This repository contains the visual stimuli used for the elicitation of ethnozoological data and the documentation of East African pastoralists' TEK. The stimuli have been developed within the... Show moreThis repository contains the visual stimuli used for the elicitation of ethnozoological data and the documentation of East African pastoralists' TEK. The stimuli have been developed within the framework of a NWO funded project on 'Cattle-Talk: the language of colour among East African pastoralists' (project number VI.Veni.191T.026). The stimuli can be adapted to other animal classification systems and they can be used in experimental settings or in semi-structured interviews. For more information see Petrollino 2022. Show less
This book celebrates Maarten Mous, professor of African Linguistics at Leiden University. For many people engaged in the field of African linguistics (and beyond), Maarten has been a teacher, an... Show moreThis book celebrates Maarten Mous, professor of African Linguistics at Leiden University. For many people engaged in the field of African linguistics (and beyond), Maarten has been a teacher, an engaged colleague, and an inspiration. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, the present volume offers essays written by his former and current PhD students. The volume is divided into four sections: Language in use and contact, Morphosyntax, Number and numerals, and Phonology. It contains 25 articles and presents a variety of disciplinary and regional approaches to African linguistics. Show less
This paper analyzes predicative constructions expressing location, existence and possession in Hamar, a South Omotic language spoken in South-West Ethiopia. The semantic domain location-existence... Show moreThis paper analyzes predicative constructions expressing location, existence and possession in Hamar, a South Omotic language spoken in South-West Ethiopia. The semantic domain location-existence-possession is conveyed in Hamar by one and the same lexeme, but in different constructions. The distinction between location and existence in particular is expressed by variation in the syntax and information structure, reflecting the different conceptualization and perspectivization of the abstract relation between a figure and a ground. The semantic and syntactic properties of these constructions are analyzed and compared to the findings of Creissels’ typology of “inverse locational predication” (2013) and Koch’s constructional typology (2012). The analysis of existential predication in Hamar confirms that there is a contrast between the languages of the Sudanic belt and those of North Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa (Creissels 2018a; 2019), and it suggests that Hamar, like other Afro-Asiatic languages (Koch 2012:585), belongs to languages which do not express informational salience, nor propositional salience. A closer look however reveals that Hamar existential constructions display special morpho-syntactic features: the different conceptualization of the figure-ground relationship is encoded not only by means of word order alternations, but also by means of gender marking on the figure and the ground, and different aspectual marking on the predicator. Show less
This paper provides a preliminary description of the word-prosodic system of Hamar, a South Omotic language spoken in South West Ethiopia. The prosodic system of Hamar shows properties of both... Show moreThis paper provides a preliminary description of the word-prosodic system of Hamar, a South Omotic language spoken in South West Ethiopia. The prosodic system of Hamar shows properties of both stress accent and tone: accent is lexically contrastive in nouns, but not in verbs, where it has a grammatical function. Post-lexical tonal oppositions arise when lexical accent and grammatical accent interact in both nouns and verbs. The prosodic behaviour of Hamar nouns and verbs is in line with the pattern proposed by Smith (2011), whereby nouns are higher than verbs in a hierarchy of phonological privilege. Show less
This study is the first-ever attempt at a comprehensive grammatical description of Hamar, a language spoken in South West Ethiopia by approximately 46.500 people. The study is based on 9... Show moreThis study is the first-ever attempt at a comprehensive grammatical description of Hamar, a language spoken in South West Ethiopia by approximately 46.500 people. The study is based on 9 months of fieldwork carried out between 2012 and 2014 in Hamar territories. Language data was gathered from 14 native speakers in Hamar villages, and it amounts to 50 texts of varying lengths and genres. The grammar investigates the phonology, the morphology, the syntax and some pragmatic and discourse related features of Hamar and it is organized in 13 chapters followed by three appendices: appendix A and B consist of a selected lexicon of circa 1400 entries, appendix C includes three annotated Hamar texts. Hamar is a fascinating language and it has revealed unique typological features: the noun classification system of Hamar for instance is a rare example of ʻnon-fixedʼ gender system, i.e. a system in which gender is not an inherent property of nouns, but optional. The grammar is of interests to typologists but also to linguists interested in comparative Afro-Asiatic studies: the grammar offers an overview of the classificatory issue of Hamar and South Omotic languages, and it includes an updated comparative list of South Omotic lexicon. Show less
