Mao languages

The Mao languages ​​are spoken in southwest Ethiopia and form a branch of the northern omotischen languages. After Bender 2000, Mao has four individual languages ​​or dialect clusters:

  • Hozo Hooz Wandi (3000)
  • Sezo / Seze seezi waanɛ, seezi waaŋi (3000)
  • Bambeshi / Bambassi mao kɔɔle, some emigrated into Diddessa Valley and Metahara (east of Addis Ababa in the Awash River ) ( 5000)
  • Ganza: extinct in Sudan or almost

The Mao languages ​​are by far the worst documented subset of Omotischen. So far, there are only fragmentary grammatical descriptions of Reid Head in 1947 and Bender 2000 and some word lists.

Phonology

The phonological properties of the Mao languages ​​are very similar to what it has Fleming 1988 allows to reconstruct the consonant system of Proto - Mao, which essentially corresponds to the modern Mao languages. According to Fleming, the proto- Mao had three rows of plosives ( bilabial, alveolar, velar ), each comprising an unvoiced, a voiced and a ejektives phoneme. The only affricate ts was ʾ at fricatives are at least š h and reconstructed. Striking is the pränasalierte mb. For some consonants restrictions are in position within a known root: ʔ and h are only initial, n be only occurred only medial and final r and l.

The Mao languages ​​have about 5-6 vowels, nasal vowels and also one of distinctive accent ( pä'li "exactly" - Pali "girls" ') for the Ganza be specified; Bambassi the other hand, is a tonal language: káɸɛ " bird", šáawà "sand".

Morphology and Syntax

Are different, partly contradictory collections of paradigms to the personal pronouns. According to them, the personal pronouns distinguish the Numbers singular and plural, and in the Ganza two genera. Depending on the syntactic use several sets of pronouns can be distinguished: the "dependent " and "independent" Subjektspronomina, possessive pronouns and some other case forms formed by suffixes. Nouns know the Numbers singular and plural, the latter may be marked by a suffix. Also for definiteness and various case endings are used; the genera masculine and feminine are not formally distinguished.

As far as the scanty information indicates the Mao languages ​​possess conjugation systems that have a non-typical for the Omotische construction. In Hozo, Sezo and Bambassi the Personalkonjugation done either by dependent or independent pronouns that come before the verb stem and from that can be separated by adverbs. The tenses are detected by various pre-and post- verbal clitics and one occurring in many tenses š morpheme ( ɛ ), whose basic meaning is unclear:

  • Hozo na -mu -maa -ye first person singular present tense " eat " present tense " I eat "

As in other languages ​​omotischen the verb in the past tense can be reduplicated:

  • Sezo dol - šɛ held ya- dol - iya 1st person pl š morpheme ( ɛ ) " now " " go " 1st person pl " go " "We go now."

In Ganza usually are obviously tense marker and Personalaffix in that order in front of the verb stem, the inverse position, however, is also allegedly possible. Some non-temporal categories such as subjunctive interrogative and after the analysis of Bender by suffixes that are behind the verbal stem, expressed:

  • Wa - closer -ma- ʔogwä tense marker 2nd person sg " eat " interrogative "have you eaten? "

The imperative has in all four languages ​​Mao separate forms for singular and plural, which are separated by suffixes. The plural form is in three languages ​​is an m- element in common:

  • Hozo ma -mo " eat! "
  • Ganza ma -m " eat! "
  • Sezo maa - ke- mo " eat! "

In Hozo also negated imperatives with a are infix kəz - occupied.

Derivation done with various suffixes, but also by composition: Sezo ɔɔb -ma ʷ Write Person " writer "; Sezo: miins ʾ ɛ " cut ", " get cut " miins ʾ - ɪšɛ.

As a copula serve individual particles, especially š. The negation is not expressed by the Verbalkonjugation but by a particle.

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