Aari (language)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aari

Spoken in

Ethiopia
speaker 150,000
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in -
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639-3

aiw

Aari (also Ari , self-designation afa-n ari ) is the language of the Aari people in southern Ethiopia .

It is assigned to the southern branch of the omotic languages , one of the six main branches of the Afro-Asian languages . According to Ethnologue (see web link) it has around 110,000 speakers.

Phonology

In terms of phonology , the implosives ɓ, ɗ and the ʱ, which is unique in Omotic, stand out. The aari is a tonal language in which every word has exactly one syllable with a high tone . This is lexical for nouns and grammatical for verbs.

morphology

Pronouns

According to the syntactic function, different series of personal pronouns can be distinguished. Nominative pronouns come in short, dependent and long, independent forms; Possessive pronouns also have long and short forms; In contrast to the short, the long ones are obligatory. Accusative forms are formed by attaching -m / -n to the dependent pronouns. According to Hayward 1990 (quoted from Bender 2002) the personal pronouns have the following forms:

  independently dependent accusative Genitive (long) Genitive (short)
1. Sg. ʔitá ʔí ʔím ʔíst (e) ʔí
2nd Sg. ʱaaná ʱáa ʱáam ʱáant (e) ʱáa
3rd Sg. M. nʱó (o) kím habit)
3rd Sg. F. nʱáa kóm kót (te)
1st pl. wʱootá wʱó (o) wʱó (o) m wʱó (o) nt (e) wʱó (o)
2nd pl. yetá yém yént (e)
3rd pl. ketá kém Chain)

Nouns

Nouns distinguish the following categories in Ari:

  • Definiteness : definitely, indefinitely
  • Case : nominative, accusative, genitive
  • Number : singular (singular), collective (plural)
  • Gender : masculine, feminine

Indefinite nouns are unmarked for all categories except the genitive with -ta / -te:

  • fatír "corn"
  • tiilé "a water jug"
  • ʔéed-te man + genitive "of a man"

Definitive nouns form an accusative on -m, a genitive on -ta / -te or -∅ and a vocative on -o. The unmarked nominative is used as a subject, as a dative and before post positions. The collective is not marked, the singular not formed by all nouns has the suffix -s- in the masculine and -ta- in the feminine. The definiteness is marked with - (i) n (a / e) -. These suffixes follow the stem in the following order:

  1. Gender + number
  2. Definiteness
  3. case

Examples:

  • fatir-ín maize + ∅ + definitely + ∅ "the maize" (collective, nominative)
  • fatir-in-ám Mais + ∅ + definit + accusative "den Mais" (collective, accusative)
  • baac-itá-n hen + feminine singulative + definitely "the hen" (singular, nominative)
  • baac-ita-ná-m Henne + Feminine Singulative + Definitive + Accusative "die Henne" (Singulative, Accusative)
  • tiile-s-ín water jug ​​+ masculine singulative + definitely + ∅ "the water jug" (singular, nominative)
  • tiile-ná-m Wasserkrug + ∅ + definit + accusative "die Wasserkrugt" (collective, accusative)
  • et-s-in-o man + masculine singulative + definitive + vocative "O, Mann!" (singulative, vocative)
  • et-s-ina man + masculine singulative + definitely "dem Mann" (singulative, nominative)

Verbs

Primary verbal roots are mostly monosyllabic, the inflection is mainly done by suffixes. Reduplicated verbal roots are used in the past tense: miks- “begging” 3. P. Sg. Míksmiks-da, mímiksda. The personal endings are in most forms (Hayward 1990, quoted from Bender 2000):

Singular Plural
1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3.
it ay e, a, i, ∅ ʱo (o) t et ek

The following tenses are conjugated with them:

designation marker example
Perfect 1 -s (eq) - báʔ-s (eq) -e "he / she brought"
Perfect 2 -t- báʔ-ta "he / she brought"
negative perfect -k- báʔ-k-ít (e) "I did not bring"
Past tense -d- bá (ʔ) baʔ-d-et "you bring"
negative past tense -y- baʔá-y-ek "they don't bring"

By combining aaq with different tenses, further tense forms can be formed, for example a habitative or durative perfect: bábaʔ-d-it-aaq "I usually brought". The imperative has the endings singular -ka , plural -ket , negated ʱáay . The jussive is marked with -en in all persons: ʔí báʔ-en "let me bring you".

The future tense and at least one converb have a different inflection:

designation Person marker example
Singular Plural
1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3.
Future tense -t-he -t-ay -t-he -t-ʱo (o) t -t-he -t-he báʔ-t-ay "you will bring"
Converb -ito -ayo -iyo, -itso -ʱo (o) to -eta -eka ʔíts-eta "while you eat"

In addition, various subordinate clause conjugations can be derived, including a relative conjugation with -inda, e.g. B. Perfect 1 šed-seqe-índa (a) . In decision-making questions , the verb -o is suffused with : báʔ-t-ek-o “did they bring ?”. Infinitives are formed with the suffix -inti: díib-inti daqalí-ye "Stealing is bad.". A few other types of deverbal nouns can also be derived with suffixes: zitsʾ "close" - zitsʾ-i "door", təc "cut" - təc-mi "knife". Causative verbs are derived with -is, -sis: wur "hear" - wur-sis "let hear"; -er / -ar and -im mark passive verbs: diib “ stolen ” - diib-er “to be stolen”, dəys “to kill” - dəys-im “to be killed”.

syntax

The copula has the allomorphs -∅, -ye, -e:

  • kooné yʱints-í- ye "this is a child"
  • kooné yʱints-i "this is a child"
  • ʔí-baab- e "he is my father"

The following is used to negate the copula:

  • ʔitá galtá dak -kít- e "I'm not an old man"

literature

  • Lionel Bender : Comparative morphology of the Omotic languages ​​(LINCOM studies in African linguistics) . LINCOM Europa 2000, ISBN 3-89586-251-7 (on Aari: pp. 159-178)
  • Richard Hayward: Notes on the Aari Language. In: Richard Hayward (Ed.): Omotic Language Studies. University of London, London 1990, pp. 425-493.

Web links