Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian Languages.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (425 pages)
- IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society Series ; v.48 .
- IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society Series .
Intro -- Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian Languages -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication page -- Table of contents -- The languages of Ethiopia: Aspects of the sociolinguistic profile -- 1. Aspects of the sociolinguistics profile of the languages -- 1.1 Genetic classification of Ethiopian languages -- 1.2 Geographical distribution -- 1.3 Speaker population -- 1.4 Status and functional distribution of Ethiopian languages -- 1.5 Language and ethnic identity in Ethiopia -- 2. This book: The chapters -- 2.1 Lexicon -- 2.2 Sociolinguistics and culture -- 2.3 Grammar (syntax and morphology) -- 2.4 Phonetics -- 2.5 Sign language -- 2.6 The reviewers -- Funding -- References -- Part I. Lexicon -- Term-formation methods in the Gamo language -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Conceptual framework -- 3. Methodology -- 4. Term-formation methods used in Gamo -- a. Borrowing -- b. Compounding -- c. Blending -- d. Semantic extension -- e. Initialism -- f. Paraphrasing -- 5. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Online resources -- The ensete in Gurage: Nomenclature, use and meaning extension -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Background -- 1.2 Statement of the problem -- 1.3 Objective -- 1.4 Significance -- 1.5 Methodology -- 1.6 Literature review -- 1.7 Organisation of the chapter -- 2. Presentation of results -- 2.1 Nomenclature and diversity -- 2.2 Semantic extension -- 3. Summary and discussion -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- References -- Part II. Sociolinguistics and culture -- Language contact and its effects on language use of the Gurage varieties of Muher -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Background -- 2. Theoretical framework -- 3. Research methodology -- 4. Language knowledge and use -- 4.1 Language ability of participants -- 4.2 Language use of participants -- 5. Analysis -- 6. Summary and conclusion. Acknowledgements -- References -- Ethnolinguistic perception and identity in Gurage -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Research questions, objectives and methods -- 2.1 Research problem and questions -- 2.2 Objectives -- 2.3 Research design and tools -- 3. Ethnicity, language politics and belongingness -- 4. Presentation of data and discussion -- 4.1 Ethnolinguistic perception among the Gurage -- 4.2 Self-identification and belongingness to Gurage identity -- 5. Summary and conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Sociolinguistic functions of the secret language of Gurage females -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Religion and the Damamwit cult -- 3. Related literature and conceptual framework -- 4. Method of data collection and analysis -- 4.1 The sociolinguistic interview -- 4.2 Elicitation -- 5. The motive for using a different language -- 5.1 Social position of Gurage females -- 5.2 Religious practices of Gurage females -- 6. The sociolinguistic functions of Fedwet -- 7. Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Gender and women representation in Gurage culture of Ethiopia -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Background -- 1.2 Statement of the problem -- 1.3 Objectives of the study -- 1.4 Review of related literature -- 1.5 Research design and methodology -- 1.6 Organisation of the chapter -- 2. Data analysis and presentation -- 2.1 Gender roles and social positions -- 2.2 Responses to gender discourses and construction of identity -- 3. Summary, discussion and conclusion -- 3.1 Summary -- 3.2 Discussion -- 3.3 Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 1. Males mourning songs -- Appendix 2. Males' title names -- Appendix 3. Proverbs about Females -- Part III. Grammar (syntax and morphology) -- Manner of movement in Amharic -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Manner of movement and degrees of speed -- 2.1 Slow manner of movement -- 2.2 Extra slow manner of movement. 2.3 Fast manner of movement -- 3. Manner of movement and behaviour of figure (mover) -- 3.1 Sluggish manner of movement, behaviour and stature of figure -- 3.2 Extra fast movement and behaviour of figure -- 4. Types of path, manner and behaviour of figure -- 4.1 Straight path, manner and behaviour -- 4.2 Sloppy path, manner, and behaviour -- 4.3 Bumpy path and manner of movement -- 5. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Appendix -- Serial verb constructions in Sezo -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Sezo and its community of speakers -- 3. Methodology -- 4. Serial verb constructions: A cross-linguistic overview -- 5. Formal properties of serial verb constructions in Sezo -- 6. The semantics of minor verbs in serial verb constructions of Sezo -- 6.1 Serial verb constructions with directional (deictic) minor verbs -- 6.2 Serial verb constructions with valency changing minor verbs -- 6.3 Serial verb constructions with aspect marking minor verbs -- 7. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations and symbols -- References -- Number marking in Nuer nouns -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Literature and the three numbers of Nuer -- 3. Methodology -- 4. The present study -- 4.1 Suffixation of -n�i/-�i -- 4.2 Increase in vowel duration and tone shift -- 4.3 Vowel shortening and shift in tone -- 4.4 Change in tone -- 4.5 Internal vowel and final consonant alternation and tone shift -- 4.6 Dropping a vowel and tone shift -- 4.7 Shift in vowel quality (voice) and tone shift -- 4.8 Zero/null formation -- 4.9 Addition of glide j, vowel change and tone shift -- 4.10 Suppletion and tone shift -- 4.11 Singulative -- 5. Productivity -- 6. Concluding remarks -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- References -- Case-marking in Semitic in the light of the evidence in the Ethiopian language area: Linguistic convergence and divergence -- 1. Introduction. 2. The morphological side of the question -- 3. The syntactic-functional side of the question -- 4. Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- References -- Reduplication in Oromo -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Nominal reduplication -- 2.1 Nouns -- 2.2 Determiners -- 2.3 Adjectives -- 2.4 Numerals -- 2.5 Co-occurrence of reduplicative nominals -- 3. Verbal reduplication -- 3.1 Type I Verbs -- 3.2 Type II verbs -- 4. Adverbial reduplication -- 5. Adpositional reduplication -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations and symbols -- References -- Verbal derivations in Inor -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Methodology -- 2. A brief background of Inor verbs -- 3. Causatives -- 3.1 Direct causative -- 3.2 Indirect causative -- 3.3 Adjutative -- 4. Medio-passive and reflexive -- 5. Frequentative -- 6. Reciprocal -- 7. Bound roots with lexicalised affixes -- 8. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Symbols and abbreviations -- References -- Appendix -- Part IV. Phonetics -- An acoustic analysis of Amharic fricatives -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Previous studies on acoustics of fricatives -- 2.1 Durational measurements -- 2.2 Amplitude -- 2.3 Spectral properties -- 2.3 Zero-crossing rate -- 2.4 Voice measurements -- 3. Previous studies on Amharic fricatives -- 4. Methods -- 4.1 Subjects -- 4.2 Recording -- 4.3 Stimuli -- 4.4 Measurements -- 4.5 Statistical analysis -- 5. Results -- 5.1 Durational measurements -- 5.2 Spectral peak location -- 5.3 Intensity -- 5.4 Spectral moments -- 5.5 Zero-crossing points -- 5.6 Voice measurements -- 6. Discussion -- 7. Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Appendix 1. Mean and sd values of intensity measurements and spectral peak location for Amharic fricatives by gender and position -- Appendix 2. Mean and sd values of Spectral moments and zero-crossing points for Amharic fricatives -- Durational variations in Oromo vowels. 1. Introduction -- 2. Oromo language -- 3. Methods -- 3.1 Speakers -- 3.2 Stimuli and procedures -- 3.4 Statistical analysis -- 4. Results -- 4.1 Intrinsic duration -- 4.2 Phonological vowel length -- 4.3 Consonantal environments -- 4.4 Gender -- 4.5 Dialect -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part V. Sign language -- The linguistic nature of expression of aspect in Ethiopian sign language -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The linguistic nature of aspect marking in the literature -- 3. Theoretical framework and methodology -- 3.1 Theoretical framework -- 3.2 Application of the theory in sign languages analysis -- 3.3 The reason for choosing this theory -- 3.4 Sampling -- 3.5 Data collection tools and techniques -- 3.6 Data analysis procedure -- 4. Morphological vis-�a-vis gestural -- 4.1 Degree of uniformity in the marking of aspect in ethsl -- 4.2 Internal structure and decomposability of the morphemes -- 5. Inflectional vis-�a-vis derivational -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Keys to conventions abbreviated words -- References -- Polysemy of Ethiopian sign language -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The history of the Ethiopian Sign Language -- 3. Conceptual framework -- 3.1 Conceptual theories that relate to polysemy in lexical meaning -- 3.2 Distinguishing polysemy from other lexical semantic relations -- 3.3 Notions of polysemy in sign language -- 4. Research method -- Direct elicitation -- Observations -- Video recording -- ethsl dictionary analysis -- 5. Research findings -- 5.1 Different cases of polysemy in EthSL -- 5.2 The process of developing derivative polysemous signs in EthSL -- 5.3 Discussion of polysemy in EthSL dictionaries and in the studied material -- 6. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Index.
The focus of this unique publication is on Ethiopian languages and linguistics. Not only major languages such as Amharic and Oromo receive attention, also lesser studied ones like Sezo and Nuer are dealt with.