Shabo language
Spoken in
Unclear but may
- Nilo-Saharan languages Shabo
-
Ssa
Sbf
Shabo (also called Mikeyir ) is an endangered language that is spoken of 400-500 hunters and gatherers in the westernmost part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region in southwest Ethiopia.
These people live in three places in the Keficho - Shekicho zone: Anderaccha, Gecch'a and Kaabo.
Many speakers switch to neighboring languages , particularly to Majang and Shakicho ( Mocha ); the vocabulary is heavily influenced by loanwords from these two languages, particularly from the Majang, as well as from the Amharic.
Classification
The classification of Shabo is unclear, it may be a Nilo-Saharan language ( Teferra / Unseth 1989, Fleming 1991) or an isolated language ( Ehret 1995). The assumption that Shabo is a proprietary language, was first voiced by Lionel Bender in 1977, where he heranzog one compiled by the missionary Harvey Hoekstra word list.
If we let even the many loanwords from its immediate neighbors, the Majang and the Shakicho aside, then assign the collected word lists of Shabo in addition to a significant number of lexemes from the coma languages on a larger number of words without overt external relations.
The previously collected data for the provisional grammar suggest a few convincing external relations. On this basis, Fleming (1991 ) classified the Shabo as Nilo-Saharan, and within its standing as the coma languages closest. However, Ehret (1995 ) argues that give it neither convincing similarities with the Nilo-Saharan or Afro Asiatic, under the assumption that the words out of the coma are early borrowings. He looks at the Shabo therefore as an isolated language. Teferra / Unseth (1989 ) see it as Nilo-Saharan, this can hardly be justified and can also no information about his position within the language family make.
Phonetics and phonology
The consonants of the Shabo are as follows:
Consonants in parentheses are not completely phonemic loud Teferra (1995 ):
- [ p] and [f ] to each other in free variation.
- [s ] and [ ʃ ], sometimes [c ], [ ɟ ] and [ ʒ ] are as in Majang in free variation. According Teferra could go back to the traditional removal of the lower incisors in males.
- [ h] and [k ] skip occasionally each other.
Long consonants are available in several words, eg in walla " goat " kutti "knee", although the length is often unstable.
According Teferra there are nine vowels, namely / i / / ɨ / / u / / e / / ə / / o / / ɛ / / a / / ɔ /. Five vowels - / a / / e / / i / / o / / u / - have long equivalents. Occasionally, vowels are omitted at the end, with vowels in the middle of a word are reduced, eg when deego / deg " crocodile ".
The syllable structure ( consonant ) - Vocal - ( consonant ); all consonants except / p / and / t / can occur at the end of a syllable.
The Shabo is a tonal language, but their tonology is unclear. Teferra called a minimal pair:
Há 'kill' - ha " meat "
Grammar
Pronoun
Nouns
The plural form is unclear. From a person three different plural suffixes were mentioned:
- "House" ɗoku → "houses" ɗoku -k
- "Dog" kaal / kaan → "dog " kaal-u/kaan-u
- "Leg" bicca → "legs" bicca -ka
However, another person made no plural or pushed him through the enactment of the word yɛɛro from.
The suffix -k sometimes seems to mark the direct object, eg upa kaan -ik ye " a man saw a dog " ( literally ' man dog saw "). A similar suffix occurs in many ostsudanischen languages.
Case suffixes that were mentioned by Ehret (1995), are as follows:
- -ti - ablative
- -uk, -ik - Instrumental
- - ke -e - genitive
- - kak, gak - accusative
Postpositions
The Shabo used after nouns postpositions, eg upa mana pond ɗɛpik moi "a man sitting on a stone " ( " man on stone? Sat " literally ).
Verbs
The negation is expressed by the particles to be behind the verb or noun that is in the negative, we set:
Gumu be " (there is ) no [ not ( a ) ] staff "
ʔam be - gea " he will not come " ( lit. " come - not ?")
The negation of b is widespread among Nilo-Saharan languages and Afro-Asiatic languages.
There is a causative suffix - ka:
Mawo hoop " water boiled " - upa mawo hoop -ka "(a ) man boiled water"
The particles git (? Subjunctive infinitive ) marks the verb in constructions with "want":
Moopa git inɗeet " I want to sit " ( lit. "sit particles want " )
The verbal morphology is largely unclear; it seems a future tense suffix of the 3rd person singular -g- (eg in inɗage t'a -g " he is eating " ) to exist, and a suffix of the second person plural (eg Subuk maakɛle kak t'a - ɗe " you ate cereal (corn? ) ", literally " their grain past? eating - second pers. Pl ").
Ehret (1995 ) leads to the following tense suffixes:
- - gg - imperfect
- -e - perfect ( pluperfect? )
- - MSEs - Perfect
- Nullmorphem - imperative
Number words
From Teferra / Unseth ( 1989) cited the following number system:
" 20" is Ink upa kor ( lit. " a person completely ").
Syntax
The normal word order in a sentence is subject-object - verb; it will be more likely used postpositions as prepositions.