The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia

NERA

3. Noun Complex

Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, demonstratives, postposi-
tions? with plurals and cases; and combinations of these.

3*^ Nouns may have any word shape. Singular has no indi-
cator.

3*1-1 Plural . Suffixes -ta, - tta , -ka , -a or "double last
consonant and add ^. " (These plural suffTxes are also used
for adjectives, pronouns and verb plural objects) . The
choice of plural marker is lexically determined.

Singular Plural Singular Plural

no "eye" no-ta asma "heart" asim-ta

Tar a "horse" fara-tta wa:gi "place" wa:gi-tta

deregam "lion" deregam-ka sayif "sword" sayif-ka

wal "house" wal-la sa:bi "slave" sa;b-ba

tus "ear" tus-a sabi "hair" sab-a

With nxambers greater than one, the plural is used.

®'9*' ti: dokko "boy one" ("one" follows its noun)

axi ta:da "two boys" ( ta;da is an irregular plural)

3.1.2 Cases . Subject is marked with -nu, -n (not always
used) .

"Motion towards" uses -o, -go , -do , -dogo , -to , also marking
direct and indirect obj¥cts and place at which: "to, into,
out, in, on, towards".

"Motion from": ^i' ZSi' "^igi / -ti , meaning "from, by
means of, out of, at, on, because of" and also marks com-
parison.

Genitive: -ga , - (a)mma "of, belonging to".

The forms of these in each group seem to be freely in-
terchangeable, e.g. kita-go/kit-o alto path-on he-went

da-gi/da-i/d-e wo to village-from he-came

3.2 Adjectives . These are also the nouns of agent ("be-er"
or "do-er") and are derived from verbs (see 4.2 and 4.5
below) . E. g*;

"Do-er" ay-ku , "do-er", "one who does" (habitual or future)

ay- ' dokku , "one who is doing" (present or continuous)
ay-'tokku , "one who did" (past or completed)

The latter two are the same for singular and plural.

"Be-er", dub-ku , "big person or thing", lok-ku , "near
person or thingl (vowel -final) : murga-gu "old (person) "
di:-gu "he who has".

These naturally become Adjectives.-^ ?4

485

4-2.1 Verbs with root-final consonant
Future/Habitual : Indicative Question Subordinate

1 sg. ag ay-e "I do, ay-ey "Do I ay-ek "I.,

make" do, make?" making"

2 sg. * iQoa ay-en ay-a ay-ao

3 sg. teb ay-u ay"^ ay~io
pi . agga ay-ag ay-aga ay-ak

2 pi. io'oa ay-egen ay-ega ay-ok

3 pi. tiba ay-i ay-iya/ay-iy ay-o^

Present/Continuous : Root plus -d- /v -ind plus same person
suffixes as Future/Habitual ,

1 sg. ag ay-de "I am ay-d-ey ay-d-ek

doing"
etc.

Past/Completed : Sing, root plus -t- /V -it plus person
suffixes; plural omits -t-.

1 sg. ag ay-t-e "I did, ay-t-ey (Did ay-t-ek "which

made" I do, make?" I did," etc.

2 sg. ' iOQs ay-t-en ay-t-a ay-t-ao

3 sg. teb ay-t-o ay-t-^ ay-t-i

1 pi . agga ay-ago/ay-ogo ay-akka ay-t-ak*

2 pi, ir)*Qa ay-ogon ay-oga ay-t-ok*

3 pi. tiba ay-ko ay-ka ay-to-oo*

*Need verifying

Notice prevalence of -£-/-k- with -o- in plural

Assimilations occur with verb roots ending in -n-,
-£, -S^, -1, cind -d, e.g. masso < * man-to , "he said"^
nassQ < * nas-to , "he rose^'j el So < * els-to , "he pulled,
dragged itTJ nullo < * nul-to "he entered "j katto <
* kad-to , "he cut". These assimilations are not required
in the plural, e.g., manage "we said". In the present/
continuous, -t- assimilates to -d-, e.g. laddu < * lat-du ,
"he sees." " ~

4.2.2 Verbs with root-final vowels . In the future/habi-
tual, the final vowel is elided, e.g. alii , "gol",
all-e , "I go," etc. In the present/continuous , the vowel
is elided before - ind- , e.g. all-ind-e , "I am going,"
etc. In the past/completed, several cases can be distin-
guished:

489

NERA

(1) Single consonemt, l-a(g) , "drinkl", l-i;t-e , "I drank,"
etc.

(2) Doubled consonant of form * (C)VCiCiV, e.g. alii , "gol",
'al-t-e , "I went," etc.

(3) Otherwise, e.g. tudne , "want itl", tudn-it-e , "I wanted
it," etc. Plurals are as usual, e.g. all -ago , all-agon ,
all-igo ; l-a;go , l-o;gon , l-i;go .

Note that plural objects have final vowels, e.g. ter^ta ,
"hit theml", requiring elisions. Thus, future /habitual
ter-t-e , "I (will) hit them", present/continuous ter-t-ind-e ,
"I cun hitting them", past/completed, ter-t-it-e , "I have
hit them," ter-t-a:go , "we have hit them . " Similarly, inin-
ka, "put them in 1 ", future/habitual inin-k-e , "I (will)
put them in . "

Verbs constructed with -ayto also have contractions
and elisions, e.g. future/habitual:

wal-aye > wale: /wale "I (will) speak."

wal-ayen > wale:n/walen "you (will speak."

wal-ayu > walaw/waleS* "he, she, it (will) speak."

wal-ayag > wala:g/walag "we (will) speak."
wal-ayegen > walaygen/

wale:gen/walegen "you (will) speak. "

wal-ayi > walayi/walay "they (will) speak."

*For "5i see 4.5 below.

Present/continuous, no changes, e.g. wal-ay-de , "I am
speaking . "

Past/completed, no changes in singular, wal-ay-te , "I spoke".

Plural, wal-avaqo > wal-a;go , > wal-ayogon > waloigon ,
wal-ayko > walakkoT

Plural objects: ay-ka becomes - akka (see 4.1 above).
E.g. katab-nay-ke > katabnakke , "I fwill) write them",
katabnakkigo , "They wrote them".

4.3 Irregular Verbs are few, mostly n- final. One example
is iSu^ " come ! " , wonu "he comes", won5^u "he is coming", wo to
"he ceune". These tend also to use -§iT e.g. wo§i instead
of wonu.

4.4 Compound verbs . Examples; fipn-oto ( < fino-woto ) , he
returned, came" ; rassar-nay-nisso , ^he explained - did -
gave them"; manas^illindokku , "not-rise-able-who-is" (i.e.
paralyzed) .

Notice that - ayto verbs are really compounds. Also ni; to
/nisso "he gave" , is commonly used in forming compouncl
verbs. This touches on the topic of verbs in sequence (see
5.2.1 below) .

490

Monograph No. 5
Occasional Papers Series
Committee on Ethiopian Studies

ThelNon-Semitic

Languages of EthiopiaJ

Edited by M. Lionel Bender

Acting Series Editor, John Hinnant

^ .ase send two copies of your review to
the African Stud.'es Center, MbU, t.
Lansing, Mi. 48824 ^^^■"■

Copyright © 1976 by the Board of Trustees, Michigan State University

Ail rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-42008

Printed in the United States of America

Published by the
African Studies Center
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48824

in cooperation with
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, Illinois