Gamo (language)

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Gamo

Spoken in

Ethiopia
speaker 1.2 million
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in nowhere official language

Gamo (also Gemu ) is an omotic language spoken in southern Ethiopia in the Omo region. It is often considered to be one of three dialects of Gamo-Gofa-Dawro along with Gofa and Dawro . The Gamo had around 1.1 million speakers in 2007.

Phonology

Like many other omotic languages, gamo has conspicuous ejective (p ', t', k ', ts') and implosive (ɓ, ɗ) consonants. The gamo has five vowel quantities and two vowel qualities. It is a tonal language in which every accented word has exactly one treble.

morphology

Pronouns and nouns

The personal pronouns differentiate the numbers singular and plural and in the 3rd person singular also the genera masculine and feminine . They are also declined in several cases . The personal pronouns have the following stems:

Singular Plural
1. 2. 3. m. 3. f. 1. 2. 3.
ta- no- iz- iz- nu- inte- is-

Most people are declined with the following suffixes:

  • Nominative: -ni
  • Accusative: -na
  • Genitive: ∅
  • Dative: -s
  • Instrumental: -nara

The third persons form nominative , genitive and accusative with the following vowel suffixes:

case Masculine Feminine Plural
Nominative i a i
Genitive, connecting vowel
before other case ending 		a i a
accusative a O a

Nouns distinguish the same numbers and genera as personal pronouns. The masculine includes male and inanimate beings, the feminine female beings or things. The definiteness is marked by a series of affixes like -t-: asa-ti "men" (nominative), muze-ta "bananas" (object). -Ii is used as the nominative ending, the accusative is marked by -aa, other cases are formed by suffixes similar to postpositions (dative -s, instrumental -ra, and others). The genitive has a complex formation that is closely linked to determination.

Verbs

The tense system of the gamo has the two oppositions present - perfect - future and affirmative - interrogative - negative . The conjugation is carried out using suffixes that follow the verbal stem in the following order:

  • first person- and number-specific vowel (Hayward: "inner agreement"; only in certain conjugations):
Singular Plural
1. 2. 3. m. 3. f. 1. 2. 3.
a a i a (i) (i) (i)
  • Tense markers (present ∅, affirmative perfect d, future tense and, converb d, negative perfect perfect for)
  • Second person- and number-specific vowel (Hayward: "outer agreement"; only in certain conjugations. Note that "outer agreement" vowels are also used in negative personal endings.):
Singular Plural
1. 2. 3. m. 3. f. 1. 2. 3.
i a e u O e O
  • Personal extension
category Singular Plural
1. 2. 3. m. 3. f. 1. 2. 3.
affirmative is assa (it us os etta ottes / ettes / a
negative ke ka nna ku ko ketta (t) tenna
interrogative ina ii / oo (z) ee (z) ee o (i) nii e (i) tti (z) oo / etto

The jussive and the converb have a slightly different form . The jussive has no "inner agreement", but the tense markers affirmative ∅, negative -opʰ- and a separate set of personal endings. The converb has a tense marker -d- and personal endings that match the affixes of the “inner agreement”, so its endings are -ada- and -idi- depending on the person and number.

Participles are formed with the suffixes - (i) za (present tense), - (i) da (perfect). Deverbal nouns and verbs can be derived from various suffixes:

  • gita "large" - gitá-tettsi "size"
  • harg "sick" - harg-anca "a sick person"
  • mec "wash" - mec-iss "let wash"
  • tsar "answer" - tsar-ett "to be answered"

syntax

The predominant sentence order is apparently SOV:

awa-i dors-aa then-aa-s imm-i-∅-es
Father + nominative Sheep + accusative Richter + genitive + dative give + 3. Person sg. With present tense + 3. Person Sg. M. affirmative
"Father gave the sheep to the judge"

The conjugated deʔ and the non-flexable ∅ and -kko serve as copula: ai malaa deʔ -a-∅-ii like was sein + 2. Person + present tense + 2. Person Sg. Interrogative “How are you?” = “How are you?”, Kaná-kko “it's a dog”.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ethnologue: Gamo - A language of Ethiopia, accessed September 28, 2013.

literature

  • M. Lionel Bender: Comparative morphology of the Omotic languages ​​(LINCOM studies in African linguistics) . LINCOM Europa 2000, ISBN 3-89586-251-7 (on Gamo: pp. 7-45) .
  • Hompó Eva: Grammatical Relations in Gamo: A Pilot Sketch. In: Richard Hayward (Ed.): Omotic Language Studies. University of London, London 1990, pp. 356-405.
  • Richard Hayward: A Preliminary Analysis of the Behavior of Pitch in Gamo. In: Bahru Zewde, Richard Pankhurst, Taddese Beyene (Eds.): Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. 1994, pages 481-491.

Web links