Soddo language
Encyclopedia
Soddo is a Gurage
language spoken by about 300,000 people in southeastern Ethiopia
. It is a South Ethiopian Semitic language of the Northern Gurage subfamily.
The definite article
is expressed by the suffix
-i, e.g.: goš "boy" > goš-i "the boy"; ätit "sister" > ätiti "the sister"; bayyočč "children" > bayyočč-i. If the noun ends in -a or -ä, it normally loses this vowel
when -i is suffixed: angačča "cat" > angačč-i "the cat". A noun ending in -i usually stays the same: abi "(the) father, proprietor". A noun ending in -e, -o, -u adds a y before the suffix: ge "house" > geʸi "the house"; wälläho "neighbor" > wällähoʸi "the neighbor". If the noun has a qualifier, the article is used with the first element: maläk' ge "big house" > maläk'-i ge "the big house"; yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"); yä-mät't'-i məss "the man who came" (lit. "who-came-the man".)
There is no real indefinite article, though indefiniteness can be expressed by preposing the word attə or k'una, meaning "one".
Nouns have two gender
s, masculine and feminine, which affect verb
concord.
Nouns which are definite objects (direct or indirect) are both marked with the prefix yä- or nä-: e.g. yä-geʸi ažžo "he saw the house"; yä-zämmihʷan abännət "he gave it to his brother" (lit. "to-his-brother he-gave-him"). Direct objects may additionally be marked by adding the object suffix pronouns to the verb: e.g. yabiddi täšakkunnət "I asked my father" (lit. "my-father-obj. I-asked-him".)
A possessed noun is marked by the prefix yä-, and the possessor precedes the possessed: yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"). If the possessed noun has a preposition prefixed to it, this yä- is omitted: babiddi färäz rather than *bä-yä-abiddi färäz for "on my father's horse".
Possessives can also be formed by simply adding yä- to the standalone pronouns, eg: yädähəm t'əb "your clan".
Reflexive pronouns are formed by äras-, gubba-, k'um- plus the possessive suffixes, eg ädi äras-əddi mät'afi t'afkunnət "I myself wrote the book".
Distal: za "that, those, that one, those ones"; zani "that one there". Eg tä-za məss goy mät't'ahi "I came with that man".
kulləm = "all" (placed before or after the noun); kulləm-u, bä-mollaw = "whole". yät'oma = "only, alone". "Each, every" is expressed by noun reduplication
.
:
Example: zämmidi nähä "you are my brother".
The past tense ("he was", etc.) is expressed by the verb näbbär conjugated regularly in the perfect; "he was not" etc. is with annäbär. The future tense is expressed by the imperfect of hono: yəhonu "he will be", etc. The negative future tense is likewise expressed by tihon. The present copula in subordinate clauses is expressed by the subordinate perfect of honä, eg: däffär yähonä tädi-goy yalfu "he who is courageous will go with me.
"It is he", etc. can be expressed by adding an element -tt between the pronoun and the copula: eg kʷa-ttə-n "it is he".
The existential verb "be at", "exist" in the present is:
In the past and future, it is expressed just like the copula, with näbbärä and honä. In subordinate clauses the present is expressed with -allä conjugated in the perfect (negative -lellä), eg: bämeda yalləmi säbočč araš näm "the people who are in the field are farmers".
The possessive verb "he has" etc. is expressed with the existential verb yino "it is" (agreeing with the object possessed) plus object suffix pronouns (ie "it is to him" etc.)
s" differing in their vowels and in gemination of the imperfect, illustrated for a three-consonant verb:
Derived stems can be formed in several ways:
There are two tenses/aspects, perfective (past) and imperfective (non-past); each has distinct forms for main versus subordinate clauses, and positive versus negative. There are also distinct jussive
, imperative
, and impersonal forms.
The form with suffixed -m is used in subordinate clauses to connect verbs not otherwise connected, in a way analogous to Japanese
-te; it can be translated as "and", as a gerund
, or as a resultative
. The perfect in -m followed by näbbär forms the pluperfect.
The negative perfect is formed by prefixing al-, with vowel change; for the conjugations mentioned above, the resulting forms are al-säfärä, al-täkkälä, and al-č'afärä.
Examples: ge aräššo "he built a house"; banätäw k'ən awänna-m bämida tonnaw "having put butter on the top of his head, he sat outside".
Like the perfect, the subordinate forms can take the suffix -m to express a series of non-past actions. This can be combined with näbbär to express a habitual past action.
Examples: ahoññ gäbäya nalfu "today we shall go to the market"; yəgädəl məss "the man who kills"; mas tənäsa-m yibara wawt'a tək'ärsi "she picks up the sleeping mats and begins to remove the dung."
It can be augmented by -ən, with no obvious change in meaning.
Examples: ahoññ yəmät'a timäsəl "it does not seem that he will come today"; ädahʷan t-aykäfəl alläfo "he left without paying his debt".
These are negated by the prefix ay-: ayəsfär, ayšäkkət, aygalb. The 2nd person forms then change to conform to the others: attəsfär, attəsfer, attəsfärəm, attəsfärma.
Eg: yä-wäzälawan-hom yewsəd "let him take according to his work"; yäsäb waga attəlgäd "don't touch someone's property"; ärəf-əm tona "rest and sit down" (sit down quietly).
Gurage
Gurage is an ethnic group in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, its population is 1,867,377 people , of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 7.52% of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region...
language spoken by about 300,000 people in southeastern Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. It is a South Ethiopian Semitic language of the Northern Gurage subfamily.
Noun
As in most Ethiopian languages, noun qualifiers generally follow the noun.The definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
is expressed by the suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
-i, e.g.: goš "boy" > goš-i "the boy"; ätit "sister" > ätiti "the sister"; bayyočč "children" > bayyočč-i. If the noun ends in -a or -ä, it normally loses this vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
when -i is suffixed: angačča "cat" > angačč-i "the cat". A noun ending in -i usually stays the same: abi "(the) father, proprietor". A noun ending in -e, -o, -u adds a y before the suffix: ge "house" > geʸi "the house"; wälläho "neighbor" > wällähoʸi "the neighbor". If the noun has a qualifier, the article is used with the first element: maläk' ge "big house" > maläk'-i ge "the big house"; yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"); yä-mät't'-i məss "the man who came" (lit. "who-came-the man".)
There is no real indefinite article, though indefiniteness can be expressed by preposing the word attə or k'una, meaning "one".
Nouns have two gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
s, masculine and feminine, which affect verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
concord.
Nouns which are definite objects (direct or indirect) are both marked with the prefix yä- or nä-: e.g. yä-geʸi ažžo "he saw the house"; yä-zämmihʷan abännət "he gave it to his brother" (lit. "to-his-brother he-gave-him"). Direct objects may additionally be marked by adding the object suffix pronouns to the verb: e.g. yabiddi täšakkunnət "I asked my father" (lit. "my-father-obj. I-asked-him".)
A possessed noun is marked by the prefix yä-, and the possessor precedes the possessed: yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"). If the possessed noun has a preposition prefixed to it, this yä- is omitted: babiddi färäz rather than *bä-yä-abiddi färäz for "on my father's horse".
Personal pronoun
| English | Standalone form | Possessive suffix Suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs... (consonant-final nouns) |
Possessive suffix Suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs... (vowel-final nouns) |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | ädi | -əddi | -ddi |
| you (m. sg.) | dähä | -dä | -dä |
| you (f. sg.) | däš | -däš | -däš |
| he | kʷa | -äw, -kʷan | -w, -hʷan |
| she | kʸa | -ki | -hi |
| we | əñña | -əñña | -ñña |
| you (m. pl.) | dähəm | -dähəm | -dähəm |
| you (f. pl.) | dähma | -dähma | -dähma |
| they (m.) | kənnäm | -kənnäm | -hənnäm |
| they (f.) | kənnäma | -kənnäm | -hənnäm |
Possessives can also be formed by simply adding yä- to the standalone pronouns, eg: yädähəm t'əb "your clan".
Reflexive pronouns are formed by äras-, gubba-, k'um- plus the possessive suffixes, eg ädi äras-əddi mät'afi t'afkunnət "I myself wrote the book".
Demonstrative pronoun
Proximal: zi "this, these"; zini "this one". Eg: zi məss "this man", zi məšt "this woman", zi säbočč "these men".Distal: za "that, those, that one, those ones"; zani "that one there". Eg tä-za məss goy mät't'ahi "I came with that man".
Interrogative pronoun
- ma "who?" (man before the copula): man mät't'a? "who came?"
- yäma "whose?"
- mən "what?"; yämən "why?"
- yitta, yittat "which?" Eg yitta bayy mät't'am "which child came?"
- yittani "which one?"
Indefinite pronoun
- (yähonä) säb "someone, somebody"
- mannəm (säb) "any(one)" ("no one" with negative verb)
- attəm "any" (="no one, nothing" with negative verb); attəmu "no one" (as pronoun)
- lela (säb) "other"
- yäk'irrä k'äy "other" (lit. "remaining thing")
- attə "a certain"
- ləyyu "different"
- k'una, zam, zəč'ə "same"
- äbälo (f. äbälit) "so-and-so"
- zihom "such"
kulləm = "all" (placed before or after the noun); kulləm-u, bä-mollaw = "whole". yät'oma = "only, alone". "Each, every" is expressed by noun reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
.
Copula and existential verbs
The copula (positive and negative) is irregular in the present tensePresent tense
The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
:
| English | be | not be |
|---|---|---|
| I am | näw(h) | ädäbukk |
| you (m. sg.) are | nähä | ädäbəkkä |
| you (f. sg.) are | näš | ädäbəčč |
| he is | -n, -ən (after a consonant) | ädäbəll |
| she is | na | ädäbəlla |
| we are | nänä | ädäbəllänä |
| you (m. pl.) are | nähəm | ädäbəkkəm |
| you (f. pl.) are | nähma | ädäbəkkəma |
| they (m.) are | näm | ädäbəlläm |
| they (f.) are | näma | ädäbəäma |
Example: zämmidi nähä "you are my brother".
The past tense ("he was", etc.) is expressed by the verb näbbär conjugated regularly in the perfect; "he was not" etc. is with annäbär. The future tense is expressed by the imperfect of hono: yəhonu "he will be", etc. The negative future tense is likewise expressed by tihon. The present copula in subordinate clauses is expressed by the subordinate perfect of honä, eg: däffär yähonä tädi-goy yalfu "he who is courageous will go with me.
"It is he", etc. can be expressed by adding an element -tt between the pronoun and the copula: eg kʷa-ttə-n "it is he".
The existential verb "be at", "exist" in the present is:
| English | be at/there | not be at/there |
|---|---|---|
| I am | yinähi | yellähu |
| you (m. sg.) are | yinəho | yellähä |
| you (f. sg.) are | yinäšin | yelläš |
| he is | yino | yellä |
| she is | yinätti | yellät |
| we are | yinäno | yellänä |
| you (m. pl.) are | yinähmun | yellähəm |
| you (f. pl.) are | yinähman | yellähma |
| they (m.) are | yinämun | yelləm |
| they (f.) are | yinäman | yelləma |
In the past and future, it is expressed just like the copula, with näbbärä and honä. In subordinate clauses the present is expressed with -allä conjugated in the perfect (negative -lellä), eg: bämeda yalləmi säbočč araš näm "the people who are in the field are farmers".
The possessive verb "he has" etc. is expressed with the existential verb yino "it is" (agreeing with the object possessed) plus object suffix pronouns (ie "it is to him" etc.)
Verbs
A Soddo verb may have anywhere from one to four consonants, or may be a compound with balo "say" (eg bək'k' balo "appear".) In the former case, they fall into three "conjugationGrammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
s" differing in their vowels and in gemination of the imperfect, illustrated for a three-consonant verb:
- säbbäro, imperfect yəsäbru ("break")
- tikkälo, imperfect yətikkəlu
- č'affäro, imperfect yəč'affəru
Derived stems can be formed in several ways:
- reduplicative: eg gäddälo "kill" > gədaddälo. This form has a wide variety of meanings, mostly intensifying the verb in some way.
- passivePassive voicePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
/reflexive/intransitive tä- prefix: eg käffälo "pay" > tä-käffälo "be paid". A reciprocalReciprocal (grammar)A reciprocal is a linguistic structure that marks a particular kind of relationship between two noun phrases. In a reciprocal construction, each of the participants occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to each other...
action can be expressed by this prefix attached to a transitive verbTransitive verbIn syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
with the vowel a after the first radical, or a reduplicative form, eg tä-gäddäl-mun or tä-gdaddäl-mun "they killed each other". - causativeCausativeIn linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
or transitive of intransitive verbIntransitive verbIn grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
s a-: eg säkkäro "be drunk" > a-säkkäro "get someone drunk"; näddädo "burn (intr.)" > a-näddädo "burn (tr.)". - causativeCausativeIn linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
of transitive or passivePassive voicePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
verbs at- (+ -i-): eg käddäno "cover" > at-kiddäno "cause to cover" or "cause to be covered". Added to the -a- form, it expresses reciprocity and adjutative (helping): atgaddälo "cause to kill one other" or help to kill". - Some verbs are formed with initial ən- or tän-; the only derived stem from these is the a- stem, with a- replacing ə- or tä-. Eg ənkrättäto "be bent" > ankrättäto "bend".
There are two tenses/aspects, perfective (past) and imperfective (non-past); each has distinct forms for main versus subordinate clauses, and positive versus negative. There are also distinct jussive
Jussive mood
The jussive is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting . English verbs are not marked for this mood...
, imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
, and impersonal forms.
Perfect
| English | main clause | subordinate clause | relative clause | subordinate with -m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I measured | säffär-ki | säffär-kʷ | yä-säffär-k-i | säffär-kum |
| you (m. sg.) measured | säffär-ko | säffär-kä | yä-säffär-k-i | säffär-käm |
| you (f. sg.) measured | säffär-šin | säffär-š | yä-säffär-š-i | säffär-šəm |
| he measured | säffär-o | säffär-ä | yä-säffär-i | säffär-äm |
| she measured | säffär-ätti | säffär-ät | yä-säffär-ätt-i | säffär-ättəm |
| we measured | säffär-no | säffär-nä | yä-säffär-n-i | säffär-näm |
| you (m. pl.) measured | säffär-əmun | säffär-kəmu | yä-säffär-kəm-i | säffär-kəmum |
| you (f. pl.) measured | säffär-kəman | säffär-kəma | yä-säffär-kəma-yi | säffär-kəmam |
| they (m.) measured | säffär-mun | säffär-m | yä-säffär-m-i | säffär-mum |
| they (f.) measured | säffär-man | säffär-ma | yä-säffär-ma-yi | säffär-mam |
The form with suffixed -m is used in subordinate clauses to connect verbs not otherwise connected, in a way analogous to Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
-te; it can be translated as "and", as a gerund
Gerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
, or as a resultative
Resultative
A resultative is a phrase that indicates the state of a noun resulting from the completion of the verb. In the English examples below, the affected noun is shown in bold and the resulting predicate is in italics:...
. The perfect in -m followed by näbbär forms the pluperfect.
The negative perfect is formed by prefixing al-, with vowel change; for the conjugations mentioned above, the resulting forms are al-säfärä, al-täkkälä, and al-č'afärä.
Examples: ge aräššo "he built a house"; banätäw k'ən awänna-m bämida tonnaw "having put butter on the top of his head, he sat outside".
Imperfect
| English | main clause | subordinate clause |
|---|---|---|
| I advance | äbädru | äbädər |
| you (m. sg.) advance | təbädru | təbädər |
| you (f. sg.) advance | təbädri | təbʸedər |
| he advances | yəbädru | yəbädər |
| she advances | təbädri | təbädər |
| we advance | (ən)nəbädru | (ən)nəbädər |
| you (m. pl.) advance | təbädrəmun | təbädrəm |
| you (f. pl.) advance | təbädrəman | təbädrəma |
| they (m.) advance | yəbädrəmun | yəbädrəm |
| they (f.) advance | yəbädrəman | yəbädrəma |
Like the perfect, the subordinate forms can take the suffix -m to express a series of non-past actions. This can be combined with näbbär to express a habitual past action.
Examples: ahoññ gäbäya nalfu "today we shall go to the market"; yəgädəl məss "the man who kills"; mas tənäsa-m yibara wawt'a tək'ärsi "she picks up the sleeping mats and begins to remove the dung."
It can be augmented by -ən, with no obvious change in meaning.
| English | negative main clause | negative subordinate clause |
|---|---|---|
| I do not begin | täk'ärs | annək'ärs |
| you (m. sg.) do not begin | təttək'ärs | attək'ärs |
| you (f. sg.) do not begin | təttək'erš | attək'erš |
| he does not begin | tik'ärs | ayk'ärs |
| she does not begin | təttək'ärs | attək'ärs |
| we do not begin | tənnək'ärs | annək'ärs |
| you (m. pl.) begin | təttək'ärsəm | attək'ärsəm |
| you (f. pl.) advance | təttək'ärsəma | attək'ärsəma |
| they (m.) advance | tik'ärsəm | ayk'ärsəm |
| they (f.) advance | tik'ärsəma | ayk'ärsəma |
Examples: ahoññ yəmät'a timäsəl "it does not seem that he will come today"; ädahʷan t-aykäfəl alläfo "he left without paying his debt".
Jussive and Imperative
| person | conjugation A | conjugation B | conjugation C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | näsfər | näšäkkət | nägalb |
| 2nd m. sg. | səfär | šäkkət | galb |
| 2nd f. sg. | səfer | šäkkič | galʸib |
| 3rd m. sg. | yesfər, yäsfər | yešäkkət | yegalb |
| 3rd f. sg. | tesfər | tešäkkət | tegalb |
| 1st pl. | (ən)nəsfär | nəšäkkət | nəgalb |
| 2nd m. pl. | səfärəm | šäkkətəm | galbəm |
| 2nd f. pl. | səfärma | šäkkətma | galbəma |
| 3rd m. pl. | yesfərəm | yešäkkətəm | yegalbəm |
| 3rd f. pl. | yesfərma | yešäkkətma | yegalbəma |
These are negated by the prefix ay-: ayəsfär, ayšäkkət, aygalb. The 2nd person forms then change to conform to the others: attəsfär, attəsfer, attəsfärəm, attəsfärma.
Eg: yä-wäzälawan-hom yewsəd "let him take according to his work"; yäsäb waga attəlgäd "don't touch someone's property"; ärəf-əm tona "rest and sit down" (sit down quietly).
External links
- Christian recordings in Soddo in Global Recordings website.
- EthnologueEthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
information on Kistane - World Atlas of Language StructuresWorld Atlas of Language StructuresThe World Atlas of Language Structures is a database of structural properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-ROM in 2005, and was released as the second edition on the Internet in April 2008...
information on Soddo