Dime (language)

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dime

Spoken in

Ethiopia
speaker 6,500
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in nowhere official language

Dime (also Dima , its own name dim-aaf , dim-ko-aaf ) is an omotic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia in the Kaffa region north of the Omo River . It is assigned to the south-motic. The dime has only a few thousand speakers; In 1998 a census recorded 6,501. It has three dialects that are mutually understandable.

Phonology

With regard to the consonantic phonemes, there are some ejectives (ts', c ', q') and implosives (ɗ, ɗ, ɠ) that can be considered typically Afro-Asian. The information on vowels diverges, but the existence of the vowels a, e, i, o, u and several long vowels and diphthongs seems certain. According to Seyoum 2007, the dime has a high and a low tone , which in the following, as far as known, are referred to as acute and grave accent; Siebert, on the other hand, marks word accents .

morphology

The personal pronouns have separate form paradigms for subject and object pronouns , whereby the object pronouns are expanded with different case endings : nominative yáyè "du", accusative yí-n-ìm , dative yí-n , genitive yín-kó , ablative yín-kó-dé , Instrumental yín-ká . In the 3rd person singular, the genera masculine and feminine are separated, and a distinction is made between singular and plural .

A noun is either masculine or feminine, and the gender-neutral number plural can be formed. Nouns form their plural with -af: də̀h-àf-ìs "the poor", ʔàmz-áf "women"; Adjectives with -id: sɨ̀kèt gúdm-íd zìm-áf "these great princes". With nouns, the gender is only indicated to a limited extent (e.g. sib-ub "father of the wife", sib-ind "mother of the wife"), but with adjectives it is mandatory ( koyz zuu-b "red cock", koyz zuu-ind "Red hen"). The definiteness is marked with -is. The noun has the same case endings as the object pronoun, the nominative is unmarked.

The root of most verbs has the form CVC; In the present-future tense, the root can be partially or totally reduplicated : dèdèɣ-dé-t “I'm cooking right now” - dèχt-úb “I'm cooking”, dulumdulum-de-t-ee “we sing (usually)” - dulum-de -t "we sing". A number of tenses and modes are distinguished by different affixes ; Most tenses also have personal endings which are neutral in terms of gender and number and which do not distinguish between the second and third person outside of the jussive. The following table of the known tenses and modes essentially follows Hayward 1990 (quoted from Bender) and is supplemented by Seyoum 2007:

Function designation marker Personal endings example
1. 2. 3.
Jussiv I   tub   u k'ay-u "let them want"
Jussiv II   tii   aa / ii k'ay-ii "let them want"
Perfect I. -i, -a-, -∅- t n n yèf-ì-n "she saw"
Perfect I with copula -i, -a-, -∅- tea n-ee n-ee wucʾ-in-ee "he drank"
Perfect II -se-, -sa-, -si- t / na n / na n / na kol-si-n "he passed by", fus-se-na "he came out"
Perfect II with copula -se-, -sa- tea no no gaʔ-sen-ee "he bit"
Present - future tense -dé- t n n dèdèɣ-dé-t "I'm currently cooking"
Present-future tense with copula -de -...- ee t n n dulumdulum-de-t-ee "we sing (usually)"
Present tense ( progressive ) differently t n n mat-im-fil-ini-de-t "I'll comb my hair"
Past tense -úb / ob-   dèχt-úb "I cook"
present perfect -sub-, -san-   kʾay-sub "she wished"
past continuous -subdee- (t) (n) (n) at-subdee "I came"

In questions, the personal endings t and n are replaced by -aa / -ee: lot oxt-aa “How did you spend the night?”, Yeb-s-aa “did you see?”. The imperative , which replaces the jussive of the second person, has the endings -u, -m, -a, -e and in the plural -is: et-is “eats!”, Wuy-u “stand!” How the jussive becomes he negates with koy: k'ay koy “don't want to!”, na aad-u koy “don't let her come”. The tenses are negated with kay, kab or kasiɗ. In relative clauses, verbs have special suffixes, as described in the “Syntax” section.

With -a, -ta a “ gerund ” is formed: ad-a “to come”. The infinitive ends in -in. Causative and factual verbs are marked with -s - / - š-: wuy-u “stand!” - wuy-su “ stop !”; Passive verbs are characterized by an affix -inɗ-: tsʾoh-inɗ-in "she (the cow) was milked".

syntax

The usual sentence order is SOV, with the direct object following the indirect:

n / A yí-n ʔàfàl-ìs-ìm ʔìm-ì-n
she you - dative Garment - Definitely - Accusative give - perfect - 3rd person
"She gave you the garment."

The copula unmarked according to tense / aspect is -éé, dán; there are also various tempo-bound affirmative or negative forms. Noun phrases have both the structure head - modifying element and modifying element - head . It is characteristic that nominal categories are not marked at the head, but rather conclude the noun phrase:

ʔeftí giččó-b-im
bird upper case masculine accusative
"A big bird"

Relative clauses are formed with special relative verb forms. These are inflected not only according to aspect / tense, but like nouns also according to gender, number and definiteness of the modified noun phrase, whereby there is no formal distinction between subject and object relativization:

ʔámz-is káy-déé-nd-is-im ʔálf-îs-im yéf-in
Woman - definitely want - past tense - feminine + relative - definite - accusative Messer - definitely - accusative saw - perfect - 3rd person
"The woman found the knife she's looking for."

Interrogatives are in situ:

n / A ʔamóid dime-n tíŋ-dée
she when Dime - dative go - past tense + interrogative
"When is she coming to Dime?"

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ethnologue, see web link
  2. ^ Seyoum 2008, page 154
  3. ↑ Seyoum 2008, p. 169

literature

  • M. Lionel Bender: Comparative morphology of the Omotic languages ​​(LINCOM studies in African linguistics) . LINCOM Europa 2000, ISBN 3-89586-251-7 (on the Dime: pp. 159-178) .
  • Harold Fleming: A grammatical sketch of Dime (Dim - Af) of the lower Omo. In: Richard Hayward (Ed.): Omotic Language Studies. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London 1990. ISBN 0-7286-0166-4 .
  • Mulugeta Seyoum: Some Notes on Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns in Dime. In: Rainer Voigt (Ed.): “From beyond the mediterranean”. Files of the 7th International Semitohamitist Congress. Shaker, Aachen 2007, pages 253-263. ISBN 978-3-8322-6340-9 .
  • Mulugeta Seyoum: A Grammar of Dime. Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, Landelijke 2008. ISBN 978-90-78328-52-0 ( http://www.lotpublications.nl/publish/issues/Seyoum/index.html ).

Web links