ) of Minifere (ሚኒ ፊረ); Southern dialect mainly spoken by Minifire (ሚኒ ፊረ), Xazo (ሓዞ/ዶ), Dabrti-meela ዳብሪ መላ), Irob (ኢሮብ), Sancafe (ሳንዓፈ). The Saho also use the Arabic (special now Latin letters) to document their history and render information. The Saho language in former
Italian Eritrea has received a strong influence of Italian loanwords. Also recently the language is being used on the cyberspace as a tool of communication. And there is one website completely designed with saho language. Saho is so closely related to the Cushitic
Afar language, spoken as a mother tongue by the
Afar people, that some linguists regard the two tongues as dialects of a single "Saho–Afar language". Regardless, it has been shown that at least in their
basic lexicon the two can be cleanly separated. == Phonology ==