It has long been recognized that the Semitic suffix conjugation and the Berber adjectival perfective suffix conjugation have striking similarities in their morphology, which has been correctly... Show moreIt has long been recognized that the Semitic suffix conjugation and the Berber adjectival perfective suffix conjugation have striking similarities in their morphology, which has been correctly attributed to be the result of a shared inheritance from Proto-Afro-Asiatic. Nevertheless, the function of these conjugations in the respective language families is quite distinct. This article argues that ultimately this suffix conjugation is a predicative suffix in the common ancestor of Berber and Semitic, and moreover shows that Semitic and Berber have significant overlap in the stem formations of adjectives. It is argued that these formations must likewise be reconstructed for their common ancestor. Show less
Though formal linguistics may seem far removed from projects of decolonization, the materials with which linguists work are often rich with insights into other ways of knowing, other ways of living... Show moreThough formal linguistics may seem far removed from projects of decolonization, the materials with which linguists work are often rich with insights into other ways of knowing, other ways of living, and, for the purposes of this volume, other ways of navigating colonial power. Pakani, a story gathered within a larger project to understand the grammar of the Gorwaa language, is a vivid account of how the Gorwaa people responded to a mandatory military training programme in which every able-bodied young man was to be sent far away from the traditional homeland and incorporated into a national fighting force. For a descriptive linguist, Pakani is a useful source of grammatical structures. For a reader interested in learning about how one group of people engaged with the sweeping changes brought about by European colonization of East Africa, Pakani represents one of the few Gorwaa accounts available in English. This paper presents 134 lines of the Pakani story, transcribed, translated into English, along with a linguistic gloss of the words. Additionally, each line of text given may be resolved back to its original utterance in an open access audiovisual record available online through the Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS. Show less
Many languages are said to possess “gender”, that is, a morphosyntactic system in which nouns induce formal marking on other words beyond the noun itself (adjectives, verbs, etc.). Gorwaa (gow;... Show moreMany languages are said to possess “gender”, that is, a morphosyntactic system in which nouns induce formal marking on other words beyond the noun itself (adjectives, verbs, etc.). Gorwaa (gow; South-Cushitic; Tanzania) possesses a gender system which is interrelated with number in a complex manner. Following the line of reasoning that biological (semantic) sex, grammatical (syntactic) gender, and (morphological) form-class are “interrelated but autonomous domains of linguistic generalization” set out in Harris’(1991) examination of Spanish, and establishing that number and gender are interrelated in a complex manner, this paper considers the morphophonological word-markers of Gorwaa, a language whose nominal morphology is considerably different from that of Spanish. Following a discussion of gender and number in Gorwaa, all word-markers and their associated gender and number values are identified. In addition to being a useful exercise in arranging the empirical data, this paper sheds light on some surprising surface patterns of a little-studied language. 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
