The Ethiopian Language Area,Journal of Ethio Ian Studies, 8/2167-80
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DOCUMEUT RESUME FL 002 580 ED 056 566 46 AUTHOR Ferguson, Charles A. TITLE The Ethiopean LanguageArea. INSTITUTION Stanford Univ., Calif. SPONS AGENCY Institute of InternationalStudies (DHEW/OE) Washingtn, D.C. PUB DATE Jul 71 CONTRACT OEC-0-71-1018(823) NOTE 22p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS Amharic; Consonants;*Descriptive Linguistics; *Distinctive Features;Geographic Distribution; *Grammar; *LanguageClassification; Language Patterns; LanguageTypology7 Morphology(Languages); Phonemes; *Phonology;Pronunciation; Semitic Languages; Sumali;Structural Analysis; Syntax; Tables (Data); Verbs;Vowels IDENTIFIERS *Ethiopia ABSTRACT This paper constitutesthe fifth chapterof the forthcoming volume Languagein Ethiopia.ft In aneffort to better linguistic area, theauthor analyzes define the particular in the area have phonological and grammaticalfeatures that languages in common. A numberof features havebeen identified as characteristic of the area,and this chapterdiscusses eight phonological and eighteengrammatical characteristicswhich constitute significantitems within thelanguages under illustrate the distributionof these features consideration. Tables is included. among theparticular languages. Alist of references cm Cr. D 1-LtLet_121 ar_.ok 43./4 FL THE ETHIOPIAN LANGUAGEAREA Charles A. Ferguson HEW Contract No. OEC-0-71-1018(823) Institute of InternationalStudies U.S. Office of Education U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,EDUCATION & WcI PARE OFFICE In- EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FRO M TH E PERSONOR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOTNECES- SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY. Stanford, California July 1971 This study will constitute Chapter5 of the volume, Language in Ethiopia, by M. L. Bender, J. D. Bowen,R. L. Cooper, C. A. Ferguson and others (Oxford UniversityPress and Haile Sellassie I University Press, forthcoming).As such it is a publication resulting from the Language Survey ofEthiopia, which was part of the five-nation Survey of Language Useand LanguEige Teaching in Eastern Alrica, supported bythe Ford Foundation, The major part of the research was carried out as partof the Survey and a pre- liminary version of the study appearedin the Journal of Ethiopian Studies. A grant from the Institute ofInternational Studies of the Office of Education, HEW ContractNo. OEC-0-7l-l018 (823) made it possible to complete theresearch and issue the study in this form. 1 Chapter 5 1 THE ETHIOPIAN LANGUAGEAREA of individual One of the primary tasksof linguists is to write grammars the one hand languages, i.e. to show in detailhow a particular language on well as same of those shares the characteristicsof all human languages as characteristics which of various other languages,and on the other hand has complete make it different fromall other languages. Since writing a truly linguists grammar anddictionary of a language isobviously impossible, attempt instead to describewhat they regard as the mostimportant char- acteristics of the language. Two principles seem tobe the basis of their estimation of importance: how generally a featurefunctions throughout the language, i.e. how much language and how distinctivethe feature is for the it differentiates thelanguage from others. of a nation, one In attempting to describethe total language situation of the major tasks islikewise the characterizationof its major languages linguistic structures in the and languages representativeof the variety of which will give country. Here we have chosen toprovide a set of sketches We have selected the reader an insight intothe structures of thelanguages. ourselves to what seem tobe major and representativelanguages, and we limit In general, the most interestingfeatures of the languagesfor our purpose. the presentation --generality within a language the same principles underlie will and distinctiveness in comparisonwith other languages. In addition, we languages as opposed pay attention to samefeatures shared by the Ethiopian of the features may be to languages outsideEthiopia even though several relatively insignificant by theother two principles. in the sense that The languages of Ethiopiaconstitute a linguistic area they tend to share a numberof features which, takentogether, distinguish languages in the world. them from any othergeographically defined group of relationship, that is they Some of these sharedfeatures are due to genetic continue features present in aremote ancestrallanguage, while others result from the processes ofreciprocal diffusion amonglanguages which in Ethiopia have been in contact for manycenturies. Not every language into the pattern at has all these features, and afew languages do not fit roughly coincident with all, but in general mostof the languages in an area vocabulary Ethiopia's boundaries havefeatures of pronunciation, grammar, distinctive and char- and patterns of expressionwhich are, taken together, acteristic of the area. in much the same way In this way Ethiopiaconstitutes a language area that the Balkans, the Caucasus, orSouth Asia (India, Pakistan,Nepal; Asia share Ceylon) is an area. For example, most ofthe languages of South nasal these features of pronunciation: they have retroflex consonants, and they lack word vowels, and aspirated stops,they have few spirants, fit this picture, accent. Only a few marginal languagesin South Asia do not 2 and no other area in the worldhas just this combination offeatures (Emeneau 1956,.1965; Ramanujan andMasica, 1969). After first setting a general framework by listing someof the general marks of the whole Ethiopian area, we then sketch someof the salient characteristics of eight languages within it (Chapters6, 7, 9, 10, 11). About a score of features have beenidentified as characteristic of the area, and fifteen of the mostimportant anguages of Ethiopia will be examined for the presence orabsence of each feature. To make the presentation simple, actual exampleswill be taken from Amharic whenever possible.2 Twelve languages were selected, each ofwhich is the mother tongue of over 100,000 Ethiopians. Four of these are Ethio-Semitic languages: Ambaric, Tigrinya, Tigre, and Chaha(spoken by fewer than 100,000 but selected as an exampleof the remaining Ethio-Semiticlanguages, which may tocal nearly 700,000speakers); five are Cushitic: Afar, Galla, Somali, Sidamo, and Hadiyya; two areOmotic: Welamo and Kefa; one is "mother-tongue" languages, Nilo-Saharan: Anyuak. In addition to the twelve three others have been includedbecause of their special importancein the country: Geez, Arabic, and English. Phonological Features Eight features of pronunciation(P1 - P8) will be considered,including the presence of certain kinds ofsounds, their relations to oneanother, and the role they play in grammatical processes. Pl. /f/ for /p/. Although there is a voicedlabial stop lbf, the voice- less counterpart /p/ is rare ornon-existent; there is, however, avoiceless labiodental fricative /f/, for which avoiced counterpart /v/ is rare or non-existent, although often the/b/ has a v-like fricative pronunciationin certain positions. In languages like thisthe /f/ and /b/ are counterparts, unlike other languages such asEnglish which have /p/ and /b/ as counterparts and also have /fv/ as counterpart7; toeach other. full sets u/f/ for /0" Exam les: Amharic has many words with/b/ and /f/, such as bet 'house', leba 'thief', gebba 'to enter',feres 'horse', af 'mouth',geffa 'to push'. The /b/ is pronounced as a stopwhen initial, geminate, orafter a nasal; otherwise it tends to be rronounced as africative. The voiceless labial stops /p p'/ are very rareand taken together they are lessthan 1/20 of the frequency of /b/ and/f/. The sound /p'/ occurs chiefly in afew words borrowed framdreek centuries ago (e.g. terep'(p')eza 'table',ityop'(p')iya 'Ethiopia')3 and /p/ occurs only in recent loanwords(e.g. polis 'police' and posta 3 palatal consonants (/c j g P2. Palatalizatio7. There is a series of that is they c' is the most widespre0pattern) which occur indei.andently, grammatical process in at are lexicallydistinctive,4 and there is a common which dental con- least one major, word class,such as nouns or verbs, by sonants are replacedby the correspondingpalatal consonants;5 often the palatal consonant is long(Palmer 1958). Example; Amharic has a set of palatal consonants /c j c' g as in acca'peer', ajja, kind of grain, k'ac'c'a, kina of fiber, wagga'cave', k'ane 'to havenightmares', dana 1 and verbal nouns; for example, 'a judge'. Palatalization occurs in verbs of the dentals It d t' s a when the final consonantof the verb stem is one y/ in the s' n 1/, it is palatalized tothe corresponding /c jc' g c' second person femininesingular of the imperative andin the first persoh singular of the gerund (beingdoubled in the latter). kifct 'open (u.sg.):' kifec 'open (f.sg.):' wised 'take (m.sg.):' wisej 'take (f.sg.):' kefto 'he having opened' keficce 'I having opened' wesdo 'he having taken' wesjjei 'I having taken' (by a The palatal consonants inAmharic are less frequent in occurrence is ratio of about 1 to 6) thantheir correspondingdental consonants; the very rare and occursalmost exclusively as agrammatical palatalization of often /z/ or as an alternate of /j/. Palatal consonants in Amharic are the language, neither clearly short norclearly long. For most consonants in in many length or gemination is distinctive(see P6 Gemination), but, as other languages in Ethiopia andelsewhere, gemination ofpalatal consonants clearcut contrasts