Social:Burji language

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Short description: Afro-Asiatic language of Ethiopia
Burji
Bambala
ቡረጊ‎
Native toEthiopia, Kenya
RegionSouth of Lake Chamo
EthnicityBurji people
Native speakers
83,000 (2007 & 2019 censuses)e25
Afro-Asiatic
  • Cushitic
    • Highland East
      • Burji
Geʽez
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3bji
Glottologburj1242[1]

Burji language (alternate names: Bembala, Bambala, Daashi) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Burji people who reside in Ethiopia south of Lake Chamo. There are over 49,000 speakers in Ethiopia, and a further 36,900 speakers in Kenya. Burji belongs to the Highland East Cushitic group of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.[2]

The language has the SOV (subject–object–verb) word order common to the Cushitic family. The verb morphology distinguishes passive and middle grammatical voice, as well as causative. Verbal suffixes mark the person, number, and gender of the subject.

The New Testament was published in the Burji language in 1993. A collection of Burji proverbs, translated into English, French, and Swahili, is available on the Web.[3]

Morphology

Gender

Nouns in Burji are either masculine or feminine. In some cases, the last vowel of the base form indicates the gender of the word. However, three (-a, -aa, -oo) of the five possible final vowels (-a, -aa, -oo, -ee, -i) are ambiguous in terms of gender. The three possible ambiguous final vowels can therefore be either masculine or feminine[4].

The table below provides a summary of the different final vowels.

Final vowel Gender Examples Translation
-i m ber-i year
-ee f gar-ee Calf
-a m

f

k'uww-a lukk-a thorn

leg

-aa m

f

worsh-aa sin'-aa rhinoceros urine
-oo m

f

morj-oo simbaabb-oo thief spider

table adapted from[4] [5]

For nouns ending in one of the ambiguous vowels, gender is indicated by modifiers, such as demonstrative pronouns, which agree in gender with the main noun. Although the grammatical gender of animate nouns tends to agree with the biological gender, this is not always the case. The noun saa 'cow', for example, is grammatically masculine, even if it refers to a female animal - both male and female animals are called saa. The opposite is the case with mirgoo 'ox', which is grammatically feminine [4][5]. There are also nouns that can refer to animals of both genders, although their grammatical gender is fixed. One example is the feminine noun giraaww'ee 'cat' [5][4]. Some nouns have different genders in the singular and plural. This applies to korommi 'cock', which is masculine in the singular but becomes korommee in the plural and thus has a feminine final vowel[4]

Subject Verb agreement

Verbs in Burji (Dhaashatee) agree with their subject nouns in number and person[4].

Number agreement:

The verb suffix -i marks singular subjects, while the verb suffix -a marks plural subjects. For example:

  • Singular: ʔaamáa mar-i ‘the man goes’
  • Plural: ʔaamáa mar-a ‘the men go’

Person agreement:

The verb prefix marks the person of the subject,using different forms for singular and plural subjects. For example:

  • First person singular: n-mar-i ‘I go’
  • First person plural: n-mar-a ‘we go’
  • Second person singular: t-mar-i ‘you go’
  • Second person plural: t-mar-a ‘you go’
  • Third person singular: mar-i ‘he/she/it goes’
  • Third person plural: mar-a ‘they go’ [4]

Adjectives

Adjectives are a type of nominal modifier in Burji (Dhaashatee). They agree with their head noun in gender, number and case. Here are some examples of adjectives in Dhaashatee:

  • ·       k’ee ‘big’ (masculine singular nominative)
  • ·       k’ee-shi ‘big’ (feminine singular nominative)
  • ·       k’ee-nka ‘big’ (masculine singular absolutive)
  • ·       k’ee-nta ‘big’ (feminine singular absolutive)
  • ·       k’ee-ssa ‘big’ (plural nominative)
  • ·       k’ee-sa ‘big’ (plural absolutive)
  • ·       k’oo ‘small’ (masculine singular nominative)
  • ·       k’oo-shi ‘small’ (feminine singular nominative)
  • ·       k’oo-nka ‘small’ (masculine singular absolutive)
  • ·       k’oo-nta ‘small’ (feminine singular absolutive)
  • ·       k’oo-ssa ‘small’ (plural nominative)
  • . k’oo-sa ‘small’ (plural absolutive)[4]

Independent subject Pronouns

Burji (Dhaashatee) has two sets of pronouns: nominative and absolutive.The nominative pronouns are used for the subjects of both transitive and intransitive verbs, while the absolutive pronouns are used for the objects of transitive verbs and for non-verbal predicates.The pronouns are marked for gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural).The pronouns are derived from the demonstratives by adding the suffix -a for the nominative and -ee for the absolutive[4].

[4]The table below shows the pronouns in Burji (Dhaashatee) :

Nominative Absolutive Meaning
ci-a ci-ee this (F.SG)
ki-a ki-ee this (M.SG)
ci-ya ci-yee these (F.PL)
ki-ya ki-yee these (M.PL)
ha-a ha-ee that (F.SG)
ka-a ka-ee that (M.SG)
ha-ya ha-yee those (F.PL)
ka-ya ka-yee those (M.PL)

table adapted from[4]

Negating verb

A verb in Burji (Dhaashatee) can be negated by adding a negative particle before the verb. The choice of the negative particle depends on the tense of the verb. For example:

  • To negate a past tense verb, you use the particle lam and put the verb in the jussive mood. For example: lam taʾkul ‘she did not eat’.
  • To negate a present tense verb, you use the particle lā and put the verb in the imperfect mood. For example: lā taʾkul ‘she does not eat’.
  • To negate a future tense verb, you use the particle lan and put the verb in the subjunctive mood. For example: lan taʾkul ‘she will not eat’[4]

Numerals 1-1000

  • 1. micha
  • 2. lama
  • 3. fadiya
  • 4. foola
  • 5. umutta
  • 6. liya
  • 7. lamala
  • 8. hiditta
  • 9. wonfa
  • 10. tanna
  • 11. Tannaya micha
  • 12. Tannaya lama
  • 13. Tannaya fadiya
  • 14. Tannaya foola
  • 15. Tannaya umutta
  • 16. Tannaya liya
  • 17. Tannaya lamala
  • 18. Tannaya hiditta
  • 19. Tannaya wonfa
  • 20. Lamattann
  • 30. Fadiitann
  • 40. Foolattan
  • 50. Umuttan
  • 60. Liittan
  • 70. Lamalattan
  • 80. Hidittan
  • 90. Wonfattan
  • 100. Ch'ibba.
  • 1,000. Kuma

Syntax

Word order

Dhaashatee is a head-final language, which means that modifiers come before the main noun in the noun phrase. Dependent clauses come before independent clauses, while relative clauses come before the nouns they modify.The basic word order at the sentence-level is SOV, as in other HEC languages.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Burji". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/burj1242. 
  2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named e25
  3. ↑ Angelique Chelo. 2016. A COLLECTION OF 100 BURJI PROVERBS AND WISE SAYINGS. Web Access
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 Voith, Johanna (2020). "The Marked Nominative in Dhaashatee The Language of the Burji in Southern Ethiopia". Research Master of Arts in Linguistics. https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2711077/view. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Tesfaye Baye Assefa. 2015. A Descriptive Grammar of Burji. PhD thesis, preliminary version. Addis Ababa University
  6. ↑ Wedekind, Klaus. 1990. Generating Narratives – Interrelations of Knowledge, Text Variants, and Cushitic Focus Strategies. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

References

  • Amborn, Hermann, and Alexander Kellner. 1999. "Burji Vocabulary of Cultural Items. An Insight into Burji culture. Based on the field notes of Helmut Straube," Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 58: 5-67.
  • Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 1982. An Etymological Dictionary of Burji (Kuschitische Sprachstudien 1). Hamburg: Buske. ISBN:3871185612
  • Sasse, Hans-Jürgen and Helmut Straube. 1977. "Kultur und Sprache der Burji," Süd-Aethiopien: Ein Abriss, Zur Sprachgeschichte und Ethnohistorie in Afrika. Ed. Wilhelm J. G. Moehlig, Franz Rottland and Bernd Heine. Berlin. Pages 239–266.
  • Wedekind, Charlotte. 1985. "Burji verb morphology and morphophonemics," The verb morphophonemics of five highland east Cushitic languages, including Burji. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 2. Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik. Pages 110–145.
  • Wedekind, Klaus. 1980. "Sidamo, Darasa (Gedeo), Burji: phonological differences and likenesses," Journal of Ethiopian Studies 14:131-176.

External links

  • World Atlas of Language Structures information on Burji




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