Dime language
Spoken in
- Afro-Asiatic Omotisch Südomotisch
Dime ( Dima, proper name dim - aaf, dim -ko - aaf ) is a omotische language that is spoken north of the River Omo in the Kaffa region in southwest Ethiopia. It is attributed to the Südomotischen. The Dime has only a few thousand speakers; 1998 were recorded in a census 6501. It has three dialects are mutually intelligible.
Phonology
With regard to the consonantal phonemes drop some ejectives (ts ', c ', q ') and implosives ( ɓ, ɗ, ɠ ), which can be regarded as typical Afro Asian. The information for vowels diverge, the existence of the vowels a, e, i, o, u, and several long vowels and diphthongs, but seems assured. After Seyoum 2007, the Dime has a high and a low tone, which are below, if known, denoted by acute and grave; Contrast, Siebert highlighted word accents.
Morphology
The personal pronouns have separate form paradigms for subject-and Objektspronomina, the Objektspronomina be extended with different case endings: nominative YAYE "you", accusative Yi -n- ìm, dating yi- s, genitive Yin kó, ablative Yin kó -dé instrumental Yin ká. In the third person singular of the masculine and feminine genera are separated, as well as singular and plural are distinguished.
A noun is either masculine or feminine, to this, the genus neutral Number Plural are formed. Nouns form their plural with -af: dəh AF ìs "the poor", ʔàmz AF " women "; Adjectives with -id: sɨkèt gúdm ID ZIM- AF " this great prince ". For nouns, the genus is characterized only limited (eg sib -ov " father 's wife ", sib -ind " mother of the wife ") to adjectives in fact mandatory ( koyz zuu -b " Red Rooster ", koyz zuu -ind " Red Hen "). The definiteness is marked with -is. The noun has the same case endings as the Objektspronomen, the nominative is unmarked.
The root of most verbs has the form CVC; in the present - future tense, the root can be partially or totally reduplicated :: dèdèɣ -dé -t " I cook straight" - dèχt -ov " I cook " dulumdulum -de- t- ee " we sing (usually ) " - dulum - de -t " we sing ". By means of different affixes a number of tenses and modes, a distinction; most tenses also have personal endings that are neutral with respect to gender and number and do not distinguish the outside of the Jussivs second and third person. The following table of the known tenses and modes essentially follows Hayward 1990 ( quoted by Bender) and is supplemented by Seyoum 2007:
In interrogative sentences the personal endings are t and n replaced by -aa/-ee: lot oxt -aa " How did you spend the night? " Yeb -s- aa " have you seen? ". The imperative to replace the jussive of the second person has the endings- u,- m ,-a, -e, and in the plural -is: et -is, wuy -u " stand! " How is the jussive " eat! " he negated with koy: k'ay koy " did not want to! " na aad u koy " do not let her come ." The tenses are negated with kay kab or kasiɗ. In relative clauses, verbs receive special suffixes, such as " syntax " is described in the section.
With -a,- ta is a " gerund " formed: ad -a "come". The infinitive ends in- in. Causatives and factitive verbs are marked with -s-/-š-: wuy -u " stand " - wuy -su " to think "; passive verbs characterizes an affix - inɗ -: ts ʾ oh - inɗ -in " it (the cow) was milked ".
Syntax
The usual word order is SOV, where the direct object indirect follows:
The unmarked by tense / aspect copula - éé, dán; in addition, there are several tense bound affirmative or negative forms. Noun phrases, both the structure of head - on head - modifying element as well as modifying element. Characteristic is that nominal categories are not marked on the head, but to complete the noun phrase:
Relative clauses are formed with specific relative verb forms. These will not only according to aspect / tense, but as nouns inflected even after gender, number and definiteness of the modified noun phrase, with no formal distinction between subject and Objektsrelativisierung takes place:
Interrogatives are in situ: