Oromo, also known as
Afaan
Oromoo,
Oromiffa(a) (
Ethiopic: ኦሮሚኛ
’Orominya),
Afan Boran,
Afan Arsi,
and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these
names (Oromic, Afan Oromo, etc.), is an
Afro-Asiatic language, and the most
widely spoken of the
Cushitic
family.
It
is spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and neighboring peoples in Ethiopia and
Kenya
. Older publications refer to the language as
"Galla", a term that is resented by Oromo people and no longer
used.
Speakers
The 16th edition of the
Ethnologue uses
the term
macrolanguage,
"multiple, closely related individual languages that are deemed in
some usage contexts to be a single language." This article
generally uses this macrolanguage approach to Oromo, not dealing
with variation and non-comprehension.
About 95
percent of Oromo speakers live in Ethiopia, mainly in Oromia Region
. In Somalia
there are
also about 41,000 speakers of the language. In Kenya, the
Ethnologue also lists 222,000 speakers of Borana and Orma, two
languages closely related to Ethiopian Oromo .Within Ethiopia,
Oromo is the first most spoken (more than 40%). Within Africa, it
is the language with the fourth most speakers, after
Arabic (if one counts the mutually
unintelligible spoken forms of Arabic as a single macrolanguage and
assumes the same for the varieties of Oromo),
Swahili,
Hausa.
Besides first language speakers, a number of members of other
ethnicities who are in contact with the Oromos speak Oromo as a
second language, for example, the
Omotic-speaking
Bambassi and the
Nilo-Saharan-speaking
Kwama in northwestern Oromia.
Language policy
Before the
Ethiopian Revolution
of 1974, publishing or broadcasting in Oromo was prohibited, and
the few works that had been published, most notably
Onesimos Nesib's and
Aster Ganno's translation of the
Bible from the late nineteenth century, were written
in the
Ge'ez alphabet, as was the
1875 New Testament produced by
Krapf. Following the 1974 Revolution,
the government undertook a literacy campaign in several languages,
including Oromo, and publishing and radio broadcasts began in the
language. All Oromo materials printed in Ethiopia at that time,
such as the newspaper
Barissa, were written in the
traditional script.
Plans to introduce Oromo instruction in the schools, however, were
not realized until the government of
Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown
in 1991, except in regions controlled by the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). With
the creation of "Oromia" under the new system of ethnic regions, it
has been possible to introduce Oromo as the medium of instruction
in elementary schools throughout the region (including areas where
other ethnic groups live speaking their languages) and as a
language of administration within the region. Since the OLF left
the transitional Ethiopian government in early 1990s, the
Oromo Peoples' Democratic
Organization (OPDO) continued developing Afaan Oromoo in
Ethiopia.
Oromo is most commonly written with a modified
Latin alphabet called
Qubee, which
was formally adopted in 1991. Various versions of the Latin based
orthography had been used previously, mostly by Oromos outside of
Ethiopia and by the OLF by the late 1970's (Heine 1986). In recent
years, it is said to have been limited by the Ethiopian government.
[43431]With the adoption of Qubee, it is believed more
texts were written in the Oromo language between 1991 and 1997 than
in the previous 100 years.
The
Saphalo script was an indigenous
Oromo script invented by
Sheikh
Bakri Saphalo (also known by his birth name, Abubaker Usman
Odaa) in the years following Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and used
underground afterwards .
[43432] The
Arabic
alphabet has also been used intermittently in areas with Muslim
populations.
Within
Kenya there has been radio broadcasting in Oromo (in the
Borana dialect) on the Voice of Kenya
since at least the 1980s. The Borana Bible in Kenya was
printed in 1995 using the Latin alphabet, but not using the same
spelling rules as in Ethiopian Qubee. The first comprehensive
online Afan Oromo dictionary was developed by Jimma Times Oromiffa
Group (JTOG) in cooperation with SelamSoft.
Voice of America also broadcasts in Afan
Oromo alongside its other horn of Africa programs. Afan Oromo and
Qubee are currently utilized by the Ethiopian government's state
radios, TV stations and regional government newspaper.
Sounds and orthography
Consonant and vowel phonemes
Like most other Ethiopian languages, whether Semitic, Cushitic, or
Omotic, Oromo has a set of
ejective
consonants, that is, voiceless stops or affricates that are
accompanied by glottalization and an explosive burst of air. Oromo
has another glottalized phone that is more unusual, an
implosive retroflex stop, "dh" in Oromo
orthography, a sound that is like an English "d" produced with the
tongue curled back slightly and with the air drawn in so that a
glottal stop is heard before the following vowel begins.
Oromo has the typical Southern Cushitic set of five short and five
long vowels, indicated in the orthography by doubling the five
vowel letters. The difference in length is contrastive, for
example,
hara 'lake',
haaraa 'new'.
Gemination is also significant in Oromo. That is,
consonant length can distinguish words from one another, for
example,
badaa 'bad',
baddaa 'highland'.
In the Qubee alphabet, a single "letter" consists either of a
single symbol or a digraph ("ch", "dh", "ny", "ph", "sh").
Gemination is not obligatorily marked for the digraphs, though some
writers indicate it by doubling the first symbol:
qopphaa'uu 'be prepared'. In the charts below, the
International Phonetic
Alphabet symbol for a phoneme is shown in brackets where it
differs from the Oromo letter. The phonemes appear in parentheses
because they are only found in recent loan words. Note that there
have been minor changes in the orthography since it was first
adopted: ( ) was originally represented as "th", and there has been
some confusion among authors in the use of "c" and "ch" in
representing the phonemes and , with some early works using "c" for
and "ch" for and even "c" for different phonemes depending on where
it appears in a word. This article uses "c" consistently for and
"ch" for .
Vowels
|
Front |
Central |
Back |
| close |
i , ii |
|
u , uu |
| Mid |
e , ee |
|
o , oo |
| Open |
|
a |
aa |
Grammar
Nouns
Gender
Like most other
Afro-Asiatic
languages, Oromo has two
grammatical genders,masculine and
feminine, and all nouns belong to either one or the
other.Grammatical gender in Oromo enters into the grammar in the
following ways:
- Verbs (except for the copula be) agree with their
subjects in gender when the subject is third person singular
(he or she).
- Third person singular personal
pronouns (he, she, it, etc. in
English) have the gender of the noun they refer to.
- Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender.
- Some possessive adjectives ("my", "your") agree with the nouns
they modify in some dialects.
Except in some southern dialects, there is nothing in the form of
most nouns that indicates their gender. A small number of nouns
pairs for people, however, end in
-eessa (m.) and
-eettii (f.), as do adjectives when they are used as
nouns:
obboleessa 'brother',
obboleettii
'sister',
dureessa 'the rich one (m.)',
hiyyeettii 'the poor one (f.)'. Grammatical gender
normally agrees with biological gender for people and animals; thus
nouns such as
abbaa 'father',
ilma 'son', and
sangaa 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as
haadha 'mother' and
intala 'girl, daughter' are
feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological
gender.
Names of astronomical bodies are feminine:
aduu 'sun',
urjii 'star'. The gender of other inanimate nouns varies
somewhat among dialects.
Number
Oromo has singular and plural
number, but nouns that refer to multiple
entities are not obligatorily plural. That is, if the context is
clear, a formally singular noun may refer to multiple entities:
nama 'man'or "people",
nama shan'or', 'five men'or
"five people. Another way of looking at this is to treat
the "singular" form as unspecified for number.
When it is important to make the plurality of a referent clear, the
plural form of a noun is used. Noun plurals are formed through the
addition of
suffixes. The most common plural
suffix is
-oota; a final vowel is dropped before the
suffix, and in the western dialects, the suffix becomes -ota
following a
syllable with a long vowel:
mana 'house',
manoota 'houses',
hiriyaa
'friend',
hiriyoota 'friends',
barsiisaa
'teacher',
barsiiso(o)ta 'teachers'. Among the other
common plural suffixes are
-(w)wan,
-een, and
-(a)an; the latter two may cause a preceding consonant to
be doubled:
waggaa 'year',
waggaawwan 'years',
laga 'river',
laggeen 'rivers',
ilma
'son',
ilmaan 'sons'.
Definiteness
Oromo has no indefinite
articles
(corresponding to English
a,
some), but (except
in the southern dialects) it indicates
definiteness (English
the) with
suffixes on the noun:
-(t)icha for masculine nouns (the
ch is geminated though this is not normally indicated in
writing) and
-(t)ittii for feminine nouns. Vowel endings
of nouns are dropped before these suffixes:
karaa 'road',
karicha 'the road',
nama 'man',
namicha/
namticha 'the man',
haroo
'lake',
harittii 'the lake'. Note that for animate nouns
that can take either gender, the definite suffix may indicate the
intended gender:
qaalluu 'priest',
qaallicha 'the
priest (m.)',
qallittii 'the priest (f.)'. The definite
suffixes appear to be used less often than
the in English,
and they seem not to co-occur with the plural suffixes.
Case
An Oromo noun has a
citation
form or
base form that is used when
the noun is the object of a verb, the object of a preposition or
postposition, or a
nominal predicative.
- mana 'house', mana binne 'we bought a
house'
- hamma 'until', dhuma 'end', hamma
dhuma 'until (the) end'
- mana keessa, 'inside (a/the) house'
- inni 'he', barsiisaa 'teacher', inni
barsiisaa (dha) 'he is a teacher'
A noun may also appear in one of six other
grammatical cases, each indicated by a
suffix or the lengthening of the noun's final vowel. The case
endings follow plural or definite suffixes if these appear. For
some of the cases, there is a range of forms possible, some
covering more than one case, and the differences in meaning among
these alternatives may be quite subtle.
- Nominative
- The nominative is used for nouns that are the subjects of clauses.
- * Ibsaa man's name, Ibsaan 'Ibsaa (nom.)',
makiinaa, qaba 'he has', Ibsaan makiinaa
qaba 'Ibsaa has a car'
- Most nouns ending in short vowels with a preceding single
consonant drop the final vowel and add -ni to form the
nominative. Following certain consonants, assimilation changes either the
n or that consonant (the details depend on the
dialect).
- * nama 'man', namni 'man (nom.)'
- * namoota 'men'; namootni, namoonni
'men (nom.)' (t + n may assimilate to
nn)
- If a final short vowel is preceded by two consonants or a
geminated consonant, -i is suffixed.
- * ibsa 'statement', ibsi 'statement
(nom.)'
- * namicha 'the man', namichi 'the man (nom.)'
(the ch in the definite suffix -icha is actually
geminated, though not normally written as such)
- If the noun ends in a long vowel, -n is suffixed to
this. This pattern applies to infinitives, which end in
-uu.
- * maqaa 'name', maqaan 'name (nom.)'
- * nyachuu 'to eat, eating', nyachuun 'to eat,
eating (nom.)'
- If the noun ends in n, the nominative is identical to
the base form.
- * afaan 'mouth, language (base form or nom.)'
- Some feminine nouns ending in a short vowel add -ti.
Again assimilation occurs in some cases.
- * haadha 'mother', haati (dh +
t assimilates to t)
- * lafa 'earth', lafti
- Genitive
- The genitive is used for possession or "belonging"; it
corresponds roughly to English of or -'s. The
genitive is usually formed by lengthening a final short vowel, by
adding -ii to a final consonant, and by leaving a final
long vowel unchanged. The possessor noun follows the possessed noun
in a genitive phrase. Many such phrases with specific technical
meanings have been added to the Oromo lexicon in recent years.
- * obboleetti 'sister', namicha 'the man',
obboleetti namichaa 'the man's sister'
- * hojii 'job', Caaltuu, woman's name,
hojii Caaltuu, 'Caaltuu's job'
- * barumsa 'field of study', afaan 'mouth,
language', barumsa afaanii 'linguistics'
- In place of the genitive it is also possible to use the
relative marker kan (m.) / tan (f.) preceding the
possessor.
- * obboleetti kan namicha 'the man's sister'
- Dative
- The dative is used for nouns that represent the recipient
(to) or the benefactor (for) of an event. The
dative form of a verb infinitive (which
acts like a noun in Oromo) indicates purpose. The dative takes one
of the following forms:
- * Lengthening of a final short vowel (ambiguously also
signifying the genitive)
- :* namicha 'the man', namichaa 'to the man,
of the man'
- * -f following a long vowel or a lengthened short
vowel; -iif following a consonant
- :* intala 'girl, daughter', intalaaf 'to a
girl, daughter'
- :* saree 'dog', sareef 'to a dog'
- :* baruu 'to learn', baruuf 'in order to
learn'
- :* bishaan 'water', bishaaniif 'for
water'
- * -dhaa or -dhaaf following a long vowel
- :* saree 'dog'; sareedhaa, sareedhaaf 'to a
dog'
- * -tti (with no change to a preceding vowel),
especially with verbs of speaking
- :* Caaltuu woman's name, himi 'tell, say
(imperative)', Caaltuutti himi 'tell Caaltuu'
- Instrumental
- The instrumental is used for nouns that represent the
instrument ("with"), the means ("by"), the agent ("by"), the
reason, or the time of an event. The formation of the instrumental
parallels that of the dative to some extent:
- * -n following a long vowel or a lengthened short
vowel; -iin following a consonant
- :* harka 'hand', harkaan 'by hand, with a
hand'
- :* halkan 'night', halkaniin 'at night'
- * -tiin following a long vowel or a lengthened short
vowel
- :* Afaan Oromoo 'Oromo (language)', Afaan
Oromootiin 'in Oromo'
- * -dhaan following a long vowel
- :* yeroo 'time', yeroodhaan 'on time'
- :* bawuu 'to come out, coming out',
bawuudhaan 'by coming out'
- Locative
- The locative is used for nouns that represent general locations
of events or states, roughly at. For more specific
locations, Oromo uses prepositions or postpositions. Postpositions
may also take the locative suffix. The locative also seems to
overlap somewhat with the instrumental, sometimes having a temporal
function. The locative is formed with the suffix
-tti.
- * Arsiitti 'in Arsii'
- * harka 'hand', harkatti 'in hand'
- * guyyaa 'day', guyyaatti 'per day'
- * jala, jalatti 'under'
- Ablative
- The ablative is to represent the source of an event; it
corresponds closely to English from. The ablative, applied
to postpositions and locative adverbs as well a nouns proper, is
formed in the following ways:
- * When the word ends in a short vowel, this vowel is lengthened
(as for the genitive).
- :* biyya 'country', biyyaa 'from
country'
- :* keessa 'inside, in', keessaa 'from
inside'
- * When the word ends in a long vowel, -dhaa is added
(as for one alternative for the dative).
- :* Finfinneedhaa 'from Finfinnee (Addis Ababa)'
- :* gabaa 'market', gabaadhaa 'from
market'
- * When the word ends in a consonant, -ii is added (as
for the genitive).
- :* Hararii 'from Harar'
- * Following a noun in the genitive, -tii is
added.
- :* mana 'house', buna 'coffee', mana
bunaa 'cafe', mana bunaatii 'from cafe'
- An alternative to the ablative is the postposition
irraa 'from' whose initial vowel may be dropped in the
process:
- * gabaa 'market', gabaa irraa, gabaarraa
'from market'
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
In most languages, there is a small number of basic distinctions of
person,
number, and often
gender that play a role within the
grammar of the language. Oromo and English are such languages. We
see these distinctions within the basic set of
independent
personal pronouns, for example, English
I, Oromo
ani; English
they, Oromo
isaani and the
set of
possessive
adjectives and
pronouns, for example, English
my, Oromo
koo; English
mine, Oromo
kan koo. In Oromo, the same distinctions are also
reflected in subject-verb agreement: Oromo verbs (with a few
exceptions)
agree with their
subjects; that is, the person,
number, and (singular third person) gender of the subject of the
verb are marked by
suffixes on the verb.
Because these suffixes vary greatly with the particular verb
tense/
aspect/
mood, they are normally not considered to
be pronouns and are discussed elsewhere in this article under verb
conjugation.
In all of these areas of the grammar — independent pronouns,
possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns, and subject-verb
agreement — Oromo distinguishes seven combinations of person,
number, and gender. For first and second persons, there is a
two-way distinction between singular ('I', 'you sg.') and plural
('we', 'you pl.'), whereas for third person, there is a two-way
distinction in the singular ('he', 'she') and a single form for the
plural ('they'). Because Oromo has only two genders, there is no
pronoun corresponding to English
it; the masculine or
feminine pronoun is used according to the gender of the noun
referred to.
Oromo is a subject
pro-drop
language. That is, neutral sentences in which the subject is
not emphasized do not require independent subject pronouns:
kaleessa dhufne 'we came yesterday'.The Oromo word that
translates 'we' does not appear in this sentence, though the person
and number are marked on the verb
dhufne ('we came') by
the suffix
-ne. When the subject in such sentences needs
to be given prominence for some reason, an independent pronoun can
be used:
nuti kaleessa dhufne 'we' came
yesterday'.
The table below gives forms of the personal pronouns in the
different cases, as well as the possessive adjectives. For the
first person plural and third person singular feminine categories,
there is considerable variation across dialects; only some of the
possibilities are shown.
The possessive adjectives, treated as separate words here, are
sometimes written as noun suffixes. In most dialects there is a
distinction between masculine and feminine possessive adjectives
for first and second person (the form agreeing with the gender of
the modified noun). However, in the western dialects, the masculine
forms (those beginning with
k-) are used in all cases.
Possessive adjectives may take the case endings for the nouns they
modify:
ganda kootti 'to my village' (
-tti:
locative case).
Oromo Personal Pronouns
| English |
Base |
Subject |
Dative |
Instrumental |
Locative |
Ablative |
Possessive
adjectives
|
| I |
ana, na |
ani, an |
naa, naaf, natti |
naan |
natti |
narraa |
koo, kiyya
[too, tiyya (f.)]
|
| you (sg.) |
si |
ati |
sii, siif, sitti |
siin |
sitti |
sirraa |
kee
[tee (f.)]
|
| he |
isa |
inni |
isaa, isaa(tii)f, isatti |
isaatiin |
isatti |
isarraa |
(i)saa |
| she |
isii, ishii, isee,
ishee |
isiin, etc. |
ishii, ishiif, ishiitti, etc. |
ishiin, etc. |
ishiitti, etc. |
ishiirraa, etc. |
(i)sii, (i)shii |
| we |
nu |
nuti, nu'i, nuy, nu |
nuu, nuuf, nutti |
nuun |
nutti |
nurraa |
"keenna",keenya
["teenna",teenya (f.)]
|
| you (pl.) |
isin |
isini |
isinii, isiniif, isinitti |
isiniin |
isinitti |
isinirraa |
keessan(i)
[teessan(i) (f.)]
|
| they |
isaan |
isaani |
isaanii, isaaniif, isaanitti |
isaaniitiin |
isaanitti |
isaanirraa |
(i)saani |
As in languages such as
French,
Russian, and
Turkish, the Oromo second person plural is
also used as a polite singular form, for reference to people that
the speaker wishes to show respect towards. This usage is an
example of the so-called
T-V
distinction that is made in many languages. In addition, the
third person plural may be used for polite reference to a single
third person (either 'he' or 'she').
For possessive pronouns ('mine', 'yours', etc.), Oromo adds the
possessive adjectives to
kan 'of':
kan koo
'mine',
kan kee 'yours', etc.
Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
Oromo has two ways of expressing
reflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself',
etc.). One is to use the noun meaning 'self':
of(i) or
if(i). This noun is inflected for case but, unless it is
being emphasized, not for person, number, or gender:
isheen of
laalti 'she looks at herself' (base form of
of),
isheen ofiif makiinaa bitte 'she bought herself a car'
(dative of
of).
The other possibility is to use the noun meaning 'head',
mataa, with possessive suffixes:
mataa koo
'myself',
mataa kee 'yourself (s.)', etc.
Oromo has a
reciprocal pronoun
wal (English 'each other') that is used like
of/if. That is, it is inflected for case but not person,
number, or gender:
wal jaalatu 'they like each other'
(base form of
wal),
kennaa walii bidan 'they
brought each other gifts' (dative of
wal).
Demonstrative pronouns
Like English, Oromo makes a two-way distinction between proximal
('this, these') and distal ('that, those')
demonstrative pronouns and adjectives.
Some dialects distinguish masculine and feminine for the proximal
pronouns; in the western dialects the masculine forms (beginning
with
k-) are used for both genders. Unlike in English,
singular and plural demonstratives are not distinguished, but, as
for nouns and personal pronouns in the language, case is
distinguished. Only the base and nominative forms are shown in the
table below; the other cases are formed from the base form as for
nouns, for example,
sanatti 'at/on/in that' (locative
case).
Oromo Demonstrative Pronouns
| Case |
Proximal
('this, these')
|
Distal
('that, those')
|
| Base |
kana
[tana (f.)]
|
san |
| Nominative |
kuni
[tuni (f.)]
|
suni |
Verbs
An Oromo verb consists minimally of a
stem, representing the
lexical meaning of the verb, and a
suffix, representing
tense or
aspect and
subject agreement. For example, in
dhufne 'we came',
dhuf- is the stem ('come') and
-ne indicates that the tense is past and that the subject
of the verb is first person plural.
As in many other
Afro-Asiatic
languages, Oromo makes a basic two-way distinction in its verb
system between the two tensed forms, past (or "perfect") and
present (or "imperfect" or "non-past"). Each of these has its own
set of tense/agreement suffixes. There is a third conjugation based
on the present which has three functions: it is used in place of
the present in
subordinate
clauses, for the
jussive ('let
me/us/him, etc. V', together with the particle
haa), and
for the
negative of the present (together
with the particle
hin). For example,
deemne 'we
went',
deemna 'we go',
akka deemnu 'that we go',
haa deemnu 'let's go',
hin deemnu 'we don't go'.
There is also a separate
imperative form:
deemi 'go (sg.)!'.
Conjugation
The table below shows the conjugation in the affirmative and
negative of the verb
beek- 'know'. The first person
singular present and past affirmative forms require the suffix
-n to appear on the word preceding the verb or the word
nan before the verb. The negative particle
hin,
shown as a separate word in the table, is sometimes written as a
prefix on the verb.
Oromo Verb Conjugation
|
Past |
Present |
Jussive, Imperative |
| Main clause |
Subordinate clause |
| Affirmative |
Negative |
Affirmative |
Negative |
Affirmative |
Negative |
Affirmative |
Negative |
| I |
-n beeke |
hin beekne |
-n beeka |
hin beeku |
-n beeku |
hin beekne |
haa beeku |
hin beekin |
| you (sg.) |
beekte |
beekta |
hin beektu |
beektu |
beeki |
hin beek(i)in |
| he |
beeke |
beeka |
hin beeku |
beeku |
haa beeku |
hin beekin |
| she |
beekte |
beekti |
hin beektu |
beektu |
haa beektu |
| we |
beekne |
beekna |
hin beeknu |
beeknu |
haa beeknu |
| you (pl.) |
beektani |
beektu, beektan(i) |
hin beektan |
beektani |
beekaa |
hin beek(i)inaa |
| they |
beekani |
beeku, beekan(i) |
hin beekan |
beekani |
haa beekanu |
hin beekin |
For verbs with stems ending in certain consonants and suffixes
beginning with consonants (that is,
t or
n),
there are predictable changes to one or the other of the
consonants. The dialects vary a lot in the details, but the
following changes are common.
| b- + -t → bd |
qabda 'you (sg.) have' |
| g- + -t → gd |
dhugda 'you (sg.) drink' |
| r- + -n → rr |
barra 'we learn' |
| l- + -n → ll |
galla 'we enter' |
| q- + -t → qx |
dhaqxa 'you (sg.) go' |
| s- + -t → ft |
baas- 'take out', baafta 'you (sg.) take
out' |
| s- + -n → fn |
baas- 'take out', baafna 'we take out' |
| t-/d-/dh-/x- + -n
→ nn |
bitti 'buy', binna 'we buy';
nyaadhaa 'eat', nyaanna 'we eat' |
| d- + -t → dd |
fid- 'bring', fidda 'you (sg.) bring' |
| dh- + -t → tt |
taphadh- 'play', taphatta 'you (sg.)
play' |
| x- + -t → xx |
fix- 'finish', fixxa 'you (sg.) finish' |
Verbs whose stems end in two consonants and whose suffix begins
with a consonant must insert a vowel to break up the consonants
since the language does not permit sequences of three consonants.
There are two ways this can happen: either the vowel
i is
inserted between the stem and the suffix, or the final stem
consonants are switched (an example of
metathesis) and the vowel
a is inserted
between them. For example,
arg- 'see',
arga 'he
sees',
argina or
agarna 'we see';
kolf-
'laugh',
kolfe 'he laughed',
kolfite or
kofalte 'you (sg.) laughed'.
Verbs whose stems end in the consonant ' (which may appear as
h,
w, or
y in some words, depending on
the dialect) belong to three different conjugation classes; the
class is not predictable from the verb stem. It is the forms that
precede suffixes beginning with consonants (
t and
n) that differ from the usual pattern. The third person
masculine singular, second person singular, and first person plural
present forms are shown for an example verb in each class.
- du'- 'die': du'a 'he dies', duuta
'you (sg.) die', duuna 'we die'
- beela'-, 'be hungry': beela'a 'he is hungry',
beelofta 'you (sg.) are hungry', beelofna 'we are
hungry'
- dhaga'- 'hear': dhaga'a 'he hears',
dhageessa 'you (sg.) hear', dhageenya 'we hear'
(note that the suffix consonants change)
The common verbs
fedh- 'want' and
godh- 'do'
deviate from the basic conjugation pattern in that long vowels
replace the geminated consonants that would result when suffixes
beginning with
t or
n are added:
fedha
'he wants',
feeta 'you (sg.) want',
feena 'we
want',
feetu 'you (pl.) want',
hin feene 'didn't
want', etc.
The verb
dhuf- 'come' has the irregular imperatives
koottu,
koottaa. The verb
deem- 'go'
has, alongside regular imperative forms, the irregular imperatives
beenu,
beenaa.
Derivation
An Oromo verb root can be the basis for three derived voices,
passive, causative, and autobenefactive, each formed with addition
of a suffix to the root, yielding the stem that the inflectional
suffixes are added to.
- Passive voice
- The Oromo passive corresponds closely to the English passive in
function. It is formed by adding -am to the verb root. The
resulting stem is conjugated regularly. Examples: beek-
'know', beekam- 'be known', beekamani 'they were
known'; jedh- 'say', jedham- 'be said',
jedhama 'it is said'
- Causative voice
- The Oromo causative of a verb V corresponds to English
expressions such as 'cause V', 'make V', 'let V'. With intransitive
verbs, it has a transitivizing function. It is formed by adding
-s, -sis, or -siis to the verb root,
except that roots ending in -l add -ch. Verbs
whose roots end in ' drop this consonant and may lengthen the
preceding vowel before adding -s. Examples: beek-
'know', beeksis- 'cause to know, inform',
beeksifne 'we informed'; ka'- 'go up, get up',
kaas- 'pick up', kaasi 'pick up (sing.)!';
gal- 'enter', galch- 'put in', galchiti
'she puts in'; bar- 'learn', barsiis- 'teach',
nan barsiisa 'I teach'.
- Autobenefactive voice
- The Oromo autobenefactive (or "middle" or "reflexive-middle")
voice of a verb V corresponds roughly to English expressions such
as 'V for oneself' or 'V on one's own', thought the precise meaning
may be somewhat unpredictable for many verbs. It is formed by
adding -adh to the verb root. The conjugation of a middle
verb is irregular in the third person singular masculine of the
present and past (-dh in the stem changes to -t)
and in the singular imperative (the suffix is -u rather
than -i). Examples: bit- 'buy', bitadh-
'buy for oneself', bitate 'he bought (something) for
himself', bitadhu 'but for yourself (sing.)!';
qab- 'have', qabadh- 'seize, hold (for oneself)',
qabanna 'we hold'. Some autobenefactives are derived from
nouns rather than verbs, for example, hojjadh- 'work' from
the noun hojii 'work'.
The voice suffixes can be combined in various ways. Two causative
suffixes are possible:
ka'- 'go up',
kaas- 'pick
up',
kaasis- 'cause to pick up'. The causative may be
followed by the passive or the autobenefactive; in this case the
s of the causative is replaced by
f:
deebi'- 'return (intransitive)',
deebis- 'return
(transitive), answer',
deebifam- 'be returned, be
answered',
deebifadh- 'get back for oneself'.
Another derived verbal
aspect is
the
frequentative or "intensive,"
formed by copying the first consonant and vowel of the verb root
and geminating the second occurrence of the initial consonant. The
resulting stem indicates the repetition or intensive performance of
the action of the verb. Examples:
bul- 'spend the night',
bubbul- 'spend several nights',
cab- 'break',
caccab- 'break to pieces, break completely';
dhiib- 'push, apply pressure',
dhiddhiib-
'massage'.
The infinitive is formed from a verb stem with the addition of the
suffix
-uu. Verbs whose stems end in
-dh (in
particular all autobenefactive verbs) change this to
ch
before the suffix. Examples:
dhug- 'drink',
dhuguu 'to drink';
ga'- 'reach',
ga'uu
'to reach';
jedh- 'say',
jechu 'to say'. The verb
fedh- is exceptional; its infinitive is
fedhuu
rather than the expected
fechuu. The infinitive behaves
like a noun; that is, it can take any of the case suffixes.
Examples:
ga'uu 'to reach',
ga'uuf 'in order to
reach' (dative case);
dhug- 'drink',
dhugam- 'be
drunk',
dhugamuu to be drunk',
dhugamuudhaan 'by
being drunk' (instrumental case).
Notes
- Lewis, M. Paul, ed. 2009. Ethnologue. Dallas: SIL
International.
- [1]
- [2]
- Ethnologue: Languages of Ethiopia
- "Afaan Oromo" University of Pennsylvania,
School of African Studies
- R. J. Hayward and Mohammed Hassan. 1981. "The Oromo Orthography
of Shaykh Bakri Saṗalō", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies, 44.3, pp. 550-566
- Stroomer, p. 4.
- Online Afaan Oromoo - English Dictionary
External links
Bibliography
Grammar
Dictionaries
- Gragg, Gene B. et al. (ed., 1982) Oromo Dictionary.
Monograph (Michigan State University. Committee on Northeast
African Studies) no. 12. East Lansing, Mich. : African Studies
Center, Michigan State Univ.
- [43437]
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