Share to: share facebook share twitter share wa share telegram print page

 

Bambassi language

Bambassi
Mawes Aasse
Native toEthiopia
Regionin Benishangul-Gumuz Region, east of Asosa
Native speakers
2,300 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3myf
Glottologbamb1262
ELPMao of Bambeshi

Bambassi (native name: Màwés Aasʼè[2]) is an Omotic Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia around the towns of Bambasi and Didessa in the area east of Asosa in Benishangul-Gumuz Region.[3] The parent language group is the East Mao group. Alternative names for the language are Bambeshi, Siggoyo, Amam, Fadiro, Northern Mao, Didessa and Kere.

The most current information on the number of Bambassi speakers is not known, as the 2007 census grouped the Mao languages together, despite low lexical similarity. 33,683 mother tongue speakers of Maogna (covering Bambassi, Hozo and Seze) were listed.[4]


Similarities

Bambassi has a 31% lexical similarity with other Omotic languages.

Phonology

Bambassi has 5 vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/. The vowels have lengthened forms, and Bambassi has contrastive vowel length.[5]

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t k
voiced b d g
ejective
Affricate t͡sʼ (t͡ʃ)
Fricative voiceless s ʃ h
voiced z
Nasal m n ŋ
Approximant l j w
Flap ɾ

Orthography

Vowels and tones

  • a - [a]
  • aa - [aː]
  • e - [e]
  • ee - [eː]
  • i - [i]
  • ii - [iː]
  • o - [o]
  • oo - [oː]
  • u - [u]
  • uu - [uː]
  • á - high tone
  • a - middle tone
  • à - low tone

Consonants

  • b - [b]
  • c' - [t͡s']
  • ch - [t͡ʃ]
  • d - [d]
  • g - [g]
  • h - [h]
  • k - [k]
  • k' - [k']
  • l - [l]
  • m - [m]
  • n - [n]
  • ng - [ŋ]
  • p - [p/f/ɸ]
  • p' - [p']
  • r - [ɾ]
  • s - [s]
  • sh - [ʃ]
  • t - [t]
  • t' - [t']
  • w - [w]
  • y - [j]
  • z - [z]

[6]

Morphology

This section gives information about different word types in the Bambassi language and how they relate to each other. It splits up in nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and numbers and will give information about tense, aspect and mood.

Nouns

Nouns in Northern Mao can be marked as singular, plural or dual. Dual and plural number are marked with specific suffixes, dual /-kuw/ and plural /-(w)ol/ (-> segmental morphology). In the singular number nouns have a zero morpheme. Nouns also usually agree with their quantifiers, e.g. numerals. In the citation form nouns, pronouns, demonstratives and verbal infinitives end with the vowel /-e/.

Example:

Singular Dual Plural
es-ìʃ es-kuw-iʃ es-ol-iʃ
person-SBJ person-DU-SBJ person-PL-SBJ
a person two people people

[7]

Adjectives

A separate word class of adjectives in Northern Mao hasn't yet been identified. The speakers use nominalizations, verbs or deverbal nouns to modify nouns. As in other African languages, the Bambassi language only has separate words for four basic colors which are expressed as verbs: black, white, red and blue. Other colors are expressed as metaphors and nominal constructions.

This is also the case to express dimension or value. We have verbs like 'be old', 'be small', 'be big', 'be good' and 'be bad'. They are always combined with a relative or associative construction.

Example:

tí-ŋ paːlt’-nà ha-nok-á

1SG-GEN girl-OBJ AFF-be.good-DECL

‘My girl (daughter) is good.’ [8]

Pronouns

Northern Mao knows personal, possessive and interrogative pronouns.

Personal pronouns:

The following table shows an overview of the personal pronouns in Northern Mao each in the citation form with the terminal vowel /-e/, the subject, object case and genitive case.

Citation form Subject Case Object Case Genitive Case
1 SG
  1. tí-jé
tí-ʃ tí-ná tí-ŋ
2 SG
  1. hì-jè
hì-ʃ hì-nà hì-ŋ
3 SG
  1. íʃ-è
íʃ-ìʃ, í-té íʃ-nà íʃ-ìŋ
1 DU
  1. han-é
han-íʃ hán-ná han-íŋ
2 DU
  1. háw-é
háw-íʃ háw-ná háw-ìŋ
3 DU
  1. íʃkuw-e
íʃkuw-iʃ íʃkuw-na íʃkuw-ìŋ
1 PL
  1. hambèl-è
hambèl-ìʃ, ham-té hambèl-là, ham-tá hambèl-ìŋ
2 PL
  1. hàwèl-è
hàwèl-ìʃ, hàw-té hàwèl-là, hàw-tá hàwèl-ìŋ
3 PL
  1. íʃkol-è
íʃkol-ìʃ, íʃkol-té íʃkol-là, íʃkol-tá íʃkol-ìŋ

[9]

Possessive pronouns

Person Singular Dual Plural
First /tí/ /han/ /íʃ/
Second /hì/ /háw/ /íʃkuw/
Third /íʃ/ /hàw/ /íʃkol/

[10]

Interrogative pronouns

citation form

with terminal vowel

subject case object case genitive case comitative/instrumental
human kí-jé 'who' kí-ʃ 'who' kí-ná 'whom' kí-ŋ 'whose' kí-ján 'with whom'
non-human kó-jé 'what' kó-ʃ 'what' kó-ná 'what' kó-ŋ 'what's' kó-wán 'with what'

[11]

Adverbs

Màwés Aasʼè has adverbs of time, manner and location. They can modify clauses or verbs. Some of them are listed in the following:

hóllá - 'now'

kwalla - 'yesterday'

háʦʼà - 'tomorrow'

wó - 'like this'

pàtʼwáne - 'again'

hòʃkján - 'only'

zèːpʼés - 'together'

ʃené - 'before'

bekʼà - 'end' [12]

Postposition

Northern Mao knows two different types of postposition, the location/source and the instrument/comitative postposition. To express location or source you use the postposition /-et(a)/, for instrument or comitative the postposition /-an/.

Example:

(1) tí-ŋ ↓kjat’-èt háːl-↓á

1SG-GEN house-LOC sleep-DECL

‘S/he slept at my house.’

(2) bàmbàs-ét ha-tí-kí-↓á

Bambassi-SOURCE AFF-1SG-come-DECL

‘I came from Bambassi.’

(3) kús-án ha-mí-↓á

hand-INS AFF-eat-DECL

‘S/he ate by hand.’

(4) rám-àn sùk’-ná ha-tí-hów-j-↓á

Rama-COM store-OBJ AFF-1SG-go-AWAY-DECL

‘I went to the store with Rama.’

[13]

Verbs

[edit]

In the Bambassi language we find three oppositions affecting the structure of verb forms, namely the infinitive and the finite verb forms, the realis and irrealis forms and final and non-final forms.

Starting with the irrealis and realis verb forms, the following table summarizes the most important aspects:

Realis Irrealis
subject prefixes subject suffixes
affirmative polarity negative polarity, future tense
lots of aspectual distinctions not many aspectual distinctions
nine aspectual categories clear aspectual distinction only perfect combined with future tense

The nine aspectual categories on realis verbs are: a perfect with /-ti/, a perfect with /-kòt'/, a past habitual with /-òw/, a non past-habitual formed by reduplication and auxiliary, a progressive present, a progressive past, a completive aspect, a durative and an iterative/continuative.

Numbers

Northern Mao number system is a 10-base-system. Numbers 11-19 are formed from parts of kú:sé "hand" and túget "foot".

1 hiʃkì 6 kja:nsè
2 numbo 7 kúlùmbo
3 te:zè 8 kute:zé
4 meʦ'e 9 kúsméʦ'é
5 k'wíssí 10 kú:sú

[14]

11 kú:s-g-ét-iʃkì 16 kú:s-g-ét-kja:nsè
12 kú:s-g-ét-numbo 17 kú:s-g-ét-kúlùmbo
13 kú:s-g-ét-te:zè 18 kú:s-g-ét-kúre:zé
14 kú:s-g-ét-meʦ'e 19 kú:s-g-ét-kúsméʦ'è
15 kú:s-g-ét-k'wíssí 20 numbo-ku:se
10 kú:sú 60 kja:nsè-ku:se
20 numbo-ku:se 70 kúlùmbò-ku:se
30 te:zè-ku:se 80 kúre:zé-ku:se
40 meʦ'e-ku:se 90 kúsméʦ'è-ku:se
50 k'wíssí-ku:se 100 kú:s-ku:se

200 numbo-ku:s-an kú:s-án [15]

Morphosyntaxe

Word order

The usual word order in the Bambassi language is subject - object - verb, the verb comes last. The following sentences are given as an example:

(1) íʃ es-ìʃ ʃóːʃ-ná ha-pí-↓á

DEF person-SBJ snake-OBJ AFF-kill-DECL

‘The person killed a snake.’

(2) múnts’-ìʃ p’iʃ-(na) ha-kaːm-á

woman-SBJ child-OBJ AFF-love-DECL

‘A woman loved a child.’ [8]

Notes

  1. ^ "Màwés Aasʼè". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  2. ^ Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9.
  3. ^ Bambassi language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  4. ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
  5. ^ Michael, Ahland (2012). A Grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è) (Thesis). University of Oregon.
  6. ^ "Bambassi language and pronunciation". Omniglot. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  7. ^ Ahland, Michael (2012). A grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è). pp. 193–197.
  8. ^ a b Ahland, Michael (2012). A grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è). pp. 233–237.
  9. ^ Ahland, Michael (2023). 42 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè), In: The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. p. 1016.
  10. ^ Ahland, Michael (2023). 42 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè), In: The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. p. 1016.
  11. ^ Ahland, Michael (2012). A grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è). p. 260.
  12. ^ Ahland, Michael (2023). 42 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè), In: The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. pp. 1019–1022. ISBN 9780198728542.
  13. ^ Ahland, Michael (2012). A grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è). pp. 330–332.
  14. ^ Ahland, Michael (2023). 42 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè), In: The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. pp. 1017–1018.
  15. ^ Ahland, Michael (2012). A grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è). pp. 295–299.

Further reading


Kembali kehalaman sebelumnya


Index: pl ar de en es fr it arz nl ja pt ceb sv uk vi war zh ru af ast az bg zh-min-nan bn be ca cs cy da et el eo eu fa gl ko hi hr id he ka la lv lt hu mk ms min no nn ce uz kk ro simple sk sl sr sh fi ta tt th tg azb tr ur zh-yue hy my ace als am an hyw ban bjn map-bms ba be-tarask bcl bpy bar bs br cv nv eml hif fo fy ga gd gu hak ha hsb io ig ilo ia ie os is jv kn ht ku ckb ky mrj lb lij li lmo mai mg ml zh-classical mr xmf mzn cdo mn nap new ne frr oc mhr or as pa pnb ps pms nds crh qu sa sah sco sq scn si sd szl su sw tl shn te bug vec vo wa wuu yi yo diq bat-smg zu lad kbd ang smn ab roa-rup frp arc gn av ay bh bi bo bxr cbk-zam co za dag ary se pdc dv dsb myv ext fur gv gag inh ki glk gan guw xal haw rw kbp pam csb kw km kv koi kg gom ks gcr lo lbe ltg lez nia ln jbo lg mt mi tw mwl mdf mnw nqo fj nah na nds-nl nrm nov om pi pag pap pfl pcd krc kaa ksh rm rue sm sat sc trv stq nso sn cu so srn kab roa-tara tet tpi to chr tum tk tyv udm ug vep fiu-vro vls wo xh zea ty ak bm ch ny ee ff got iu ik kl mad cr pih ami pwn pnt dz rmy rn sg st tn ss ti din chy ts kcg ve 
Prefix: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9