Argobba is an Ethiopian Semitic language spoken in several districts of Afar, Amhara, and Oromia regions of Ethiopia by the Argobba people. It belongs to the South Ethiopic languages subgroup, and is closely related to Amharic.
Writing in the mid-1960s, Edward Ullendorff noted that it "is disappearing rapidly in favour of Amharic, and only a few hundred elderly people are still able to speak it."Ullendorff, Edward, (1965) The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People, second edition (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 131f. . Today, many Argobba in the Harari Region are shifting to the Oromo language.Kifleyesus, Abbebe. 2006. The Argobba of Ethiopia are not the Language They Speak. Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 9:7-22. Those in the Ankober district speak the Amharic language.
Phonology
Consonants Depending on the Argobba variation, the number of consonants varies. In the Shonke and T‘ollaha variation there are 26 consonant phonemes, in the other variations there are 25. The additional consonants are the pharyngeal fricatives /ħ/ and /ʕ/ as well as the velar fricative /x/.
Argobba consists of 11 plosive consonant phonemes. All of them (except the voiceless postalveolar plosive can be placed in the initial, middle and final position of the word.
+ConsonantsLabial AlveolarPalatalVelarPharyngealGlottal PlosiveVoiceless Voiced Ejective NasalTrillFricativeVoiceless VoicedApproximant
Vowels There are six vowel phonemes in Argobba and they are not differentiated in vowel length. +VowelsFrontCentralBack CloseClose-midOpen-midOpen The /ɜ/ functions as a default vowel for the creation of nominal and verbal formations and is used in many words.
The phoneme /a/ can stand in any position of the word and is related to the vowels /e/ and /o/.
The vowel /e/ can be placed in any position of the word, while it is rarely in the initial position.
The /i/ occurs in any position of the word, but there is a prefix added when it is in initial position. There are few words that start with the /e/.
The phoneme /u/ almost exclusively occurs in the central or the final position of the word.
The vowel /o/ has its roots in the diphthong aw and it can occur in any position of the word.
The /ɨ/ functions as an epethese vowel and aids to construct a phonotactically functioning syllable structure. It is a vowel without any specifications and is used solely to create a satisfying structural condition.
Syllable Structure The syllable structure can be divided into onset, nucleus and coda. In a syllable there has to be at least a nucleus, the other parts are not mandatory. The Argobba language has five syllable types: V, VC, CV, CVC, and CVCC. V and VC are without an onset and a is added in initial position.
The syllable type CV is a consonant in onset position and a vocal in nucleus. Some words only consist of this syllable. Usually they occur together within more phonetically complex words.
The syllable type CVC consists of a consonant in onset, a vocal in nucleus and a consonant in coda.
CVCC on the other hand consists of a consonant in onset, a vocal in nucleus, and two consonants in coda. There are restrictions regarding the consonants in the coda position: for example the first consonant has to be a fricative, nasal or a liquid. The second consonant is always an occlusive, if this is not given the epenthetic vowel has to be added.
Grammar
Morphology Argobba is an agglutinative language, using suffixes and prefixes to change the meaning of the words. Sometimes in special cases infixes are used, but it occurs less often.
Cases There are four different types of cases in Argobba; the nominative, accusative, genitive and oblique case. The cases differ in their usage and also the formation, especially in the addition of pre- or suffixed adpositions. +CaseAffixAdpositionExampleTranslationNominative - -lɨĵu mɜčɨʔʔohall“His son has come“Accusative -n -on (2.sg m/f)tolɨĵɨččin lɜʔaxɜyye“Send the kind to me“Genitive -a -i (after ɨ) from (+person)amɜħammɜd lamɨtti“Mohammed‘s cow“Oblique: benefactive durative locative Instrumental temporal ablative causative comparative comitativelɜ- lɜ- tɜ- bɜ- bɜ- ɨntɜ- sɨlɜ- ama- -kkulfor on with in (temp.) from about like withlɜlɨĵɨyye lɜsamɨnt tɜmɜdɜw bɜħarb bɜt‘ʷaħ ɨntɜšɨritɨx sɨlɜwaĵib amabetɨčči mɜšorakkul “For my child“ “for a week“ “on the podium“ “with a spear“ “in the morning“ “away from you“ “about the necessary“ “like the house“ “with the elderly”
Pronouns It is differentiated between 4 groups of pronouns. There are demonstrative and interrogative pronouns as well as possessive markers for nouns. The pronouns that are used most and are most diverse are the free personal pronouns, which also differ between singular, plural, gender and case.
In general it can be noted, that the nominative case is the most neutral form of the free personal case and mostly also does not change the pronoun depending on the gender. In the accusative case the endings are different compared to the nominative case, but apart from the first person singular, the beginning of the word is the same. The pronouns in genitive are different compared to the other cases, but the most different is the oblique case, where all pronouns start with an “l“.
As a showing of respect, the personal pronoun of the third person plural in the nominative case ɨllɜm is used. It is also added as a congruence marking morpheme. +Personal Pronouns in cases Person NominativeAccusative Genitive Oblique1st sg. anɨyyoniyyoliyyo2. sg. m/fank / ančaxon / ašonaxlax / la3. sg m/fɨwhat / ɨyyatɨwwaton / ɨyyatoniwwat / iyyatliwwat / liyyat1st pl. ɨnnaɨnnaninnalinna2. pl.ankum axumɨnaxumlaxum3. pl.ɨllɜmɨllɜmɨn illɜmlillɜm
Verbal morphology The semantic basic meaning of a verb in argobba is usually expressed through a verb root that is made up of three root consonants which will be called radicals. Linguists are not entirely sure if there are only radicals in Argobba, or if the roots also consist of vowels in certain cases.
The construction of a verb is done through combining the radical with one other morpheme, which determines the way, order and amount of vowels in the context of the root morpheme, which is called a template.
A template consists of several vowels, that can be added in between and around the radical. In nominal morphology, templates are not as common and are only used to form deverbal nomina.
Another important aspect of the formation of verbs in Argobba are the bases. One verb can have several different bases, because depending on the conjugation, a different template is used. There are four main different conjugations: the perfective, imperfective, jussive and the converb. The main stem of the verb already consists of all the bases needed to conjugate. Usually there is one base for every verb for every conjugation. +Basis Conjugation Example Translation sɜbbɜr-Perfective sɜbbɜr-ew “I broke“ -sɜbr- Imperfectiveɨnnɜ-sɜbr“We broke“ -sbɜr- Jussive yi-sbɜr-u “They shall break“sɜbɨrrConverbsɜbɨrr-o“He breaks and …“ There is a difference between the main stem and an expanded stem. The expanded stems are the part that changes when conjugating and differs between the forms of conjugation. The main stem maintains the same and is the base for the expanded stem.
Some types of verbs use one base for several conjugations and for some verbs the base differs depending on an affirmative or negative form of the conjugation.
In the perfect- and converb conjugations they are formed by adding on suffixes. The imperfective and jussive conjugations are formed by adding a combination of pre- and suffixes. The verbal subjects are also formed by using a template and the radical.
Conjugation of the Perfective The conjugation differs between the affirmative, negative and relative form. To achieve the negative Perfective a prefix has to be added onto the affirmative perfective conjugation. It is differentiated not by an extra word, but by adding a prefix or a suffix into the existing conjugation. In the following table the n- is standing for the negation marker, while the SUB stands for the subject congruence suffix which indicates what person it is about and is added onto the perfective base. +AffirmativePerfectiv-base +SUB NegativeN-Perfectiv-base +SUB -N RelativeREL(N-)Perfectiv-base +SUB
Conjugation of the Imperfective The conjugation consists of a base and one or two subject congruence affixes. The subject congruence consists of a pre- and suffix. The prefixes vary in usage while the suffixes are predominantly used to indicate the plural or feminine form. There are also differences in the conjugation depending on if it is an affirmative, complex, negative or relative verb. The generic masculine is the standard, but in case there are predominantly women, a feminine marker is suffixed after the imperfective-base. +Affirmative SUBImperfective-BasePL/FEMComplex Imperfective SUBImperfective-BasePL/FEM -AUX NegativeN-SUBImperfective-Base PL/FEM -N Relative REL-(N-) SUBImperfective-BasePL/FEM
Conjugation of the Converb The conjugation consists of the converb-base and a subject congruence marker. It cannot be formed in a negative or relative form. +Converb-base +SUB
Conjugation of the Jussive It is formed with the jussive-base and a prefixed subject congruence marker and sometimes a plural or feminine marker is suffixed. The subject congruence affixes that are used in this conjugation are identical to those used in the imperfective conjugation.
It is used to create imperative phrases, while these are only suffixed, but all other forms are created with pre- and suffixes. +ImperativeSUB+Jussive-BaseJussive SUB+Jussive-Base +PL/FEMNegative N-SUB+Jussive-Base +PL/FEM
Numerus
In Argobba it is differentiated between the singular, plural and transnumeral form of a noun. The unmarked form of a noun is in the singular or the transnumeral form, while the transnumeral form is used when the noun generally refers to an unknown number of things or people. The transnumeral formation is marked with sɜw.
The plural is demonstrated through a suffix on the noun, which can either be -ačč or just -čč. The -ačč is used when the noun ends on a consonant, the latter one is used when the noun ends on a vocal.
noun (consonant) lam (sg) lamačč (pl) (cow, cows)
noun (vocal) doro (sg) doročč (pl) chicken, chickens
Another possible formation is adding the number the noun refers to in front of the noun that is pluralized. In the example the ʕassɨr (ten) is the number the noun refers to.
ʕassɨr sɜwačč ɨntɜʔen tɜnšɨʔʔam
“Ten people set off from here…“
The plural form can also be used when the exact number of objects is not known, but it has to be a limited number, as when referring to a certain group of people that is known of in the context that it is in a specific range of number of people and not unlimited people.
Numbers +1hand, handit (f) 20miya, hayca 2ket, häet30sasa3sost, socost 40harba4arbit, harcät 50hamsa5ammɘst, hammɘst60sɘlsa6sɘddest 70säba7sacint 80sämanya8Ssɘmmɘnt90zätäna9žähtwän, yähäten 100mäto, bäqɘl10assɘr200ket mäto
Forming questions In Argobba, questions are formed using different interrogative pronouns that are used to convey the different meaning of the questions. There are no different markers for yes-no questions and information questions. +Interrogative PronounMeaning Optional adpositionMeaning ɨmbɜla“what“lɜ- intɜ- bɜ-“for what“ „why“ “from what“ “with what“man“who“ -kkul innɜ-“with whom“ “who“ et“whose“/“which“ -yyu (m) -yya (f) tɜ- bɜ- intɜ- “whose fem/masc…“ “where“ “on/in where“ “from where“amet “like which/what“ “how“mɜče“when“mɨnĵe“how much/many“ The interrogative pronoun ɨmbɜla is used for questions that refer to a subject in a nominative sentence or to an object that is part of a verbal sentence. The short form ɨmb (what?) is often used when adding a prefix, but is also sometimes used on its own.