Gertrud Schneider-Blum: A Grammar of Alaaba. A Highland East Cushitic Language of Ethiopia

 Review  

Gertrud Schneider-Blum (ed.): máakut(i) t'awá shuultáa - Proverbs Finish the Problems: Saying of the Alaaba (Ethiopia)

  Review   

Grammatica introduttiva della lingua amarica

[Italiano]: L’idea principale che ha motivato la creazione di una grammatica introduttiva dell’amarico in italiano è quella di rendere più agevole l’approccio all’amarico da parte di tutti i soggetti di lingua italiana che hanno a che fare con l’Etiopia, nonché gli studenti universitari che intraprendono un corso di studi alla scoperta dell’Etiopia e della sua lingua principale. La grammatica risulta snella e di facile comprensione, adatta a chi vuole avvicinarsi alla lingua amarica per poi approfondirla con altri strumenti esistenti, attualmente tutti in inglese. Infatti, le uniche tre grammatiche in italiano sono state pubblicate quasi un secolo fa e sono praticamente introvabili. La Grammatica introduttiva della lingua amarica, con rigore scientifico e metodologico, colma, pertanto, un’importante lacuna negli studi italiani sull’amarico. La grammatica è strutturata in 11 capitoli. Un’introduzione sulla grammatica stessa, che presenta pure alcune informazioni di base sull’amarico, è seguita da una dettagliata descrizione della fonologia e della ortografia della lingua amarica. L’ortografia può sembrare ostica, ma è interessante e affascinante perché utilizza un sistema prettamente ed unicamente etiopico di segni sillabici con modificazione di un segno consonantico di base per indicare le vocali. Questo nel capitolo 1. Il capitolo 2 contiene la spiegazione di due concetti di base relativi alle parole: formazione e ordine nella frase. Seguono cinque capitoli su rispettivamente cinque classi nominali diverse: 3 sostantivi, 4 pronomi, 5 aggettivi, 6 numerali e 7 avverbi. Grosso modo, quindi, la prima parte della grammatica è dedicata ai suoni, alla scrittura e alla struttura nominale dell’amarico. La seconda parte è rivolta ai verbi, alle frasi e alle espressioni. La complessità del sistema verbale amarico ha fatto sì che i due capitoli sui verbi risultassero i più ricchi e articolati della grammatica. Il primo, il capitolo 8, relativamente il più corposo, è dedicato alla flessione verbale, cioè alle forme verbali che indicano l’aspetto (cioè la struttura temporale dei verbi, che per l’italiano sarebbe il tempo ma che in amarico è diverso), il genere e il numero. Il secondo, il capitolo 9, è dedicato alla derivazione, cioè la modificazione del significato del verbo base per creare causativo, passivo, ecc. Il capitolo 10 sulle frasi è incentrato sulla sintassi della coordinazione e della subordinazione. Si è voluto anche inserire un capitolo 11 che illustra le espressioni più comunemente correnti nell’uso colloquiale dell’amarico. La grammatica si chiude con un’appendice sul calendario etiopico, ritenuto utile viste le differenze con quello europeo, e un glossario di tutte le parole incontrate nella grammatica. / [English]: The main idea behind the publication of an introductory grammar of Amharic in Italian is to facilitate the approach to Amharic by those Italian speakers that have to do with Ethiopia. The same is for University students who embark into the discovery of Ethiopia and its main language. The grammar appears straightforward and easy to comprehend. It is appropriate for those who want to approach the Amharic language and then go into deeper knowledge by using other existing tools, all in English. Indeed, the only grammars in Italian have been published almost one century ago and it is basically not possible to find a copy. With scientific and methodological rigour, the Grammatica introduttiva della lingua amarica, fills, therefore, and important gap in the Italian studies on Amharic. The grammar is structures into 11 chapters. An introduction on the grammar itself, that also presents some basic information on Amharic, is followed by a detailed description of phonology and orthography of the Amharic language. The orthography may seem difficult, but it is interesting and fascinating as it makes use of a system that is exclusively Ethiopian. It is based on syllabic characters with a basic consonantal character modified to indicate the vowels. This is in chapter 1. Chapter 2 contains the explanation of two basic concepts concerning words: formation and order in the sentence. What follows is five chapters on, respectively, five different nominal classes: 3 nouns, 4 pronouns, 5 adjectives, 6 numerals and 7 adverbs. More or less, therefore, the first part of the grammar is devoted to Amharic sounds, script and nominal structure. The second part is devoted to verbs, sentences and expressions. The complexity of the Amharic verbal system resulted in that the two chapters on verbs are the richest and most articulated of the grammar. The first one, chapter 8, which is relatively the bulkiest, is devoted to verbal inflection, that is, the verbal forms that indicate aspect (that is, the temporal structure of the verbs, that for Italian would be time, but that it is different in Amharic), gender and number. The second one, chapter 9, is devoted to derivation, that is the modification of the basic verbal meaning in order to create causative, passive, etc. Chapter 10, on sentences, focusses on the syntax of coordination and subordination. It was also decided to add chapter 11, which displays the most common expressions in the colloquial use of Amharic. The grammar closes with an appendix on the Ethiopian calendar, deemed to be useful in consideration of the differences respect to the European one, and a glossary containing all the words found in the grammar

Harold C. Fleming: Ongota: a Decisive Language in African Prehistory

Review Article  

Information structure, (inter)subjectivity and objectification

This paper discusses how information structure can be seen as a subjective and intersubjective concept in Verhagen's (2005) and Breban's (2010) definitions, though less so in Traugott's (2010) use of the terms. More difficult is the question of whethermarkersof information structure can be characterised as (inter)subjective; this is more easily determined for morphological markers than for prosody or word order. For unambiguous markers of information structure, I suggest that their emergence (e.g. copula > focus marker) is typically accompanied by (inter)subjectification, whereas their further development (e.g. topic marker > subject marker) displays objectification. The paper not only shows that grammatical items can undergo an increase as well as a decrease in (inter)subjectivity – thus denying strict unidirectionality – but also confirms that these processes are independent of grammaticalisation.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version of the article is available from CUP at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9769796&fileId=S002222671400054

African Linguistics in Central and Eastern Europe, and in the Nordic Countries

Non peer reviewe

Transcription and orthography in two endangered languages of Ethiopia: Ts’amakko and Ongota

This paper touches upon the process of mapping spoken languages onto writing systems. Case studies relating to two endangered languages of Ethiopia, Ts’amakko and Ongota are presented. The discussion concerns two kinds of mapping, transcription for descriptive purposes and orthography for literary and literacy purposes. It is shown that transcription is more scientific and precise but less readable than orthography, that is more user-friendly for the wider public and the community of speakers

Bayso, Haro and the “paucal” number: history of contact around the Abbaya and C'amo Lakes of South Ethiopia

The present paper is a first attempts of an historical reconstruction on the transmission of the number category “paucal” in the area of the Abbaya and C'amo lakes in Southern Ethiopia. The languages involved are Bayso (Cushitic), Haro (Omotic) and Haro's strongly related sister-languages Ganjule and Gets'ame. The present situation of bilingualism of the Haro in Bayso suggests that Bayso has passed the paucal to the Haro. However, the presence of the paucal in the other documented dialect of Haro, Ganjule, makes this hypothesis untenable since the Ganjule do not speak Bayso and have no particulal relation with the Bayso group. There is no description of the other dialect of the cluster, Gets'ame, but, according to Haro oral traditions, the Haro come from the Gets'ame, as well as their language. It is, therefore, very likely that the Gets'ame language has also the paucal. The paper presents two hypotheses that explains the presence of the paucal in these languages of the Abbaya and C'amo lakes