Máakuti t’awá shuultáa: Proverbs Finish the Problems: Sayings of the Alaaba (Ethiopia). Ed. Gertrud Schneider-Blum. (Verbal Art and Documentary Literature in African Languages, 28.) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. 2009. Pp. 102

Unseth, Peter

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            PETER UNSETHMáakuti t’awá shuultáa: Proverbs Finish the Problems: Sayingsof the Alaaba (Ethiopia). Ed. Gertrud Schneider-Blum. (VerbalArt and Documentary Literature in African Languages, 28.)Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. 2009. Pp. 102.Though Ethiopia is rich in proverbs, even proverbs aboutproverbs (e.g. “A conversation without proverbs is like stewwithout salt” in Oromo), it is amazing how few Ethiopian lan-guages have had their proverbs collected and published. Book-sized collections of proverbs are only available for less than 10of Ethiopia’s +80 languages. This one is a welcome addition,especially since it is from a lesser-known community.The Alaaba community of Ethiopia was little-known untilGertrud Schneider-Blum wrote her grammar of the language(2007). The Alaaba are approximately 200,000 people living insouth central Ethiopia, speaking a Highland East Cushitic lan-guage that is most closely related to Kambaata. Schneider-Blumm (S-B) edited this collection of 418 Alaaba proverbs, mostcollected by Shukuralla Mohammed, a local leader who had beencollecting Alaaba proverbs before she arrived. The proverbs are listed in alphabetical order. Each proverb isgiven in Alaaba (in a phonemic transcription), then a word-by-word translation, with the suffixes identified. This is followed bya literal translation of the proverb in sentence form, often ex-plaining idioms, e.g. “enthusiastically (lit. with the stomach)”. This is followed by an explanation, such as “Be careful whenchoosing friends.” This sometimes also has a note about usage,e.g. “Said to somebody who should show more respect.” In addi-tion, there are sometimes cross-references to other proverbs withsimilar meanings or forms. In these ways, S-B’s book is far su-perior to most published collections of proverbs, which are fartoo often simply translated lists, sometimes without even trans-lating the literal form of the proverb.PROVERBIUM 30 (2013)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         460 PETER UNSETHListing proverbs in simple alphabetical order works well in alanguage like Alaaba that seems to have no prefixes. In this way, all the proverbs that begin with a particular word, e.g. “donkey”,all appear together (nos. 203-213). S-B cites the proverbs in aphonemic form, but then carefully gives a breakdown of affixes,showing the underlying forms of roots and suffixes. For examplethe root of ‘be better’ is k’oh-, and when it is followed by thesuffix -táa, the pronounced surface form is k’okkáa. This sort ofmorphophonemic complexity is familiar to those studying EastCushitic languages, but is fascinating for other readers with alinguistic bent. Also, she points out a linguistic complexity that readers would otherwise miss: some verbs given in the perfectform must be interpreted as imperfect in English, e.g. “the onewho stands (lit. stood) beside the donkey”. Those who want tomine this book for linguistic data will find much fascination.The topics of the proverbs are generally familiar. They sup-port loyalty to family, fulfilling one’s responsibilities, coping with difficulties, avoiding of extremes, etc. As is so often thecase, we find some proverbs offering contradictory advice, eachproverb to be used in the appropriate situation.The proverbs were gathered by a community insider, butsometimes leave outsiders wondering “What exactly is a prov-erb?” Most of these are instantly classifiable as proverbs, butsome are labeled as a “blessing”; are these truly proverbs? Theinsider’s judgment is authoritative.Because Alaaba has extensive suffixing, rather than prefix-ing, rhyme at the ends of words is generally the result of gram-mar, not poetic artistry. Instead, the anonymous poets who creat-ed these proverbs artistically used word initial alliteration of bothsingle consonants and entire syllables (or more). One commonpattern is to do this with two adjoining words, usually the firstand second words of a proverb: “toomá torréeni...” (p. 85). An-other frequent pattern is to do this with the first words of the twohalves of a couplet: “moggú... moogú...” (p. 75).About 10% of the proverbs contain wellerisms. For example,“‘Cook me with the hump!’ said the intestines.” Such construc-tions have been well documented in European languages, andalso in West Africa (Dundes 1964), but this book gives ample evidence of it in Alaaba. Noting examples of wellerisms also in                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               461SAYINGS OF THE ALAABA (ETHIOPIA)Amharic, Oromo, and Kambaata, Harari it is clear that they arecommon in Ethiopia, as well.The translations are generally good, but one word needs cor-rection: samaag ‘wildcat’ (found in several proverbs) should be‘leopard’.It is not surprising to find here proverbs that are known inother Ethiopian languages, such as “Of mothers and water, thereis none evil”, also found in both Amharic and Oromo. However,it is fascinating to find one that is also found far away: “The she-dog [bitch], because she is in an extreme hurry gives birth to blind (ones).” (The same basic proverb is found in adjoining Guji Oromo, but recast as a wellerism.) What is jolting is thatthis proverb is attested in ancient Greek and Akkadian texts, where Moran gives it as “The bitch by her acting too hastilybrought forth the blind” (1978:18). Alster (1979:5) classified thisproverb as having “a longer history than any other recordedproverb in the world”, going back to “around 1800 BC”. It musthave been valued in its form and commonly used to be preserved so unchanged.This collection of proverbs is valuable as documentation ofAlaaba culture and language, but also as a stimulus to otherscholars to collect and publish proverbs in the proverb-rich lan-guages of Ethiopia.ReferencesAlster, Bendt. 1979. An Akkadian and a Greek Proverb. A Comparative Study.Die Welt des Orients 10:1-5.Dundes, Alan. 1964. Some Yoruba Wellerisms, Dialogue Proverbs, andTongue-Twisters. Folklore 75.2: 113-120.Moran, William L. 1978. An Assyriological Gloss on the New ArchilochusFragment. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 82: 17-19.Schneider-Blum, Gertrud. 2007. A Grammar of Alaaba, A Highland EastCushitic Language of Ethiopia. (Cushitic Language Studies, 25.) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Peter UnsethGraduate Institute of Applied Linguistics7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd.Dallas, Texas 75236USAE-mail: pete_unseth@gial.edu

Gertrud Schneider-Blum, ed. Máakuti t’awá shuultáa: Proverbs Finish the Problems: Sayings of the Alaaba (Ethiopia). (Köln 2009) – (Peter Unseth)

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