Shabo (language)
| Shabo | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Ethiopia | |
| speaker | 400–500, ethnic population at least 600 (as of 2000) | |
| Linguistic classification |
unclear, possibly
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
ssa |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
sbf |
|
Shabo (also called Mikeyir ) is an endangered language spoken by 400–500 hunters and gatherers in the westernmost part of the region of southern nations, nationalities and peoples in southwestern Ethiopia .
These people live in three places in the Keficho Shekicho Zone: Anderaccha, Gecch'a and Kaabo.
Many speakers switch to neighboring languages, especially Majang and Shakicho (Mocha); the vocabulary is heavily influenced by loan words from these two languages, particularly from Majang, as well as from Amharic .
classification
The classification of the Shabo is unclear, it is possibly a Nilo-Saharan language (Teferra / Unseth 1989, Fleming 1991) or an isolated language (Ehret 1995). The presumption that Shabo is a separate language was first expressed by Lionel Bender in 1977, using a list of words compiled by the missionary Harvey Hoekstra.
If one leaves aside the many loanwords from its immediate neighbors, the Majang and the Shakicho, then the collected word lists of the Shabo show, in addition to a significant number of lexemes from the coma languages, a larger number of words without obvious external relationships.
The preliminary data on grammar collected so far suggest few convincing external relationships. On this basis, Fleming (1991) classified the Shabo as Nilo- Saharan, and within it as the closest to the coma languages. Ehret (1995), on the other hand, argues that there are neither convincing similarities with Nilo-Saharan nor Afro-Asian , assuming that the coma words are early borrowings. He therefore regards the Shabo as an isolated language . Teferra / Unseth (1989) see it as Nilosaharan, but they can hardly justify this and cannot give any information about its position within the language family .
Phonetics and Phonology
The consonants of Shabo are as follows:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | (p) b | td | (c) (ɟ) | kg | ʔ |
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ɠ | ||
| Ejectives | pʼ | tʼ | cʼ | k ' | |
| Fricatives | f | (s) sʼ | (ʃ) | H | |
| Approximants | w | l | j | ||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Vibrants | r |
According to Teferra (1995), consonants in round brackets are not completely phonemic:
- [ p ] and [ f ] are in free variation to each other.
- [ s ] and [ ʃ ] , sometimes [ c ] , [ ɟ ] and [ ʒ ] , as shown in Majang in free variation. According to Teferra, this could be due to the traditional removal of the lower incisors in men.
- [ h ] and [ k ] change occasionally each other.
Long consonants come in several words, e.g. B. in walla "goat", kutti "knee", although the length is often unstable.
According to Teferra, there are nine vowels, namely / i / / ɨ / / u / / e / / ə / / o / / ɛ / / a / / ɔ / . Five vowels - / a / / e / / i / / o / / u / - have long equivalents. Occasionally, vowels are left out at the end, with vowels being shortened in the middle of a word, e.g. B. deego / deg "crocodile".
The syllable structure is (consonant) - vowel - (consonant); all consonants except / pʼ / and / tʼ / can appear at the end of a syllable.
The Shabo is a tonal language , but its tonology is unclear. Teferra names a minimal pair :
há "kill" - hà "meat"
grammar
pronoun
| pronoun | Honor | Teferra / Unseth | Hoekstra |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | tiŋ (m.), taŋa (f.) | tiŋ | tiŋ (ka) |
| you | kuku (m.), kungu (f.) | kuku | ŋaŋ (ka) |
| he | yi (m.) | n / A | ŋa (ufə) |
| we | yiŋ (m.), ann (f.) | yiŋ | yiiŋa |
| her | sitalak (m.), siyakk (f.), suba (both) | ʃu (bək) | |
| she | kuka |
Nouns
The formation of the plural is unclear. Three different plural suffixes were given by one person :
- "House" ɗoku → "houses" ɗoku- k
- "Dog" kaal / kaan → "dogs" kaal- u / kaan- u
- "Leg" bicca → "legs" bicca- ka
However, another person did not form the plural at all or expressed it by adding the word yɛɛro .
The -k suffix sometimes seems to mark the direct object , e.g. B. in upa kaan-ik ye "a man saw a dog" (lit. "man saw a dog"). A similar suffix is found in many East Sudan languages .
Case suffixes mentioned by Ehret (1995) are as follows:
- -ti - ablative
- -uk, -ik - instrumental
- -ke, -e - genitive
- -kak, -gak - accusative
Post positions
The Shabo used after nouns Postpositions such. B. in upa mana pond ɗɛpik moi "a man sat on a stone" (lit. "man sat on a stone").
Verbs
The negation is expressed by placing the particle be after the verb or noun that is being negated:
gumu be "(it is) not a [not (a)] stick"
ʔam be-gea "he won't come" (lit. "won't come-?")
The negation with b is common among Nilo-Saharan languages and Afro-Asian languages .
There is a causative suffix -ka :
mawo hoop "water boiled" - upa mawo hoop-ka "(a) man boiled water"
The particle git ( infinitive ? Subjunctive ?) Marks the verb in constructions with "want":
moopa git inɗeet "I want to sit" (literally " particles want to sit ")
The verbal morphology is largely unclear; There seems to be a future tense suffix of the 3rd person singular -g- (e.g. in inɗage t'a-g "he will eat") and a suffix of the 2nd person plural (e.g. in subuk maakɛle kak t'a-ɗe "you ate grain (corn?)", lit. "you grain past? eat-2nd person pl.").
Ehret (1995) cites the following tense suffixes:
- -gg - imperfect tense
- -e - perfect ( past perfect ?)
- -kkus - perfect
- Null morpheme - imperative
Numerals
Teferra / Unseth (1989) use the following number system:
- iŋki
- bap
- jiita
- aŋan
- tuul
- tulu (ŋ / m)
- tulikakiŋki (possibly an error on "6"?)
- tunajiita
- tulaaŋan
- bapif (< bap if "two hands")
- mabafifiŋki
"20" is iŋk upa kor (literally "one person complete").
syntax
The normal word order in the sentence is subject-object-verb ; postpositions are used rather than prepositions .
Some basic vocabulary words
| Word meaning | Shabo |
|---|---|
| man | ufa |
| woman | umɓa |
| who | no |
| What | hamma |
| eye | se / še |
| nose | sonna / šonna |
| mouth | kaw |
| tooth | kaw |
| tongue | handa |
| heart | lunduse |
| hand | efu |
| foot | bicca |
| Sun | oha / oxa |
| big | mati |
| eat | t'a |
| drink | Where |
| go | no |
| come | at the |
literature
- Peter Unseth: Shabo (Mekeyir). A first discussion of classification and vocabulary . 1984. (unpublished manuscript)
- Anbessa Teferra u. Peter Unseth: Toward the classification of Shabo (Mikeyir) . In: M. Lionel Bender (Ed.): Topics in Nilo-Saharan linguistics . Buske, Hamburg 1989, pp. 405-418.
- Anbessa Teferra: A sketch of Shabo grammar . In: M. Lionel Bender (Ed.): Proceedings of the Fourth Nilo-Saharan Conference (Bayreuth 1989) . Buske, Hamburg 1991, pp. 371-387.
- Harold C. Fleming: Shabo: presentation of data and preliminary classification . In: M. Lionel Bender (Ed.): Proceedings of the Fourth Nilo-Saharan Conference (Bayreuth 1989) . Buske, Hamburg 1991, pp. 389-402.
- Anbessa Teferra: Brief phonology of Shabo (Mekeyir) . In: Robert Nicolaï u. Franz Rottland (ed.): Actes du Cinquième Colloque de Linguistique Nilo-Saharienne (Nice 1992) . Köppe, Cologne 1995.
- Christopher Ehret: Do Krongo and Shabo belong in Nilo-Saharan? In: Robert Nicolaï u. Franz Rottland (ed.): Actes du Cinquième Colloque de Linguistique Nilo-Saharienne (Nice 1992) . Köppe, Cologne 1995.
- Ernst Kausen: The language families of the world. Part 2: Africa - Indo-Pacific - Australia - America. Buske, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-87548-656-8 , pp. 465-470.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ from Teferra (1991), see literature