Cushitic and Omotic Languages

Proceedings of the Third International Symposium, Berlin, March 17-19, 1994

Edited by: Catherine Griefenow-Mewis, Rainer Voigt. With contributions by: David L. Appleyard, Anna Belova, M. Lionel Bender †, Getachew Chemeda Nadhabasaa, Gene Gragg, Catherine Griefenow-Mewis, Dick Hayward, Georgi L. Kapchits, Roland Kießling, Marcello Lamberti, Alexander Militarev, Mohamed Mohamed-Abdi, Mohammed Hassen, Maarten Mous, Tamene Bitima, Mauro Tosco, Rainer Voigt, Andrzej Zaborski †, Thomas Zitelmann.

1996
348 pp.
6 diagrams, 20 tables, numerous charts
Text language(s): English, German, French
Format: 160 x 240 mm
680 g
Paperback
€ 69.80

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What makes the unity of Cushitic and Omotic studies and the unity of the relatively few scholars working in this field? It is, of course, the clear-cut genetic division of the languages spoken in East Africa. In general it is easy to identify a Cushitic, Omotic or Semitic language. But there is more to it than this. Northeast Africa is a specific area; it has an exceptional position within Africa.

The landscape, the mild climate in the highlands, the dominance of the Ethiopic race (which is intermediate to the white and the black race without being a mixture of them), the strong Semitic impact since two and a half millenia, and the indigenous Christian culture have made East Africa a cultural province of its own that constitutes the third geographic-cultural larger area in Africa besides White Africa and Black Africa. All this contributes to the fascination of this area, and has had an influence on our commitment there.

CONTENTS

I. Comparative articles

Afro-Asiatic Comparisons

Alexander Militarev: Home for Afrasian – African or Asian? Areal Linguistic Arguments

Anna Belova: Einige jemenitisch-afrikanische Isoglossen

Cushitic Comparisons

Gene Gragg: CUSHLEX – A Cushitic Etymological Index

Roland Kießling: Verbal Inflectional Suffixes in the West Rift Group of Southern Cushitic

Mauro Tosco: The Northern Highland East Cushitic Verb in an Areal Perspective

Rainer Voigt: Zur Gliederung des Kuschitischen – Die Präfixkonjugationen

Andrzej Zaborski: Intensive Verbs and the Present in Cushitic

Omotic Comparisons

M. Lionel Bender: The Limits of Omotic Revisited

Richard J. Hayward: The Velar Stem Alternation in Omotic

II. Particular Cushitic Languages

Agaw

David L. Appleyard: Preparing a Comparative Agaw Dictionary

Ma’a

Maarten Mous: Was there ever a Southern Cushitic Language (Pre-) Ma’a?

Oromo

Tamene Bitima: European Loanwords in Afaan Oromoo

Catherine Griefenow-Mewis: The Rise of New Terms in Oromo – Means and Problems

Mohammed Hassen: A Brief Glance at the History of the Growth of Written Oromo Literature

Getachew Chemeda Nadhabasaa: Hamachiisaa – Naming a Child by the Oromo Qaalluu and the Social Meanings of the Names

Thomas Zitelmann: The Return of the Devils Tongue – Polemics about the Choice of the Roman Alphabet (qubee) for the Oromo Language Somali

Georgi Kapchits: On Subjects and Motifs in Somali Folk-tales – Experience of Cataloguing

Mohamed Mohamed-Abdi: Standards de la poésie somalie – quelques critères de reconnaissance et d’appréciation des poèmes somalis

III. Particular Omotic Languages

Marcello Lamberti: A Few Remarks on Verb Derivation in Yemsa

 

Under these links you will find further proceedings volumes of the international conferences on Cushitic and Omotic languages and of the Enno Littmann Conference 2009:

Accompanying material:

• Omotic and Cushitic Language Studies (ISBN 978-3-89645-482-9)
• Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Cushitic and Omotic Languages, Paris, 16-18 April 2008 (ISBN 978-3-89645-488-1)
• Studies in Honour of Enno Littmann (ISBN 978-3-89645-681-6)
• Tigre Studies in the 21st Century – Tigre-Studien im 21. Jahrhundert (ISBN 978-3-89645-682-3)

Cross-reference:

• 5000 Jahre semitohamitische Sprachen in Asien und Afrika (ISBN 978-3-89645-686-1)
• A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages (ISBN 978-3-89645-481-2)
• A Grammar of Hamar (ISBN 978-3-89645-491-1)
• Alagwa – a South Cushitic Language of Tanzania (ISBN 978-3-89645-492-8)
• APAL Annual Publication in African Linguistics (ISBN 978-3-89645-501-7)
• Aspects of Koorete Verb Morphology (ISBN 978-3-89645-486-7)
• Multidisciplinary Views on the Horn of Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-683-0)
• Towards the Genetic Classification of the Afaan Oromoo Dialects (ISBN 978-3-89645-487-4)

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