2009
IV, 121 pp.
numerous tables and charts
Text language: English
The database on Ethiopian languages increased considerably due to the activities within the Collaborative Research Center 295 Cultural and Linguistics Contacts: Processes of Change of North Eastern Africa and West Asia at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz/Germany. The research within this center was twofold. First, basic research led to the publication of descriptive grammars of different Ethiopian languages, second, the results were applied to update the status of the Ethiopian Linguistic Area and to extend its features. Two workshops in 2004 and 2007, organized by Joachim Crass and Ronny Meyer which provided an international platform for the assessment of the Ethiopian Linguistic Area. The workshop in 2004 dealt with deictics, copula and focus in several Cushitic, Omotic and (Ethio)Semitic languages (see the links below). The second workshop, held on December 13–14, 2007, discussed linguistic contact and contact-induced language change in Ethiopia from a broader perspective. The six contributions in the present volume, which developed out of the second workshop, represent the diversity of current research on linguistic contacts and on language change in Ethiopia. The present volume offers examples confirming the assumption that Ethiopian languages regardless of their genetic affiliation deliberately display areal patterns by sharing a number of conceptual and structural similarities. It offers a potential enhancement for the discussion on language-internal versus contact-induced linguistic change in the Ethiopian Linguistic Area.
CONTENTS
Joachim Crass / Ronny Meyer: Introduction
Binyam Sisay Mendisu: Copula and/or focus – The morpheme -(k)ko in two East Ometo languages
Ronny Meyer: The quotative verb in Ethiosemitic languages and in Oromo
Ongaye Oda: The spread of punctual derivation in Dullay and Oromoid languages
Christian J. Rapold / Silvia Zaugg-Coretti: Exploring the periphery of the Central Ethiopian Linguistic Area – Data from Yemsa and Benchnon
Sascha Völlmin: Some dialectal differences between Gumer and Chaha (Gurage)
Silvia Zaugg-Coretti: The morpheme -tu as a focus marker in Yemsa (Omotic) and Oromo (Cushitic)
Under these links you will find publications of the contributors and further studies on language contact in Africa:
