Browsing by Author "Leyew, Zelealem (Associate Professor)"

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    A Grammar of Kulazngi
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-09) Allene, Yaregal; Leyew, Zelealem (Associate Professor)
    This dissertation presents an all-embracing grammatical description of Kulazngi, a dialect of Awngi, one of the Central Cushitic languages. It is spoken in the south west of Ethiopia mainly in Jawi woreda in Awi zone in Amhara Regional State and in some kebeles in Dangur Woreda in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State. Kulazngi has 28 consonant (out of which five are labialized) and 6 vowel phonemes. Common morphophonemic processes attested in the language include assimilation, labialization, palatalization, vowel/glide insertion, and vowel elision. A consolidated syllable structure rule is (C)V(C) (C) from which can be drawn six syllable structures as V CV VC CVC VCC CVCC. Kulazngi is a tone language: tone has both lexical and grammatical distinction. Three level (high, mid, low) and one contour (falling), tones are identified in the language. While high and low tones have no positional restriction, mid tone never occurs word initially in polysyllabic words; it does not occur sequentially (as M.M) either. A falling (HL) contour tone occurs as a result of diachronic and synchronic processes. Downdrift and contour formation are among the common tonal processes attested in the language. Nouns appear as masculine or feminine in Kulazngi, or there is no a form representing gender neuter. Thus, there is no a citation form per se. What assumes the citation form is the masculine. All feminine nouns end in a vowel a, while masculine nouns end in vowels i, u, or rarely in e, or in a (labialized) consonant. Whereas the common plural suffix is -ka, Kulazngi shows heterogeneity in plural formation. Derivational and inflectional noun affixes are all suffixes. This study also describes nominal and verbal modifiers. While adjectives are both lexical and derivational, the majority of adverbs are derived from other word classes, mainly from temporal and locative nouns. Kulazngi adjectives show characteristic features of nouns morphologically. Like nouns, they are intrinsically gender marked and are also pluralized in concord with head nouns or, in NPs where head nouns do not overtly appear, alone. However, they are not inflected for case in NPs where they do not assume the head except the accusative case. Pronouns, demonstratives, quantifiers and conjunctions are also described with ample and pertinent illustrative data. III Kulazngi verbs do not stand as a phonological word at root level. They are realized only in discourse suffixing mood, aspect and agreement markers. While consonant-ending verbs at root level constitute the majority, there also exist a number of u-ending and i-ending verbs. Except five verbs which also attach prefixes, all Kulazngi verbs are suffix taking. The majority of Kulazngi verbs are lexical; there also exist a number of verbs derived from nouns and adjectives with transitive derivational morpheme -ts or the intransitive one -t. Kulazngi verbs show complex conjugational pattern based on which they are classified as prefix group, meaning prefix taking (PG), I-group (IG), and T_group (TG) verbs. IGVs mark 2 and 3F with i and TGVs with t. IGV, and TGV are further subdivided, thus IGV as IGV1, IGV2, and IGV3 and TGV as TGV1, and TGV2. Conjugational complexity of verbs is more exhibited on relativized transitive verbal forms whose direct object is a shared argument in a matrix clause: these verbs, besides aspect markers, appear laden with both subject and object agreement affixes. Kulazngi verbs have valence adjusting mechanisms. Thus the causative and the passive are obtained via derivational morphemes -ts and -(ɨ)st respectively. Middle verbs are either lexical or derived by -t, and reciprocal verbs are formed by derivational morpheme -ŋ. The syntactic description examines the structures and functions of phrasal and clausal constructions. In Kulazngi, phrases are generally head-final. Adjectives in NPs with no overt head nouns assume the head of the NPs. The word order in the language is subject-object-verb (SOV). As the subject is referenced on the verb, a single verbal word may constitute a sentence in sentential constructions with intransitive verb headed VPs.
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    Grammatical Description and Documentation of Bayso
    (Addis Ababa University, 2018-07) Kebebew, Lemmi; Leyew, Zelealem (Associate Professor)
    This dissertation deals with the documentation and grammatical description of Bayso/Giddicho, a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia. Bayso is an endangered language due to the strong pressure of the dominant languages spoken in the area, urbanization and population reduction. The documentation part covers video and audio annotation of texts, bilingual word list (Bayso- English) and the grammatical description. The grammatical description examines Bayso phonology, morphology and syntax based on the primary data that was obtained via series of fieldworks and through elicitation, interviews, observation and discussion methods. Therefore, the qualitative research methodology was employed in this dissertation. Bayso, which belongs to Lowland East Cushitic, Omo-Tana subgroup, has 28 consonant phonemes and five vowels with contrastive long vowels. Bayso employs diverse system of noun pluralisation which includes suffixation, reduplication and final vowel elision. Bayso also marks paucal and singulative on nouns by using different suffixes. Theoretically, a language that marks paucal should also mark dual. However, Bayso is one of few languages that mark paucal without marking dual. Gender polarity is also one of the marked features of Bayso which was one of the focuses of this dissertation. In Bayso, gender is not marked on nouns. It is reflected through agreement on other word categories such as verb, adjective and demonstrative. The grammatical cases, nominative and accusative, are not morphologically marked. However, the sematic cases such as genitive, dative and instrumental are marked with various strategies. In Bayso, noun derivation is not as productive as other related languages. Yet, new nouns can be derived from the existing ones by using various suffixes. In Bayso, both verb inflection and derivation mainly involve suffixation. A verb is inflected for tense, person and number to show concord. Verb stems such as causatives, passives, frequentatives and inchoatives are derived by using different derivational suffixes. Word order in Bayso is flexible. That is modifiers may precede or follow their head. However, subordinate clause always occurs preceding the matrix clause. Bayso employs various mechanisms of sentence chaining, that is, to form coordination, subordination and converbs.