The Wolaytta Language
Author: Marcello Lamberti, Roberto Sottile. Series edited by: Marcello Lamberti.
Series: Studia Linguarum Africae Orientalis Volume 6
1997664 pp.
numerous tables and charts, Wolaytta-English lexicon pp. 272-563, appendices: Wolaytta terms of relationship, names of useful plants, denominations of social classes, selected Wolaytta sentences, Index English-Wolaytta
Text language(s): English
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Wolaytta is one of the major Ethiopian languages boasting around one milion native speakers. It is spoken in the south Ethiopian Provinces of Gamu Gofa and Sidamo along the banks of the river Ometo. Genetically Wolaytta belongs to the Ometo sub-branch of Omotic (West Cushitic).
The present volume consists beside of a short introduction containing some historical, anthropological and cultural notes on the Wolaytta people, of a detailed synchronic description of the language, a list of more than 1,200 lexemes alphabetically ordered and integrated by several probable cognates attested in other Cushitic languages, a corpus of more than 1,100 selected Wolaytta sentences and finally a lexical index.
The synchronic part of the work can be subdivided in three main parts: a phonological one devoted to the phonemic system of Wolaytta, a morphological one illustrating all the morphemes ascertained in the language and finally a syntactical part where the authors deal with the structure of the single clauses with their noun and verb phrases as well as several periphrastic constructions.
Following the links below you will find further linguistic and ethnographic descriptions of Omotic languages and cultures:
Accompanying material:
- A Grammar of Hamar
(ISBN 978-3-89645-491-1 ) - Aspects of Koorete Verb Morphology
(ISBN 978-3-89645-486-7 ) - To Live with Others
(ISBN 978-3-89645-827-8 )
Cross-reference:
- Colloque international sur les langues couchitiques et les peuples qui les parlent – International Conference on Cushitic Languages and Peoples
(ISBN 978-3-89645-489-8 ) - Converbs, Medial Verbs, Clause Chaining and Related Issues
(ISBN 978-3-89645-719-6 ) - Cushitic and Omotic Languages
(ISBN 978-3-927620-28-5 ) - Deictics, Copula, and Focus in the Ethiopian Convergence Area
(ISBN 978-3-89645-293-1 ) - Language Contact and Language Change in Ethiopia
(ISBN 978-3-89645-258-0 ) - 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 )
Reviews
Den umfangreichsten Teil (d.s. 2/3) des vorliegenden Werkes macht das Lexikon aus, das Elemente des Wolaitta-Wortschatzes in den anderen westkuschitischen (= omotischen) Sprachen und im Gesamtkuschitischen nachweist. Damit liegt das bislang umfangreichste vergleichende kuschitische Wörterbuch vor. [...]
Eine Liste der Verwandtschaftsbezeichnungen, eine Sammlung von über tausend Sätzen mit Interlinearübersetzung und ein nützliches Englisch-Wolaitta-Glossar [...] runden diese wichtige kuschitistische Neuerscheinung ab.
Rainer Voigt in Afrika und Übersee, 82/1999, 145-150
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