Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people
), is an
Afroasiatic language
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
that belongs to the
Cushitic
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
branch. It is native to the
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n state of
Oromia
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Be ...
and Northern Kenya and is spoken predominantly by the
Oromo people and neighboring ethnic groups in the
Horn of Africa. It is used as a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
particularly in Ethiopia and northeastern Kenya.
With more than 36 million speakers making up 33.8% of the total
Ethiopian population,
Oromo has the largest number of native speakers in Ethiopia, and ranks as the second most widely spoken language in Ethiopia by total number of speakers (including second-language speakers) following
Amharic. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by an additional half-million people in parts of northern and eastern
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
. It is also spoken by smaller numbers of emigrants in other African countries such as
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
,
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
. Oromo is the most widely spoken
Cushitic language
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As ...
and among the five
languages of Africa with the largest mother-tongue populations.
Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system including
Oromia
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Be ...
,
Harari and
Dire Dawa regional states and of the
Oromia Zone
The Oromia Zone ( om, Godina Oromiyaa; Amharic: ኦሮሚያ ዞን) is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Oromia is named for the Oromo people, who settled along the edge of the Ethiopian Highlands that form this Zone. Oromia Zone is border ...
in the
Amhara Region
The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Re ...
. It is a language of primary education in
Oromia
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Be ...
,
Harari,
Dire Dawa,
Benishangul-Gumuz
Benishangul-Gumuz ( am, ቤንሻንጉል ጉሙዝ, Benšangul Gumuz) is a regional state in northwestern Ethiopia to the border of Sudan. It was previously known as Region 6. The region's capital is Assosa. Following the adoption of the 19 ...
and
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
and of the
Oromia Zone
The Oromia Zone ( om, Godina Oromiyaa; Amharic: ኦሮሚያ ዞን) is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Oromia is named for the Oromo people, who settled along the edge of the Ethiopian Highlands that form this Zone. Oromia Zone is border ...
in the
Amhara Region
The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Re ...
. It is used as an internet language for federal websites along with
Tigrinya
(; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions.
History and literatur ...
. Under
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...
's regime, Oromo was banned in education, in conversation, and in administrative matters.
Varieties
![Map of Oromo language varieties and dialects](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Map_of_Oromo_language_varieties_and_dialects.svg)
''Ethnologue'' (2015) assigns five ISO codes to Oromo:
:*
Boranaa–Arsii–Gujii Oromo (Southern Oromo, including Gabra and Sakuye dialects), ISO code
ax:*
Eastern Oromo (Harar), ISO code
ae:*
Orma (Munyo, Orma, Waata/Sanye), ISO code
rc:*
West–Central Oromo (Western Oromo and Central Oromo, including Mecha/Wollega, Raya, Wello (Kemise), Tulema/Shewa), ISO code
az:*
Waata
The Waata (Waat, Watha), or Sanye, are an Oromo-speaking people of Kenya and former hunter-gatherers. They share the name ''Sanye'' with the neighboring Dahalo.
The current language of the Waata may be a dialect of Orma or otherwise Southern ...
, ISO code
sn
Blench (2006) divides Oromo into four languages:
:*Western Oromo (Maca)
:*Shewa (Tuulama, Arsi)
:*Eastern Oromo (Harar)
:*Southern Oromo (Ajuran, Borana, Gabra, Munyo, Orma, Sakuye, Waata)
Some of the varieties of Oromo have been examined and classified.
Speakers
About 85 percent of Oromo speakers live in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, mainly in the
Oromia Region
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benis ...
. In addition, in
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
there are also some speakers of the language. In
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
, the Ethnologue also lists 722,000 speakers of
Borana and
Orma, two languages closely related to Ethiopian Oromo. Within Ethiopia, Oromo is the language with the largest number of native speakers.
Within Africa, Oromo is the language with the fourth most speakers, after Arabic (if one counts the mutually unintelligible spoken forms of Arabic as a single language and assumes the same for the varieties of Oromo),
Swahili, and
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
...
.
Besides first language speakers, a number of members of other ethnicities who are in contact with the Oromo speak it as a second language. See, for example, the
Omotic-speaking
Bambassi and the
Nilo-Saharan-speaking
Kwama in northwestern Oromia.
Language policy
The Oromo people use a highly developed oral tradition. In the 19th century, scholars began writing in the Oromo language using
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
. In 1842,
Johann Ludwig Krapf began translations of the Gospels of John and Matthew into Oromo, as well as a first grammar and vocabulary. The first Oromo dictionary and grammar was produced by German scholar Karl Tutschek in 1844. The first printing of a transliteration of Oromo language was in 1846 in a German newspaper in an article on the Oromo in Germany.
After
Abyssinia
The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...
annexed Oromo's territory, the language's development into a full-fledged writing instrument was interrupted. The few works that had been published, most notably
Onesimos Nesib
Onesimos Nesib ( Oromo: Onesimoos Nasiib; Amharic: ኦነሲሞስ ነሲብ; c 1856 – 21 June 1931) was a native Oromo scholar who converted to Lutheran Christianity and translated the Christian Bible into Oromo. His parents named him Hika ...
's and
Aster Ganno
Aster Ganno (c.1872–1964) was an Ethiopian Bible translator who worked with the better known Onesimos Nesib as a translator of the Oromo Bible, published in 1899.
Biography
She was born free, but was later enslaved by the king of Limmu-En ...
's translations of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
from the late 19th century, were written in the
Ge'ez alphabet. Following the
1974 Revolution
The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " ...
, 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 , and many others, were written in the traditional Ethiopic script.
Plans to introduce Oromo language instruction in schools, however, were not realized until the government of
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam ( am, መንግሥቱ ኀይለ ማሪያም, pronunciation: ; born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian politician and former army officer who was the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and General Secretary of the Wor ...
was overthrown in 1991, except in regions controlled by the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). With the creation of the regional
state of Oromia under the new system of
ethnic federalism
Ethnic federalism, multi-ethnic or multi-national federalism,Liam D. Anderson (2016),"Ethnofederalism: The Worst form of institutional arrangement...?" Academia is a form of federal system in which the federated regional or state units are define ...
in Ethiopia, it has been possible to introduce Oromo as the
medium of instruction
A medium of instruction (plural: media of instruction, or mediums of instruction) is a language used in teaching. It may or may not be the official language of the country or territory. If the first language of students is different from the offic ...
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 the early 1990s, the
Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization
The Oromo Democratic Party ( om, Paartii Demokraatawaa Oromoo, ODP) was a political party in Ethiopia, and part of the alliance with the Amhara National Democratic Movement, the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front and the Tigrayan Peoples ...
(OPDO) continued developing Oromo in Ethiopia.
Radio broadcasts began in the Oromo language in Somalia in 1960 by
Radio Mogadishu
Radio Mogadishu ( so, Radio Muqdisho, ar, راديو مقديشو) is the federal government-run radio station of Somalia. .
The programme featured music and propaganda. A song (Liberation is Milk) became a hit in Ethiopia. To combat Somali wide-reaching influence, the Ethiopian Government initiated an Oromo language program radio of their own. Within
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
there has been radio broadcasting in Oromo (in the Borana dialect) on the
Voice of Kenya
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is the state-run media organisation of Kenya. It broadcasts in English and Swahili, as well as in most local languages of Kenya. The corporation started its life in 1928 when Kenya was a British colony. ...
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 Oromo dictionary was developed by the Jimma Times Oromiffa Group (JTOG) in cooperation with SelamSoft.
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
also broadcasts in Oromo alongside its other horn of Africa programs. Oromo and Qubee are currently utilized by the Ethiopian government's state radios, TV stations and regional government newspaper.
Phonology and orthography
Writing systems
![Bakri Sapalo alphabet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Bakri_Sapalo_alphabet.png)
Oromo is written with a
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
called 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 1970s (Heine 1986). 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. In Kenya, the
Borana and
Waata
The Waata (Waat, Watha), or Sanye, are an Oromo-speaking people of Kenya and former hunter-gatherers. They share the name ''Sanye'' with the neighboring Dahalo.
The current language of the Waata may be a dialect of Orma or otherwise Southern ...
also use Roman letters but with different systems.
The Sapalo script was an indigenous Oromo script invented by Sheikh
Bakri Sapalo (1895–1980; also known by his birth name, Abubaker Usman Odaa) in the late 1950s, and used underground afterwards. Despite structural and organizational influences from
Ge'ez and the
Arabic script, it is a graphically independent creation designed specifically for Oromo phonology. It is largely
alphasyllabic in nature, but lacks the inherent vowel present in many such systems; in actual use, all consonant characters are obligatorially marked either with vowel signs (producing CV syllables) or with separate marks used to denote long consonants and consonants not followed by a vowel (e.g. in word-final environments or as part of consonant clusters).
The
Arabic script has also been used intermittently in areas with Muslim populations.
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
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consonan ...
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. It is retroflex in most dialects, though it is not strongly implosive and may reduce to a flap between vowels. One source describes it as voiceless .
Oromo has the typical Eastern 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, 'lake', 'new'.
Gemination
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
is also significant in Oromo. That is,
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
length can distinguish words from one another, for example, 'bad', 'highland'.
In the Qubee alphabet, letters include the digraphs ''ch, dh, ny, ph, sh.'' Gemination is not obligatorily marked for digraphs, though some writers indicate it by doubling the first element: 'be prepared'. In the charts below, the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
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 recently adopted words. Note that there have been minor changes in the orthography since it was first adopted: () was originally rendered , and there has been some confusion among authors in the use of and in representing the phonemes and , with some early works using for and for and even for different phonemes depending on where it appears in a word. This article uses consistently for and for .
Tone and stress
Only the penultimate or final syllable of a root can have a high tone, and if the penultimate is high, the final must also be high; this implies that Oromo has a pitch-accent system (in which the tone need be specified only on one syllable, the others being predictable) rather than a tone system (in which each syllable must have its tone specified), although the rules are complex (each morpheme can contribute its own tone pattern to the word), so that "one can call Oromo a pitch-accent system in terms of the basic lexical representation of pitch, and a tone system in terms of its surface realization." The stressed syllable is perceived as the first syllable of a word with high pitch.
Grammar
Nouns
Gender
Like most other
Afroasiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
, Oromo has two
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
s,
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 pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
s (''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 ' (m.) and ' (f.), as do adjectives when they are used as nouns: 'brother', 'sister', 'the rich one (m.)', 'the poor one (f.)'. Grammatical gender normally agrees with natural gender for people and animals; thus nouns such as 'father', 'son', and 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as 'mother' and 'girl, daughter' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender.
Names of astronomical bodies are feminine: 'sun', 'star'. The gender of other inanimate nouns varies somewhat among dialects.
Number
Oromo displays singular and plural
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
, but nouns that refer to multiple entities are not obligatorily plural: 'man' 'people', 'five men' '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 '; a final vowel is dropped before the suffix, and in the western dialects, the suffix becomes ' following a
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
with a long vowel: 'house', 'houses', 'friend', 'friends', 'teacher', 'teachers'. Among the other common plural suffixes are ', ', and '; the latter two may cause a preceding consonant to be doubled: 'year', 'years', 'river', 'rivers', 'son', 'sons'.
Definiteness
Oromo has no indefinite
articles
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
(corresponding to English ''a'', ''some''), but (except in the southern dialects) it indicates
definiteness
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...
(English ''the'') with suffixes on the noun: ' for masculine nouns (the ''ch'' is
geminated
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
though this is not normally indicated in writing) and ' for feminine nouns. Vowel endings of nouns are dropped before these suffixes: 'road', 'the road', 'man', / 'the man', 'lake', 'the lake'. Note that for animate nouns that can take either gender, the definite suffix may indicate the intended gender: 'priest', 'the priest (m.)', '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
Oromo nouns appear in seven
grammatical case
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
s, each indicated by a suffix, the lengthening of the noun's final vowel, or both. 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.
;
Absolutive
In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative ...
:The absolutive case is the
citation form
In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (plural ''lemmas'' or ''lemmata'') is the canonical form, dictionary form, or citation form of a set of word forms. In English, for example, ''break'', ''breaks'', ''broke'', ''broken'' and ''breaking'' a ...
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.
:* 'house', 'we bought a house'
:* 'until', 'end', 'until (the) end'
:* , 'inside (a/the) house'
:* 'he', 'teacher'
:* 'he is a teacher'
;
Nominative
: The nominative is used for nouns that are the
subjects of clauses.
:* (a name), 'Ibsaa (nom.)', '(a) car', 'he has':
:* 'Ibsaa has a car'.
: Most nouns ending in short vowels with a preceding single consonant drop the final vowel and add ' to form the nominative. Following certain consonants,
assimilation changes either the ' or that consonant (the details depend on the dialect).
:* 'man', 'man (nom.)'
:* 'men'; , 'men (nom.)' (' + ' may assimilate to ')
: If a final short vowel is preceded by two consonants or a geminated consonant, ' is suffixed.
:* 'statement', 'statement (nom.)'
:* 'the man', 'the man (nom.)' (the ' in the definite suffix ' is actually geminated, though not normally written as such)
: If the noun ends in a long vowel, ' is suffixed to this. This pattern applies to infinitives, which end in '.
:* 'name', 'name (nom.)'
:* 'to eat, eating', 'to eat, eating (nom.)'
: If the noun ends in ', the nominative is identical to the base form.
:* 'mouth, language (base form or nom.)'
: Some feminine nouns ending in a short vowel add '. Again assimilation occurs in some cases.
:* 'mother', (' + ' assimilates to ')
:* 'earth',
;
Genitive
: The genitive is used for possession or "belonging"; it corresponds roughly to English ''of'' or '. The genitive is usually formed by lengthening a final short vowel, by adding ' 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.
:* 'sister', 'the man', 'the man's sister'
:* 'job', , woman's name, , 'Caaltuu's job'
:* 'field of study', 'mouth, language', 'linguistics'
: In place of the genitive it is also possible to use the relative marker ' (m.) / ' (f.) preceding the possessor.
:* '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
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
(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)
::* 'the man', 'to the man, of the man'
:*' following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel; ' following a consonant
::* 'girl, daughter', 'to a girl, daughter'
::* 'dog', 'to a dog'
::* 'to learn', 'in order to learn'
::* 'water', 'for water'
:*' or ' following a long vowel
::* 'dog'; 'to a dog'
:*' (with no change to a preceding vowel), especially with verbs of speaking
::* woman's name, 'tell, say (imperative)', 'tell Caaltuu'
;
Instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
: 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:
:*' following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel; ' following a consonant
::* 'hand', 'by hand, with a hand'
::* 'night', 'at night'
:* following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel
::* 'Oromo (language)', 'in Oromo'
:*' following a long vowel
::* 'time', 'on time'
::* 'to come out, coming out', '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 '.
:* 'in Arsii'
:* 'hand', 'in hand'
:* 'day', 'per day'
:* 'under'
;
Ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
: The ablative is used to represent the source of an event; it corresponds closely to English ''from''. The ablative, applied to postpositions and locative adverbs as well as nouns proper, is formed in the following ways:
:* When the word ends in a short vowel, this vowel is lengthened (as for the genitive).
::* 'country', 'from country'
::* 'inside, in', 'from inside'
:* When the word ends in a long vowel, ' is added (as for one alternative for the dative).
::* 'from Finfinne'
::* 'market', 'from market'
:* When the word ends in a consonant, ' is added (as for the genitive).
::* 'from Harar'
:* Following a noun in the genitive, ' is added.
::* 'house', 'coffee', 'cafe', 'from cafe'
: An alternative to the ablative is the postposition ' 'from' whose initial vowel may be dropped in the process:
:* 'market', 'from market'
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
In most languages, there is a small number of basic distinctions of
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
,
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
, and often
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
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 ; English ''they'', Oromo '' and the set of
possessive adjective Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic
Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they ...
s and
pronouns, for example, English ''my'', Oromo ; English ''mine'', Oromo . 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
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...
on the verb. Because these suffixes vary greatly with the particular verb
tense/
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
/
mood, they are normally not considered to be pronouns and are discussed elsewhere in this article under verb
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
* Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
* Complex conjugation, the chang ...
.
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
A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language where certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite int ...
. That is, neutral sentences in which the subject is not emphasized do not require independent subject pronouns: '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 ('we came') by the suffix '. When the subject in such sentences needs to be given prominence for some reason, an independent pronoun can be used: '' 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 ') are used in all cases. Possessive adjectives may take the case endings for the nouns they modify: 'to my village' (': locative case).
As in languages such as
French,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, 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 'of': 'mine', 'yours', etc.
Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
Oromo has two ways of expressing
reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence.
In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously n ...
s ('myself', 'yourself', etc.). One is to use the noun meaning 'self': or . This noun is inflected for case but, unless it is being emphasized, not for person, number, or gender: 'she looks at herself' (base form of ), 'she bought herself a car' (dative of ).
The other possibility is to use the noun meaning 'head', , with possessive suffixes: 'myself', 'yourself (s.)', etc.
Oromo has a
reciprocal pronoun
A reciprocal pronoun is a pronoun that indicates a reciprocal relationship. A reciprocal pronoun can be used for one of the participants of a reciprocal construction, i.e. a clause in which two participants are in a mutual relationship. The recip ...
(English 'each other') that is used like . That is, it is inflected for case but not person, number, or gender: 'they like each other' (base form of ), 'they bought each other gifts' (dative of ).
Demonstrative pronouns
Like English, Oromo makes a two-way distinction between proximal ('this, these') and distal ('that, those')
demonstrative pronoun
Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...
s and adjectives. Some dialects distinguish masculine and feminine for the proximal pronouns; in the western dialects the masculine forms (beginning with ') 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, 'at/on/in that' (locative case).
Verbs
An Oromo verb consists minimally of a
stem, representing the
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
meaning of the verb, and a
suffix, representing
tense or
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
and
subject agreement. For example, in 'we came', ' is the stem ('come') and ' indicates that the tense is past and that the subject of the verb is first person plural.
As in many other
Afroasiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
, 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
The jussive (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood. The mood is similar to the ''cohortative'' mood, which typically a ...
('let me/us/him, etc. V', together with the particle ), and for the
negative of the present (together with the particle ). For example, 'we went', 'we go', 'that we go', 'let's go', 'we don't go'. There is also a separate
imperative form: 'go (sg.)!'.''
Conjugation
The table below shows the conjugation in the affirmative and negative of the verb ' 'know'. The first person singular present and past affirmative forms require the suffix ' to appear on the word preceding the verb or the word ' before the verb. The negative particle ', shown as a separate word in the table, is sometimes written as a prefix on the verb.
For verbs with stems ending in certain consonants and suffixes beginning with consonants (that is, ' or '), 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.
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, 'see', 'he sees', or (from ) 'we see'; 'laugh', 'he laughed', or '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.
# '- 'die': ' 'he dies', 'you (sg.) die', 'we die'
# '-, 'be hungry': ' 'he is hungry', 'you (sg.) are hungry', 'we are hungry'
# '- 'hear': ' 'he hears', 'you (sg.) hear', 'we hear' (note that the suffix consonants change)
The common verbs 'want' and '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: 'he wants', 'you (sg.) want', 'we want', 'you (pl.) want', 'didn't want', etc.
The verb 'come' has the irregular imperatives , . The verb 'go' has, alongside regular imperative forms, the irregular imperatives , .
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
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
: 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: 'know', 'be known', 'they were known'; 'say', 'be said', '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: 'know', 'cause to know, inform', 'we informed'; '- 'go up, get up', 'pick up', 'pick up (sing.)!'; 'enter', 'put in', 'she puts in'; 'learn', 'teach', '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', though 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: 'buy', 'buy for oneself', 'he bought (something) for himself', 'buy for yourself (sing.)!'; 'have', 'seize, hold (for oneself)', 'we hold'. Some autobenefactives are derived from nouns rather than verbs, for example, 'work' from the noun 'work'.
The voice suffixes can be combined in various ways. Two causative suffixes are possible: '- 'go up', 'pick up', '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'': '- 'return (intransitive)', 'return (transitive), answer', 'be returned, be answered', 'get back for oneself'.
Another derived verbal
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
is the
frequentative
In grammar, a frequentative form ( abbreviated or ) of a word is one that indicates repeated action but is not to be confused with iterative aspect. The frequentative form can be considered a separate but not completely independent word called a ...
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: 'spend the night', 'spend several nights', 'break', 'break to pieces, break completely'; 'push, apply pressure', '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: 'drink', 'to drink'; '- 'reach', ' 'to reach'; 'say', 'to say'. The verb is exceptional; its infinitive is rather than the expected . The infinitive behaves like a noun; that is, it can take any of the case suffixes. Examples: ' 'to reach', ' 'in order to reach' (dative case); 'drink', 'be drunk', to be drunk', 'by being drunk' (instrumental case).
References
Bibliography
Grammar
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Dictionaries
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*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.
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External links
BBC Learning English Afaan Oromoo*
Oromo language learning
Online Oromo – Qubee DictionaryVoice of America news broadcast in Oromocontains many articles written in Oromo and audio.
PanAfriL10n page on Oromo: software for morphological analysis and generation of Oromo (and Amharic and Tigrinya) words
Oromo – Daily News
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