DOCSLIB.ORG

A Grammar of Hamarproefschrift

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Grammar of Hamarproefschrift Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/44090 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Petrollino, S. Title: A grammar of Hamar : a South Omotic language of Ethiopia Issue Date: 2016-11-10 267 13 Classification As mentioned in chapter 1, there is general agreement on the internal coherence of South Omotic as a unit. The status of the Omotic family as a unit, and its status as an independent family of Afro-Asiatic is debated. The classificatory controversy con- cerns consequently also the internal organization of Afro-Asiatic. The history of the genetic classification of Omotic languages is linked to the internal classification of Cushitic, for an overview see Fleming (1976a & b), Lamberti (1991, 1993) and Azeb (2012a). 13.1 Internal and external classification of Omotic The languages which are now known as ʻOmoticʼ were originally classified under Cerulli’s Sidama branch of Cushitic, and under Moreno’s ʻWest Cushitic’. Moreno’s ‘West Cushiticʼ was also referred to as ʻta/ne languages’ since they share the 1 st person singular pronoun ta and the 2 nd person singular ne (Moreno 1940:320) . Cerulli and Moreno’s grouping did not include the South Omotic languages Hamar, Kara, Aari and Dime. Cerulli considered Aari and Dime Nilotic languages (Cerulli 1942); Moreno left the ʻAari group’ unclassied for lack of evidence. Greenberg accepted Moreno’s West Cushitic but incorporated Aari, Hamar and Dime into West Cushitic (Greenberg 1963 and later reprints). 56 In the early seventies, Greenberg’s five-branched Afro-Asiatic phylum was re-defined and West Cushitic was separated from Cushitic (Fleming 1969, Bender 1975a) and established as the sixth independent family of Afro-Asiatic. Fleming re-named West Cushitic ʻOmoticʼ (1974) since most of these languages are spoken in the area crossed by the Omo river in South West Ethiopia. As explained below, this hy- pothesis has not been accepted by all specialists in the field. Moreover, the Afro-Asiatic affiliation of Omotic as a whole (in Flemingʼs sense) has been questioned by a number of scholars, see for instance Newman (1980) or Theil (2006, 2012). Internal classifications proposed for the Omotic family are those presented by Fleming (1969, 1976b), Bender (1971, 2000, 2003a) and Fleming and Bender (1976). The classifications they have proposed are slightly different in the labels used and in the organization of the lower groups and sub-groups. Hamar, Aari, Dime and Kara are always considered as a unit of closely related languages and they are referred to as ʻSouth Omoticʼ (Fleming 1976b), ʻAroidʼ (Bender 1994, 2000), and 56 According to Fleming (1976b:308), at that time the only published data on South Omotic was Da Trentoʼs list (1941). Cerulli had unpublished data on Aari and Dime, which was not available. Preliminary data on Aari, Hamar, Banna, and Kara was collected by Fleming and Herbert Lewis in 1959 and it was given to Greenberg. 268 ʻEastern Omoticʼ (Fleming and Bender 1976). In the present work the labels ʻSouth Omoticʼ and ʻNorth Omoticʼ will be used. Fleming ʼs classication (1976): 1. North Omotic 1.1Kafa-Gimojan - Gimojan - Ometo - South :Maale - West :Basketto, Doko-Dollo - East :Harro, Kachama, Koyra, Zayse - North :Gamo, Gofa, Kullo, Wolaitta - Janjero (Yem) - Gimira (Bench) - Kafa languages (or Gonga languages) - Shinasha (Boro) - Southern Mao (Anfillo) - Kafa-Mocha 1.2 Maji languages - Nao (Nayi) - Sheko - Maji (Dizi) 2. South Omotic - Aari, Dime, Hamar, Banna, Kara According to Fleming’s classification, the Omotic family branches into two sub- families: North Omotic and South Omotic. Bender (2000) added the Mao languages 57 as an independent sub-family of Omotic and lumped South Omotic (called Aroid) and the Maji languages (called Dizoid) under the same node. Benderʼs internal organization proposes that Flemingʼs South Omotic and Maji languages (Dizi, Sheko, Nayi) form a separate unit opposed to Flemingʼs North Omotic, whereas Fleming classified the Maji languages within North Omotic. Benderʼs classication is 57 Mao is an ethnically and linguistically ambiguous term and it is used in different and confusing ways in the literature. The term refers to Omotic languages, but also to the Nilo-Saharan languages Komo and Kwama. Bender (2000, 2003a) used the term to refer to the Omotic languages Bambassi-Diddesa, Hozo, Seze and Ganza. Anfillo, which in Flemingʼs clas- sification is also named Southern Mao, is geographically not connected to the Mao (Omotic) languages and it belongs to a different branch of Omotic. See Bender (1975b) and Küspert (2015) for a terminological disambiguation. 269 supported by Hayward (2009), while Fleming and Bender (1976) argue that ʻAn unusual amount of common features between Maji (=Dizi) and Eastern (=South) Omotic may be due to the earlier prominence of the Maji kingdom in the lower Omo area. However, it is also possible that a special linguistics relationship between the two existsʼ (Fleming and Bender 1976:46). Other classifications challenge the position of the South Omotic languages within Omotic, and the existence of an independent ʻOmoticʼ family. Lambertiʼs view (1993) for instance is similar to the one proposed by Greenberg (1963): he did not consider Omotic to be an independent family of Afro-Asiatic, and restored North Omotic languages under West Cushitic. However, Lamberti separated South Omotic lan- guages from West Cushitic and established them as a parallel, special branch within the larger Cushitic family. Different from Lamberti, Zaborski (2004) has questioned the unity of Omotic and has proposed to classify North Omotic as West Cushitic, whereas South Omotic (and additionally the Mao languages) should be part of the Nilo-Saharan phylum on the basis of similarities in the pronominal system. A lexicostatistical comparison of Omotic lexicon has been carried out by Blažek (2008) and suggests that Omotic constitutes an independent branch of Afro-Asiatic. Ac- cording to Blažek, however, South Omotic languages represent an extinct branch of the Nilo-Saharan phylum, and lexical similarities with other Omotic languages can be explained by convergence (Blažek p.c., Blažek 2008; Blažek and Malášková 2016). Moges (2007, 2015) has a similar view and proposes to classify South Omotic languages under the Nilo-Saharan phylum, however, he does not provide a clas- sification for the rest of Omotic. Theil (2006, 2012) has questioned the affiliation of South Omotic (and Maji languages) to the rest of Omotic, and in general the genetic affiliation of Omotic to Afro-Asiatic. Omotic, according to Theil, should be con- sidered an isolated phylum until regular sound correspondences established by the comparative method prove the opposite. The various subgroupings proposed by Fleming and Bender show that in general the group-internal coherence of South Omotic is not questioned. The controversy re- volves around the relation (if there is any) between South and North Omotic, that is, the status of Omotic as a unit. If the link between South and North Omotic can be established, Omotic can be considered a unit, which then, depending on one’s view, could constitute a sixth branch of Afro-Asiatic, a sub-branch of Cushitic, or an isolate group not related to Afro-Asiatic. 13.2 The controversy The classifications proposed for South Omotic and Omotic languages show that the controversy is far from being settled. The scarcity of detailed grammatical de- scriptions of Omotic languages, the general methodological weakness in the his- torical investigation of Omotic languages and the primacy of morphological vs. lexical evidence in scholar’s views are among the main reasons behind such con- troversy. 270 Omotic languages have been in contact with Cushitic and Nilo-Saharan languages for a long time, and this creates challenges for comparative studies. Scholars mention various ʻlayersʼ of Cushitic (especially Eastern Cushitic, cf. Bender 2003b) or Nilotic. As a matter of fact, the intense contact and interference among Omotic, Cushitic and Nilo-Saharan languages may have obscured genetic relationships. 58 Morphology is considered to be more reliable in comparative studies as grammatical morphemes are more resistant to diffusion. Yet morphological evidence does not lead to unequivocal results. Much of the controversy boils down to the fact that Omotic lacks the diagnostic features of Afro-Asiatic such as the gender markers (the -(a)t feminine marker) and the prefix conjugation. Hayward has objected this view and has criticized the ʻSemitic biasʼ that has dominated historical-comparative Afro-Asiatic studies: scholars who see Omotic as marginal within Afro-Asiatic are often biased by the Semitic yardstick (Hayward 1995:14-15; 2000:84-85, 2003:244). Hayward even suggested the possibility of a ʻCreole Hypothesisʼ explaining the in- novative new morphology (Hayward 1995:15-16). Bender, who developed and sup- ported the hypothesis of Omotic as a unit with the reconstruction of Omotic lexicon and phonology (Bender 2003a) and morphology (Bender 2000), has expressed several doubts concerning the affiliation of Omotic to Afro-Asiatic: ʻIs this stock of proposed Omotic retained isomorphs from Afrasian sufficient in quantity and quality to establish Omotic as an Afrasian family?ʼ (Bender 2003a:314). In a paper published the same year (Bender 2003b) he actually stated that ʻthere are certainly mysteries about the nature of Omotic, and my classification, which makes Omotic a primary family within Afrasian, may be wrongʼ. As far as South Omotic languages are concerned, the strongest opponent to the Omotic/Afro-Asiatic affiliation is Zaborski (2004), who sees strong morphological support for a Nilo-Saharan affiliation in the pronominal system of South Omotic languages. Zaborski refused Bender’s idea that South Omotic pronouns have been exceptionally borrowed from neighbouring Nilotic languages (Bender 2000: 198-201). 13.3 Hamar in comparative perspective This section contributes up-to-date Hamar data to existing comparative works, namely Bender (2000, 2003a), Hayward (2009), Hayward and Tsuge (1998), Zaborski (1990, 2004).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Addis Ababa University School of Graduate Studies Word Formation in Diddessa
    ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES WORD FORMATION IN DIDDESSA MAO ALEMAYEHU DUMESSA July 2007 ADDIS ABABA 1 WORD FORMATION IN DIDDESSA MAO A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN LINGUISTICS BY ALEMAYEHU DUMESSA July, 2007 ADDIS ABABA 2 TO MERERTU M. LELLISA 3 DECLARATION I, undersigned, declare that this thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other university, and that all sources of material used for the thesis have been duly acknowledged. Name: Alemayehu Dumessa Signature: _____________________ Place: Addis Ababa University Date of submission: ______________________ This thesis has been submitted for the examination with my approval as a thesis advisor. Name: Dr. Zelealem Leyew Signature: _____________________ Place: _____________________ Date: _____________________ 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people whom I must thank for the help they have given me in writing this thesis. Above all, I must thank in special way my thesis advisor, Dr. Zelealem Leyew who provided me invaluable assistance and advice. All the comments, suggestions and advisements I received from him were extremely helpful to me. I am similarly grateful to Dr. Girma Awgichew, Director of Ethiopian Languages Research Center, Addis Ababa University, who read the final draft of my thesis and has helped me to make a number of corrections and improvements. Special thanks go to Ato Girma Mengistu who encouraged me to conduct a linguistic research on Diddessa Mao, and arranged for me informants. I am also grateful to his family for their unreserved cooperation that enables me to conduct the fieldwork and provided me a working place and shelter to my informants throughout my fieldwork.
    [Show full text]
  • A Phonology of Ganza (Gwàmì Nánà)
    A Phonology of Ganza (Gwàmì Nánà) Joshua Smolders SIL International Ganza is a previously undescribed Omotic language of the Mao subgroup, and is the only Omotic language found primarily outside of Ethiopia. This paper presents the results of nearly a year of phonological fieldwork on Ganza in the form of a descriptive phonology. Included are presentations of the consonant and vowel phonemes, syllable structure and phonotactics, notable morphophonemic processes, and an overview of the tone system. Some interesting features of the phonology highlighted in this paper include the existence of a nasalizing glottal stop phoneme, lack of phonemic vowel length, a lexically determined vocalic alternation between ja~e, and the existence of "construct melodies" in the tone system. Given that both Omotic languages in general and especially the Mao subfamily are understudied, this paper provides much-needed data and analysis for the furtherance of Omotic linguistics. 1. Introduction In spite of over forty years of research in Omotic languages and numerous calls for descriptive papers and reference grammars (Hayward 2009:85) to date not a single descriptive paper has ever been published on the Ganza language. Over the past decade many other previously under- described Omotic languages have been covered, such as Dizin (Beachy 2005), Dime (Mulugeta 2008), Sheko (Hellenthal 2010), and Bambassi Mao (Ahland 2012). Several others were known to be in process during the composition of this paper, including Ganza's closest relations Hoozo (Getachew 2015) and Sezo (Girma 2015). Ganza, nevertheless, remains functionally undescribed (see §1.2 for previous research). In this paper I present an initial phonology of Ganza, including a description and analysis of consonant and vowel phonemes, word structure, notable morphophonemic processes, and the tone system.
    [Show full text]
  • Degrammaticalization in Northern Mao's Pronominal
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) Degrammaticalization in Northern Mao’s pronominal innovations: from subject prefix to full pronoun Michael Ahland, SIL International [email protected] 1. The Mystery of the Mao Pronouns: A Challenge for Reconstruction Bender (2000:199) notes that pronouns in the Mao languages (Afroasiatic/Omotic/Mao) are highly innovative and problematic for reconstruction. At times, innovations in the Mao pronominal systems and wider lexicon have prompted some to suggest the group might be related to Nilo-Saharan (Grottanelli 1940; Greenberg 1963:130) or perhaps of mixed Omotic- Koman (Nilo-Saharan) lineage (Bender 1996:158; 2000:184). Within the innovative Mao branch, Northern Mao’s pronouns are the most divergent; only two of nine pronouns are transparently cognate with corresponding forms in sister languages (Table 1). Of particular interest is the [ha] sequence on 1st and 2nd person non-singular pronouns, the /-el/ plural suffix on the 1st and 2nd plural pronouns (where either /-kol/ or the related /-(w)ol/ serve as plural suffixes on all other nominals in the language) and the dual series, which has not been reported for any other Mao language. Table 1. Free Pronouns and Verbal Subject Markers in the Mao Languages* Singular Plural Dual 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 Northern Mao tíjé hìjè íʃè hambèlè hàwèlè íʃkolè hané háwé íʃkuwe /ha-/ + subject prefixes (ha-)tí- hì- (ha-)Ø- ham̀ - hàw- (ha-)Ø- hań-
    [Show full text]
  • Gender Flip and Person Marking in Benchnon (North Omotic) Matthew Baerman Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, GB [email protected]
    a journal of Baerman, Matthew. 2020. Gender flip and person marking general linguistics Glossa in Benchnon (North Omotic). Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5(1): 76. 1–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1191 RESEARCH Gender flip and person marking in Benchnon (North Omotic) Matthew Baerman Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, GB [email protected] Subject agreement in the North Omotic language Benchnon (Rapold 2006) lacks dedicated per- son marking, but indirectly indicates person distinctions through asymmetries in the distribution of gender markers. In one verbal paradigm, first and second person subjects are expressed by feminine morphology, and in the other paradigm they are expressed by masculine morphology. This is hard to reconcile with any known notion of how gender assignment works. I show that it can be explained as the particular instantiation of a rare but cross-linguistically recurrent pat- tern in which a (reduced) person marking system is generated by restrictions on gender agree- ment: only third person subjects control semantic gender agreement, while first and second person are assigned default gender. In Benchnon the default gender switched from feminine to masculine over the course of its history, yielding two contrasting verbal paradigms. The older one is morphologically frozen, the newer one is a reflection of still-active agreement conditions. Further developments show that the older paradigm can be adapted to conform to the newer conditions, showing that the division between morphosyntactically motivated and arbitrarily stipulated morphology is a fluid one. Keywords: inflection; paradigms; gender; person; diachrony 1 Introduction Verbs in the North Omotic language Benchnon, spoken in Ethiopia, make unusual use of gender-marking morphology, in which an alternation between feminine and masculine forms takes the place of person marking.
    [Show full text]
  • 2. Historical Linguistics and Genealogical Language Classification in Africa1 Tom Güldemann
    2. Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa1 Tom Güldemann 2.1. African language classification and Greenberg (1963a) 2.1.1. Introduction For quite some time, the genealogical classification of African languages has been in a peculiar situation, one which is linked intricably to Greenberg’s (1963a) study. His work is without doubt the single most important contribution in the classifi- cation history of African languages up to now, and it is unlikely to be equaled in impact by any future study. This justifies framing major parts of this survey with respect to his work. The peculiar situation referred to above concerns the somewhat strained rela- tionship between most historical linguistic research pursued by Africanists in the 1 This chapter would not have been possible without the help and collaboration of various people and institutions. First of all, I would like to thank Harald Hammarström, whose comprehensive collection of linguistic literature enormously helped my research, with whom I could fruitfully discuss numerous relevant topics, and who commented in detail on a first draft of this study. My special thanks also go to Christfried Naumann, who has drawn the maps with the initial assistence of Mike Berger. The Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig under Bernhard Comrie supported the first stage of this research by financing two student assistents, Holger Kraft and Carsten Hesse; their work and the funding provided are gratefully acknowledged. The Humboldt University of Berlin provided the funds for organizing the relevant International Workshop “Genealogical language classification in Africa beyond Greenberg” held in Berlin in 2010 (see https://www.iaaw.hu-berlin.
    [Show full text]
  • Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Challenges and Capacity Building Efforts Oslo Studies in Language General Editors: Atle Grønn and Dag Haug
    Oslo Studies in Language 8 (1) / 2016 Binyam Sisay Mendisu & Janne Bondi Johannessen (eds.) Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Challenges and Capacity Building Efforts Oslo Studies in Language General editors: Atle Grønn and Dag Haug Editorial board International: Henning Andersen, Los Angeles (historical linguistics) Östen Dahl, Stockholm (typology) Arnim von Stechow, Tübingen (semantics and syntax) National: Johanna Barðdal, Bergen (construction grammar) Laura Janda, Tromsø (Slavic linguistics, cognitive linguistics) Terje Lohndal, Trondheim (English, syntax and semantics) Torgrim Solstad, Trondheim (German, semantics and pragmatics) Øystein Vangsnes, Tromsø (Norwegian, dialect syntax) Local: Cecilia Alvstad, ILOS (Spanish, translatology) Hans Olav Enger, ILN (Norwegian, cognitive linguistics) Ruth E. Vatvedt Fjeld, ILN (Norwegian, lexicography) Jan Terje Faarlund, CSMN, ILN (Norwegian, syntax) Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen, ILOS (German, contrastive linguistics) Carsten Hansen, CSMN, IFIKK (philosophy of language) Christoph Harbsmeier, IKOS (Chinese, lexicography) Hilde Hasselgård, ILOS (English, corpus linguistics) Hans Petter Helland, ILOS (French, syntax) Janne Bondi Johannessen, ILN, Text Laboratory (Norwegian, language technology) Kristian Emil Kristoffersen, ILN (cognitive linguistics) Helge Lødrup, ILN (syntax) Gunvor Mejdell, IKOS (Arabic, sociolinguistics) Christine Meklenborg Salvesen, ILOS (French linguistics, historical linguistics) Diana Santos, ILOS (Portuguese linguistics, computational linguistics) Ljiljana Saric, ILOS (Slavic
    [Show full text]
  • Hunters and Gatherers in East Africa and the Case of Ongota (Southwest Ethiopia)
    AperTO - Archivio Istituzionale Open Access dell'Università di Torino Hunters and Gatherers in East Africa and the Case of Ongota (Southwest Ethiopia) This is a pre print version of the following article: Original Citation: Availability: This version is available http://hdl.handle.net/2318/1743487 since 2020-07-09T12:46:43Z Publisher: Cambridge University Press Published version: DOI:10.1017/9781139026208 Terms of use: Open Access Anyone can freely access the full text of works made available as "Open Access". Works made available under a Creative Commons license can be used according to the terms and conditions of said license. Use of all other works requires consent of the right holder (author or publisher) if not exempted from copyright protection by the applicable law. (Article begins on next page) 26 September 2021 C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP-NEW/17195660/WORKINGFOLDER/GMAN/9781107003682C05.3D 89 [89–113] 5.4.2019 10:41AM Part II Africa C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP-NEW/17195660/WORKINGFOLDER/GMAN/9781107003682C05.3D 90 [89–113] 5.4.2019 10:41AM C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP-NEW/17195660/WORKINGFOLDER/GMAN/9781107003682C05.3D 91 [89–113] 5.4.2019 10:41AM 5 Hunters and Gatherers in East Africa and the Case of Ongota (Southwest Ethiopia) Graziano Savà and Mauro Tosco 5.1 Introduction Quite a sizeable number of marginal communities are found in East Africa, most notably along and in the proximity of the Rift Valley. Almost everywhere, from Ethiopia to Tanzania, one finds specific occupational outcast groups (usually tanners, blacksmiths, experts in traditional medical and magical prac- tices, and so on), as well as hunting and gathering communities, to which fishermen and bee-keepers must be added.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè)
    Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè) 1 Introduction This chapter provides an overview of major features of Northern Mao’s1 (NM) sound and grammatical systems and focuses on those features which are most salient in the language and/or typologically rare. The chapter begins with introductory remarks about language and speech communities, the corpora used in this study and then progresses through the phonology (§2), word classes (§3), verbal morphology (§4), nominal morphology (§5), simple clauses (§6), and clause combining (§7). 1.1 The Mao Name The name ‘Mao’ has been used to refer to a variety of different groups and languages in the literature, including some languages of the Nilo-Saharan family (Gwama and Komo in the Mao special woreda) (see Fleming 1984: 31). In this chapter, the name is used to refer only to the Omotic-Mao languages: NM, Hozo, Seezo, and Ganza (cf. Fig. 1). Bender used the term ‘Mao’ for this subgroup of Omotic languages (1971; 1975; 2003). In this chapter, the name ‘Northern Mao’ refers to the Omotic-Mao language spoken in and around Bambassi woreda, particularly along the Dabus river, and then 300km further to the east, along the Diddesa river. Speakers refer to their own language with the autonyms /màw-és ↓aːts’-tòs-è/ Mao-person tooth/language-talk-TV ‘language of the Mao people’ or sometimes /màw-és ↓aːts’-è/ Mao-person tooth/language-TV. The self-name for the people is /màw-és-↓wol- 1 This research was funded in part through a Documenting Endangered Languages grant from the National Science Foundation (#0746665).
    [Show full text]
  • Dawro-Verb-Morphology-And-Syntax
    Dawro verb morphology and syntax A description Sigurd Hanserud MA Thesis in Linguistics Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies November 2018 Dawro verb morphology and syntax A description Sigurd Hanserud MA Thesis in Linguistics Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies November 2018 II © Sigurd Hanserud 2018 Dawro verb morphology and syntax – A description Sigurd Hanserud http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo III Abstract This Master’s thesis is a descriptive study of verb morphology and syntax in Dawro, an Omotic language spoken in Ethiopia. The data material was gathered during two fieldtrips to Ethiopia where I spent most of my time in the city of Hawassa interviewing native speakers of Dawro. An additional source of data was a translation of the New Testament into Dawro. I describe aspects of Dawro morphology in general and Dawro verb morphology and syntax in particular. The main contributions of the thesis are descriptions of previously undescribed morphology and the behaviour of verbs in dependent sentences and in clause-chains. Throughout the thesis, I am in critical engagement with the few previous works there are on the language, and I provide some novel remarks on the segmentation of finite verbs. The description is not exhaustive, but it does expand on the collected linguistic knowledge of Dawro. Underexplained features of the language still remain, and previously undescribed features of the language emerge. IV V Acknowledgements Few projects see the light of day without help, especially not projects about describing languages previously unknown to oneself. First, a great thanks to Professor Emeritus Rolf Theil for help and pointers in the early stages of this project and for referring me to Binyam Sisay Mendisu, to whom I am deeply grateful for help with all things Ethiopia, good conversation, and telling me about Dawro.
    [Show full text]
  • Addis Ababa University School of Graduate Studies A
    ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES A GRAMMAR OF HARO WITH COMPARATIVE NOTES ON THE OMETO LINGUISTIC GROUP BY HIRUT WOLDEMARIAM FEBRURARY, 2004 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the help and support of several persons and institutes this thesis could not have been written. I would like to express my gratitude to all, who contributed to this research in one or another way. My highest gratefulness goes to DAAD (The German Academic Exchange Program) for financing the project. I extend my utmost gratefulness to my supervisors, Prof. Gerrit Dimmendaal and Prof. Baye Yimam for their constructive academic and moral support. Their extensive comments and encouragements contributed a lot to the development of this monograph. I am especially indebted for Prof. Dimmendaal also for his moral support, kindness and hospitality in facilitating the scholarship and offering me all the support I needed during my stay in Cologne. Professor Baye Yimam also deserves special thanks for his sincere advice as my teacher who encouraged me to venture into the field of linguistics. I am also grateful for Bernd Heine and Christa König for their support and comments on certain part of the thesis. I am grateful for Professor Heine also for his facilitating extension of my scholarship and for his encouragements. I thank Monica Feinen, the cartographer, for preparing the maps in this monograph. I thank all members of the Institute of African Studies of the university of Cologne for making me feel at home while I was with them. I am especially grateful to the Haro people who not only furnished me with all the necessary data but also for their hospitability.
    [Show full text]
  • A Grammar of Hamarproefschrift
    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/44090 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Petrollino, S. Title: A grammar of Hamar : a South Omotic language of Ethiopia Issue Date: 2016-11-10 A grammar of Hamar a South Omotic language of Ethiopia A grammar of Hamar a South Omotic language of Ethiopia Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op donderdag 10 November 2016 klokke 11:15 uur door Sara Petrollino geboren te Campobasso, Italië in 1984 Promotores: Prof. dr. Maarten Mous Prof. dr. Gérard Philippson (INALCO, Paris) Promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. Denis Creissels (Université Lyon 2) Prof. dr. Marian Klamer Prof. dr. Mauro Tosco (Universitá degli Studi di Torino) Prof. dr. Martine Vanhove (LLACAN, CNRS) This research was conducted in and funded by the LABEX ASLAN (ANR-10-LABX- 0081) of the Université de Lyon, within the French program “Investissements d’Avenir” (Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR-11-IDEX-0007). v Table of contents List of tables ............................................................................................... ix List of morphemes ....................................................................................... xi List of abbreviations .................................................................................. xiii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Article Title
    Binyam Sisay Mendisu & Janne Bondi Johannessen (eds.) Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Chal- lenges and Capacity Building Efforts, Oslo Studies in Language 8(1), 2016. 109–136. (ISSN 1890- 9639) http://www.journals.uio.no/osla aspects of the morphophonology of hamar MOGES YIGEZU abstract Hamar is a member of the Aroid group of languages spoken by around 46,000 individuals (CSA 2008). The Hamar live in the plain lands of the semi-desert region of the rift valley in the south western corner of Ethio- pia, in the South Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peo- ples Region (SNNPR). Their subsistence can be characterized as a mixture of pastoralism and shifting agriculture. The earliest attempts at describing the language were made available through the publications of Conti Rossini (1927) and Da Trento (1941), who provided a few comparative lists of words and grammatical sketches. Over the last few decades, however, some pro- gress has been made in describing aspects of the structure of the language, and these include: Lydall (1976, 1988, 2000), Mary (1987), Getahun (1991), Cupi et al (2013), Binyam & Moges (2014), and Moges & Binyam (2015). Only Lydall (1976), Mary (1987) and Moges & Binyam (2015) briefly described the phonology, the latter with the aim of designing an orthography for the en- visaged mother tongue education in the Hamar language. This contribution is a follow up to these previous efforts and it tries to describe aspects of the morphophonology of Hamar. In doing so, the paper gives a concise sum- mary of the sound pattern of the language, focusing on the syllable struc- ture, phonotactic constraints and word structure conditions that regulate the morphophonemic alternations.
    [Show full text]