29.4187, Diss: Gedeo; East Cushitic; General Linguistics: Dawit Tilahun Jembere: ''A Grammar of Gede'o, A Highland East Cushitic Language, Ethiopia''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-4187. Mon Oct 29 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.4187, Diss: Gedeo; East Cushitic; General Linguistics: Dawit Tilahun Jembere: ''A Grammar of Gede'o, A Highland East Cushitic Language, Ethiopia''

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Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2018 11:20:15
From: Dawit Jembere [dawitjtilahun at gmail.com]
Subject: A Grammar of Gede'o, A Highland East Cushitic Language, Ethiopia

 
Institution: Addis Ababa University 
Program: General Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2018 

Author: Dawit Tilahun Jembere

Dissertation Title: A Grammar of Gede'o, A Highland East Cushitic Language,
Ethiopia 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Gedeo (drs)

Language Family(ies): East Cushitic


Dissertation Director(s):
Shimelis Mazengia
Grover Hadson
Marteen Mous

Dissertation Abstract:

Abstract
A Grammar of Gede’o
Dawit J. Tilahun
Doctor of Philosophy 
Addis Ababa University
2018

This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Gede’o, a Highland East Cushitic
Language spoken in the Southern Ethiopia. The aim of the dissertation is to
provide a comprehensive description of all the major grammatical aspects of
the language. It comprises descriptions of Gede’o phonology, morphology,
morphosyntax and syntax. A semantically classified Gede’o-English wordlist and
a compilation of interlinearized texts is appended.

Phonologically, Gede’o displays contrastive vowel length, gemination, and it
is a stress language with pitch prominence occurring on final syllables of
words. The language has 23 consonant phonemes and  is five vowel system with
contrastive vowel length. The stress system in the language is pitch
realization of stress and a stressed is one which is produced with more
energy, louder and is accompanied by high pitch than its neigbouring
syllables. In Gede’o, all syllables have onset and word that are written with
vowel initial bear an initial glottal stop phonemically.

Gede’o is morphologically a complex language. The language is a suffixing
language, but few cases of exception for time references. Nominals in Gede’o
inflect for number, gender, and case. They inflect for nine cases and also
mark singulative which give rise for the notion of definiteness or
specificity. The verbs also inflect for person number, tense/aspect, and mood.
A fully inflected declarative verb may inflect for perfective, perfect and
imperfective forms. The later include the present progressive, past
progressive, and future forms.

The number of underived adjectives in Gede’o is small compared to nouns and
verbs. Like nouns many adjectives distinguish case, gender and number. On the
other hand, some of the interesting features of adjectives is that they may
occur predicatively and attributively in a construction. They may also share
grammatical feature with both nouns and verbs.   

In Gede’o, the constituent order is SOV/OV. A simple sentence is formed of a
single NP subject and a predicate VP. A noun phrase in Gede'o consists
minimally a head nominal: a common noun, a pronoun or a proper name. Modifiers
are optional constituents of an NP, which can be any of the following
demonstratives, numerals, quantifiers, and nominal attributives. A simple verb
phrase (VP) in Gede'o is formed of a simple verb which can be expanded by
adding modifying elements such as adverbs and other modifiers. In Gede’o
simple sentences are often categorized into declarative, interrogative, and
imperative. A declarative sentence on its own can be classified as
eventive/stative, copula, possessive, and existential. 

Gede’o is a less described language in the HEC sub-group. Thus, this grammar
is hoped to serve as springboard for further linguistic studies on the
language, and as an input in the preparation educational materials. It also
serves as an input towards the standardization of the language.




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