Ale language

Last updated
Ale
Native to Ethiopia
Region Ale Zone, South Ethiopia Regional State
Native speakers
69,000 (2007 census) [1]
Dialects
  • Gawwada proper
  • Dihina
  • Gergere
  • Gollango
  • Gorose
  • Harso
Ethiopic script, Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3 gwd
Glottolog gaww1239

Ale (also known as Gawwada, Gauwada, Gawata, Kawwad'a, Kawwada) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in southern Ethiopia in the administratively part of the "South Ethiopia Regional State" (SERS). It is part of the Dullay dialect cluster. [2] [3]

Contents

Socio-linguistics

There is no superordinate ethnonym. The name 'Dullay' was established by Amborn, Minker and Sasse (1980) and named after the river of the same name, which is known as Weyt'o in Amharic. This is therefore an exonimous name, but is also officially used in Ethiopia. [4]

Dullay-speaking tribes inhabit an area that stretches from the Gaedulla-Dobase Mountains south of Lake Cam to the highlands of Hanna-Hamar. Historically, the Dullay-speaking people lack an overarching term for themselves, and they do not seem to identify as an ethnic or linguistic group. Occasionally, three terms have been employed in scholarly literature. The first one, introduced by Bender (1971) came from the official Amharic administrativ denominations. for the area at that time. Second is "Qawko" by Hayward (1978) from the term "man" (saw—h-o). And the last, "Dullay" was introduced by Amborn, Linker and Sasse (1980) from the river known in Amharic as Weyt'o, which is one of the most salient features in these area. [3] In addition to that it must be written, that none of those names bears any meaning to the speakers. So all of those denomination are exonimous names. The denomination of "Ale" is a rather young denomination used in English publications and used by the today's administration of Ethiopia.

Within the Dullay dialect cluster the western and the eastern group of dialects can be opposed, the western area with Ts'amakko and the eastern part with Gawwada, which spans the two banks of Weyt'o river. Eastern dialects occupy the highlands to the east and north of Gawwada.

The name Gawwada originally comes from the village of the same name and the surrounding area that gave the language its name. [3] Gawwada and other Dullay variations, apart from Ts'amakko, are spoken in the mountainous regions at an altitude of around 1600–1700 metres. [4]

There are several distinct dialect centres within the Dullay language area. For example, the 'Harso-Dobase'. However, this differs only very slightly and is often treated as a single unit. There is also the Gawwada-Gollango. There are greater differences here than with the Harso-Dobase dialects. Other Ale-Gawwada variations are, for example, Dihina, Gergere, Gobeze or Gorose.

Here is an example of a distinction between two variations:

Harso-DobaseGollango-GawwadaTranslation
pastePukka’teHead
korsesaakankoMeat
kotomanoHouse
Po’-Ran-to fall

There is generally little information about the Dullay-speaking tribes before the end of the 19th century. The most significant historical event in the modern consciousness of the Dullay-speaking Triebes is the conquest of their territory by Menilek the 2nd's troops in 1897/98. Through fighting, deportation and slavery, the population was decimated to such an extent that today only 1/3 of the former population still lives in this area. [3]

According to the 1994 census, there were 32,636 Gawwada speakers, and a total of about 90,000 people speaking Dullay variations in general. [3] The language is not threatened with extinction. [4]

Bilingualism and multilingualism are widespread in the Dullay language area. People often speak Amharic first, which is now the official language in Ethiopia and is spoken and used in official offices etc. Especially after the Second World War a minimum modern administration was established, and it is from these times that intense Gawwada-Amharic constant can be dated. The language contact increase in intensity after the fall of the empire. That is the reason why there is a huge amount of Amharic loans, which is probably in rise, together with literacy and the already mentioned bilingualism, because Amharic is the only language through which people have access to „modern" vocabulary within subjects such as politics, Christianity or technology. It is the language in which education is taught and in which all official organizational processes take place. Loan words from European languages (mostly English or Italian) also find their way into Gawwada through Amharic. This is also the language that is spoken the most in addition to Gawwada. Today the present constitution accords full rights to every community and language of the country: "All Ethiopian languages shall enjoy equal state recognition." Another language often spoken by the people is Konso and other Konsoid variations. In most cases, Dullay variations are not written. [3]

The social structure revolves around clans that practice exogamy. These clans possess distinct abilities related to natural occurrences, plants, and animals. Various clans exhibit diverse powers, such as the ability to control rainfall and enhance cattle multiplication. Some clans specialize in tobacco, while others possess unique powers associated with matters of love or peace. Although clans do not exert economic influence in terms of land or activities, they play a crucial role in regulating marriages and serve as the primary social entity responsible for community reproduction and preservation. Each clan is led by both a political and a religious chief (polo-h-o). [3]

Phonology

Source: [3]

The phonological system consists of 22 consonants and 10 vowels. The consonants include 12 plosives, five fricatives, one affricate, one trill and three approximants. There are also seven alveolar consonants.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Post-alv./
Palatal
Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p t k q ʔ
implosive ɓ ɗ ɠ
ejective tʃʼ
Fricative f s ʃ ʕ h
Nasal m n
Tap ɾ
Lateral l
Approximant w j

Although the words usually end with a vowel, all consonants can occur at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a word.

Allophony

  1. oral, plosives:
    • /p/, a bilabial pulmonic stop, realized as:
      • [p] voiceless bilabial pulmonic stop when geminate (/pː/)
      • [b] (at least partially) voiced bilabial pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced between vowels and in clusters
      • [p̚] devoiced unreleased bilabial pulmonic stop, word-final
      • [β], rarely; voiced bilabial fricative in intervocalic position
    • /t/, an alveolar pulmonic stop realized as:
      • [t] voiceless alveolar pulmonic stop when geminate (/tː/)
      • [d] (at least partially) voiced alveolar pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced between vowels and in clusters;
    • /k/, a velar pulmonic stop, realized as:
      • [k] voiceless velar pulmonic, when geminate (/kː/)
      • [g] (at least partially) voiced velar pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced between vowels ad in clusters;
      • [k̚] devoiced unreleased velar pulmonic stop with early voice onset;
      • [gˤ]voiced velar pharyngealized stop before /i/, both simpleton and geminate
    • /q/, uvular pulmonic stop, realized as:
      • [q] voiceless uvular pulmonic stop, especially when geminate (/qː/)
      • [ɢ] (at least partially) voiced uvular pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced in clusters
      • [q̚] devoiced unreleased uvular pulmonic stop word-finally
      • [ʁ] voiced uvular fricative between vowels
      • [ʔ] rarely, voiceless laryngeal/glottal pulmonic stop between vowels
    • /ʔ/, a voiceless laryngeal/glottal pulmonic stop, realized as lengthening of a preceding vowel when postvocalic, often with accompanying glottalization ([vʔ:]);
  2. glottalic, implosives :
      • [ɓ], a voiced bilabial implosive stop, realized as a glottal-bilabial coarticulation [ʔɓ] when geminate;
    • /ɗ/ a voiced postalveolar implosive stop, realized as:
      • a glottal-alveolar coarticulation [ʔɗ] before vowels other than high fronted /i/ and when geminate
      • postalveolar plain /ɖ/ before a high fronted vowel /i/;
    • /ɠ/ a voiced velar implosive stop, realized as a glottal- velar coarticulation [ʔɠ] when geminate;
  3. glottalic, ejectives:
    • /t'/, an alveolar ejective stop;
    • /k'/ a voiceless velar ejective stop;
  4. 4. affricate
      • The only affricate is also ejective, and its articulation place is either postalveolar or alveolo-palatal;
  5. etc.

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i iːu uː
Mid e eːo oː
Open a aː

Long vowels will be written with the doubling of the corresponding grapheme except in phonetic transcriptions (/aa/, /ee/, /ii/, /oo/, /uu/) and both [a, a:] and [ɐ, ɐ:] will be written. /a, aa/. The phonological value of length is shown by a sizable number of minimal pairs:

aaa
Gap-a‚to seize, catch‘Gaap-a‚to be afraid‘
Harr-e‚door‘Haarr-e‚donkey‘
iii
Sikk-eTrap for big animalssiikk-esugarcane
Tir-e‚liver'Tiir-ethread
ooo
Qot-a‚to dig‘Qoot-a‚To distribute’
qott-o‚type of hoe'qoot-t-o‚share, part‘
uuu
qut’‚to cut with an instrument‘quut'to take a kattle back to the kral in the evening’

Syllable structure

The following table defines all possible syllable structures:

σ = CV(V)(C)

CV/pa.ko/‚mother; language'
CVV/yaa.ye/‚mother‘
CVC/Kol.le/‚river’
CVVC/kuur.ro/‚speckled pigeon‘

The onset of a syllable is therefore always consonantal in Gawwada, while a coda can be represented by (rarely) a single consonant or (more usually) be null.

Morphosyntax

Source: [3]

The Dullay variations are characterised by a very rigid construction of subject-object-verb (SOV).

Puta

hyena_man

ʔuruur-e

wind-F

ʔi=ʔerak-i

INDV=send-PFV.3M

Puta ʔuruur-e ʔi=ʔerak-i

hyena_man wind-F INDV=send-PFV.3M

'The hyena man sent onwards the wind' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

More often the MP Coreferential with the subject clitic is missing.

There are differences in linguistic coding between polar questions and constituent questions, although both types use the same TAM coding. When using yes/no questions, the voice goes up, as in English, for example.

mul-o

all-M

šaah-i

dry-PFV.3M-Q

mul-o šaah-i

all-M dry-PFV.3M-Q

"Did it all dry up?"

With a consonant-final word the lengthening of the final bowl is replaced by =i

ʔizzah=i

three=Q

ʔizzah=i

three=Q

"Three?"

Constituent questions involve a particular element, which is substituted by an interrogative word. The interrogative word may be led by a postposition.

Question words
yaha'who'generic interrogative pronoun for a person
moʔ-o'what'general interrogative pronoun for an object
ʔah-a'where'(genre interrogative pronoun for a place)
par-a'when'
mala'how'
meʔ'how much/many'

moʔ-o

what-M

koɗ-ti︎

do-PFV.2SG

moʔ-o koɗ-ti︎

what-M do-PFV.2SG

What did you do?

Morphology

Source: [3]

Nouns

Numerus

From a morphological perspective, nouns can be inflected according to gender, number or case. If you inflect a word in the Gawwada language, you add a suffix to the word or the word stem changes as a whole. There are different types of nouns: common nouns, proper nouns (names), adjectival nouns, positional nouns and the proniminal head and personal pronouns.

The following suffixes/infixes signal that a noun is in the singular form:

  • -t; -att; -itt; it; -k; -ak; -akk; -h;

The following suffixes/infixes signal that a noun is in the plural form:

  • -aɗɗ; -iɗɗ; -C; -aan; -aaM; ...

Noun

With some exceptions, all nouns are in the singular form, based on the following:

-o: Masculine

-a: Also masculine, but only for a specific type of nouns, often loanwords or kinship terms.

-e: Feminine

-e: Sometimes also the plural marker.

Examples
Final vowlGenderGawwadaEnglish
-oMpaš-o‚field‘
-eFʔamayl-e‚handle of a cup‘
-ePLMinn-e‚house‘
-aMʔapiy-a‚mothers brother‘
Numerus

From a morphological perspective, nouns can be inflected according to gender, number or case. If you inflect a word in the Gawwada language, you add a suffix to the word or the word stem changes as a whole. There are different types of nouns: common nouns, proper nouns (names), adjectival nouns, positional nouns and the proniminal head and personal pronouns.

The following suffixes/infixes signal that a noun is in the singular form:

  • -t; -att; -itt; it; -k; -ak; -akk; -h;

The following suffixes/infixes signal that a noun is in the plural form:

  • -aɗɗ; -iɗɗ; -C; -aan; -aaM; ...
SING-Mpolis-itt-o'apoliceman
Polis-ePL,police'SING-Fpolis-its-e,policewoman'
PLURAL-PLpolis-aɗɗ-e‚Many police‘

In the case of countable animates where gender holds little cultural significance, linguistic expression does not convey natural gender. Many of these nouns lack a morphological plural form and, instead, utilize a fixed singulative:

  • ʔoršɑʕ-t-o (sing-M): 'rhinoceros‘

Verbs

In Gawwada, verbs are inflected for person, number, gender, aspect and mood:

There are 3 persons in the singular and plural. In the inflection, the endings for the person, gender and number are then combined. Accordingly, the subject of the sentences can be singular or plural in number, feminine or natural in gender.

Verbs in Gawwada can be described according to four different states. The first are "situations", in which the verbs assume a static, non-dynamic form. They can also be differentiated according to "events", "processes" and "actions".

Verbs can be differentiated between Unbounded und Bounded

  • Bounded: Events, and Processes
  • Unbounded: Situations and actions

The negation is done by the negativ Selektor „ye“.

Auch in Gawwada können Verben nach Tense, Aspect, Mood und Modality unterschieden werden. Außerdem gibt es in Gawwada die Unterscheidung der Verben in zwei Klassen. Klasse 1 und Klasse 2. Klasse 1 Verben sind  Verben, die auf einen singel-consonant enden.

Adjectives

For adjectives, there is no clear-cut definition. However, they can be described as modifiers of a noun or as pronominal headings for attributives or predicates. Adjectives exhibit non-inherent gender, yet they are connected to nouns with genders. Adjectives cannot function alone within a sentence or as the head of the sentence. They also lack tense, aspect, or mood morphology but refer to the noun.

Numbers

In the numerical system, numbers function similarly to numerals and modifiers, with "one" being the exception. When it comes to the tens, the base numeral is "ten," which is then expanded by an intermediary element (=pa) and the digit that completes the number.

base numeral+10 (hudda=pa) × 10 (hudan-k-o-)
1toʔon11hudda=pa toʔon10huddan
2lakki12hudda=pa lakki20hudan-k-o-lakki
3ʔizzah13hudda=pa ʔizzah30hudan-k-o-ʔizzah
4salah14hudda=pa salah40hudan-k-o-salah
5hupin15hudda=pa hupin50hudan-k-o-hupin
6tappi16hudda=pa tappi60hudan-k-o-tappi
7tahhan17hudda=pa tahhan70hudan-k-o-tahhan
8setten18hudda=pa setten80hudan-k-o-setten
9kollan19hudda=pa kollan90hudan-k-o-kollan
10huddan20hudan-k-o-lakki100dippa

Related Research Articles

In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or in other words, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term allomorph describes the realization of phonological variations for a specific morpheme. The different allomorphs that a morpheme can become are governed by morphophonemic rules. These phonological rules determine what phonetic form, or specific pronunciation, a morpheme will take based on the phonological or morphological context in which it appears.

Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the tut-tut or tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the clip-clop! sound children make with their tongue to imitate a horse trotting. However, these paralinguistic sounds in English are not full click consonants, as they only involve the front of the tongue, without the release of the back of the tongue that is required for clicks to combine with vowels and form syllables.

The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech. Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures. Generally, articulatory phonetics is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energy into acoustic energy. Aerodynamic energy refers to the airflow through the vocal tract. Its potential form is air pressure; its kinetic form is the actual dynamic airflow. Acoustic energy is variation in the air pressure that can be represented as sound waves, which are then perceived by the human auditory system as sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tigrinya language</span> Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea

Tigrinya is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken in Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples respectively. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharyngealization</span> Articulation of consonants or vowels

Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.

In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.

In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for most sound production and constitutes the first part of this process, which is called initiation.

In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the active articulator and passive articulator. Standard Spanish ⟨rr⟩ as in perro, for example, is an alveolar trill.

Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can be modified by phonation. Contrastive implosives are found in approximately 13% of the world's languages.

The phonology of the Persian language varies between regional dialects, standard varieties, and even from older varieties of Persian. Persian is a pluricentric language and countries that have Persian as an official language have separate standard varieties, namely: Standard Dari (Afghanistan), Standard Iranian Persian (Iran) and Standard Tajik (Tajikistan). The most significant differences between standard varieties of Persian are their vowel systems. Standard varieties of Persian have anywhere from 6 to 8 vowel distinctions, and similar vowels may be pronounced differently between standards. However, there are not many notable differences when comparing consonants, as all standard varieties have a similar number of consonant sounds. Though, colloquial varieties generally have more differences than their standard counterparts. Most dialects feature contrastive stress and syllable-final consonant clusters. Linguists tend to focus on Iranian Persian, so this article may contain less adequate information regarding other varieties.

Sikkimese is a language of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Bhutia people in Sikkim in northeast India, parts of Koshi province in eastern Nepal, and Bhutan. It is one of the official languages of Sikkim.

The Awngi language, in older publications also called Awiya, is a endangered indigenous Central Cushitic language spoken by the Awi people, traditionally living in Central Gojjam in northwestern Ethiopia.

Baiso or Bayso is a Lowland East Cushitic language belonging to the Omo–Tana subgroup, and is spoken in Ethiopia, in the region around Lake Abaya.

Garre is a Somali language spoken by the Garre who reside in southern Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya. It belongs to the family's Cushitic branch, and had an estimated 50,000 speakers in Somalia in 1992, 57,500 in 2006 and 86,000 in 2020. The total number of speakers in Kenya and Somalia was estimated at 685,600 in 2019. Garre is in the Digil classification of Somali dialects. Garre language is readily intelligible to Digil speakers, as it has some affinity with Af-Maay and Af-Boon.

This article is about the sound system of the Navajo language. The phonology of Navajo is intimately connected to its morphology. For example, the entire range of contrastive consonants is found only at the beginning of word stems. In stem-final position and in prefixes, the number of contrasts is drastically reduced. Similarly, vowel contrasts found outside of the stem are significantly neutralized. For details about the morphology of Navajo, see Navajo grammar.

Ejective-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-glottalic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ejective sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click types have linguo-glottalic variants, which occur as both stops and affricates, and may be voiced. At least a voiceless linguo-glottalic affricate is attested from all Khoisan languages of southern Africa, as well as from the Bantu language Yeyi from the same area, but they are unattested elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ute dialect</span> Colorado River Numic dialect used in the US

Ute is a dialect of the Colorado River Numic language, spoken by the Ute people. Speakers primarily live on three reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah, Southern Ute in southwestern Colorado, and Ute Mountain in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. Ute is part of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Other dialects in this dialect chain are Chemehuevi and Southern Paiute. As of 2010, there were 1,640 speakers combined of all three dialects Colorado River Numic. Ute's parent language, Colorado River Numic, is classified as a threatened language, although there are tribally-sponsored language revitalization programs for the dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linguistic areas of the Americas</span>

The indigenous languages of the Americas form various linguistic areas or Sprachbunds that share various common (areal) traits. The following list of linguistic areas is primarily based on Campbell.

References

  1. Ale at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tosco, Mauro (2021). A Grammar of Gawwada. A Cushitic Language of South-West Ethiopia.
  4. 1 2 3 Tosco, Mauro. "The grammar of space of Gawwada". Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of African Linguistics: 17–21.