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An Omotic Language of Ethiopia Bikila Ashenafi Mamede Documentation and description of Borna verb morphology: An Omotic language of Ethiopia Bikila Ashenafi Mamede October 2018 Addis Ababa Documentation and description of Borna verb morphology: An Omotic language of Ethiopia By: Bikila Ashenafi Mamede Supervisor: Binyam Sisay Mendisu (PhD) A dissertation submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Documentary Linguistics and Culture College of Humanities, Language Studies and Journalism & Communication Addis Ababa University October 2018 Addis Ababa Declaration I, the undersigned, declare that this dissertation is my original work and has not been presented for any academic study in any other university, and all sources of materials used for this work have been duly acknowledged. Name: Bikila Ashenafi Mamede Signature: _________________________ Date: _________________________ This dissertation has been submitted for examination with my approval as thesis advisor. Name: Dr. Binyam Sisay Mendisu Signature: __________________________ Date: __________________________ i Abstract This study was intended to provide a comprehensive documentation and description of the verb morphology of Borna, a little-documented North Omotic language spoken in Benishangul- Gumuz National Regional State of Ethiopia. The data was collected through recording of observed and staged communicative events and elicitation. As concerns documentation, comprehensive and representative linguistic practices of the speech community were made available. This was made by audio-video recordings of a variety of texts from a variety of genres. Similarly, under description of the verb morphology, an in-debth analysis of both the verb inflection and derivation was offered. The study hasshowed that verb stems can be derived from verb roots, verb stems, nouns, and adjectives. The derived verbs include passives, causatives, reciprocals, middles, and inchoatives. In the same way, it was identified that verbs are inflected for agreement, mood, tense, aspect, negation, and focus. Subject agreement is expressed in three ways: suffixation, pronominal proclitics and unreduced personal pronouns. Similarly, verbs displaya twofold tense distinction: past and non-past. Furthermore, verbs mark perfective and imperfective aspects. The imperfective aspect subsumes two types of aspects: habitual and progressive. Negation in Borna is commonly expressed in two ways, by affixation and by using a lexically negative word.Itwasidentified that verbal and nonverbal clauses follow different strategies of negation formation. The verbal clauses are negated morphologically, whereas the non-verbal clauses are negated by introducing a lexically negative word to the clause. Focus is expressed in three ways in Borna: by suffixation, by word orderalternation and by cleft constructions. It was also noted that some copula markers are also used to make an emphasis. In the language, either a constituent of a sentence or a whole sentence can be focused. Nonetheless, it is only one constituent of a clause that can be focused at a time. The study has also revealed that there are major morphophonemic processes operating in the language. These are an insertion, deletion, assimilation, internal change and verb final consonant alternation. ii Regarding copula clauses, it has been shown that the copula subject and the non-verbal copula predicate is linked by different bound morphemes attached to the copula complement. It was identified that the choice among the copula markers is determined by the copula subject. Finally, the nature of multi-verb constructions is identified. The multi-verb constructions are SVC, ideophone based multi-verbs, and converbs. The SVCs are formed by juxtaposing two verbs without the intervention of any other element. Similarly, the ideophone based multi-verbs are formed by juxtaposing an ideophone and dummy verb. The converbs are marked by two morphemes whose choice is determined by the aspect of the verb. iii Acknowledgements In the course of conducting this research, I have enjoyed the support of many people. This is an attempt to acknowledge the help of those who have contributed most in various ways. I would first like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr. Binyam Sisay for his constant advice, guidance, and warm encouragement. I express deep appreciation to all the native-speaker consultants who helped me with Borna data. I am especially thankful to Asmamaw Dessalegn, Binyam Yirsaw, Esayas Anbessa, and Mamush Dagnew, for their unwavering help in data elicitation and translation. I also express my appreciation to Regassa Gudeta, for his help in finding the key-informants and arranging many interview sessions with the Boro elders. I would also like to thank Belay Balda and Shileshi Dessalegn, for telling me those interesting Boro folktales. I am most grateful to Hafa Bake, Shishaw Alemu and Mengesha Shibeshi for sharing with me the history and culture of the Boro people. I also give many thanks to Alene Moyo for his eloquent description of the cultural materials. This study would not have assumed its present form without your tireless effort and generous support. I owe a profound debt of gratitude to many scholars who have read and forwarded their helpful insights, comments, and suggestions. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Amanuel Alemayehu for his valuable comments and inspirational suggestions on Chapter four and six. Many thanks are also due to Dr. Girma Mengistu for his critical comments and lively discussion on Chapter five, verb inflection. I am also very grateful to Mesfin Wodajo for his critical comments on the first two chapters. I am thankful to Lema Woldemichael for his comments on Chapter nine. The generous comments and suggestions I received from these scholars have immensely strengthened this research. Nonetheless, I am the only responsible person for any remaining errors or misinterpretations. I am also deeply grateful to all my siblings who have always stood with me. Especially, Roza Ashenafi and her husband, Alemu Gebeyehu, Abrham Ashenafi, Dunge Ashenafi, Galane Ashenafi deserve special thanks for their unfailing and consistent help, encouragement, and prayers. If it were not for your encouragement,I never would have completed writing this iv dissertation.The generous support I got from all of you has made my dream come true. To all I say ‘God bless you!’ I would also like to express my appreciations to my classmates Yibeltal Getahun, Mengistu Taddesse, Bahire Araya, Tadesse Girma, Lami Kibebew and Lema Demisse. I have benefited a lot from the many hours of fruitful discussions we had together on many of the topics raised in this research. I am thankful to you all. The journey to this dissertation has been a long and rough one, yet it is made endurable by the unwavering support and encouragement of my friends. For this, I am forever grateful to Abebe Lemessa, Abulu Tesfa, Abyot Negera, Eba Taressa, Habtamu Mekonnen, Hambisa Ensermu, Gemechis Terfa, Gemechu Bekele, Lalisa Kebena, Dr. Melese Gelaneh, Mulu Getachew, Dr. Solomon Tadesse, Teferi Kumsa and Tita Mekonnen. I will never forget the backings, encouragements, and inspirations I have got from you. Let our friendship flourish! To all the above individuals and to several friends whose names I didn’t list here and who have helped me in one way or another I feel very much indebted. Finally, I must thank Almighty God with a heart full of gratitude for He is surely my help and the One who sustains me. I praiseYourholy name. v Table of contents Declaration....................................................................................................................................... i Abstract........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ iv Table of contents............................................................................................................................ vi Maps............................................................................................................................................. xiv List of abbreviations and symbols ............................................................................................. xviii List of bound morphemes and their functions ............................................................................ xxii List of tables................................................................................................................................ xxv Chapter one ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of the Study....................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 The people (Nomenclature) ............................................................................................ 1 1.1.1.1 Location ................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1.2 The Boro population ...............................................................................................
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