The East Cushitic languages are a branch of Cushitic within the Afroasiatic phylum.[1][2] Prominent East Cushitic languages include Oromo, Somali, and Sidama. The unity of East Cushitic has been contested:[3] Robert Hetzron suggested combining the Highland East Cushitic languages with the Agaw languages into a "Highland Cushitic" branch,[4] while most other scholars follow Martino Mario Moreno in seeing Highland and Lowland as two branches of East Cushitic.[5]
| East Cushitic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Horn of Africa, East Africa |
| Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Proto-language | Proto-East-Cushitic |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | east2699 |
Classification
editClearly distinct subgroups within East Cushitic are Highland East Cushitic (including Sidama and Hadiyya), Oromoid (including Oromo and Konso), Omo-Tana (including Somali), Dullay, and Saho-Afar. A number of tree models of how these relate to each other have been put forward. Highland East Cushitic is commonly seen as a primary branch, also in the "traditional" or "classical" view which groups Yaaku with Dullay and groups the rest as Lowland East Cushitic.[6][3] With the addition of Dahalo, formerly considered to belong to South Cushitic, this classification is also followed by David Appleyard:[1]
An influential alternative classification was put forward by Mauro Tosco. His 2000 proposal groups Yaaku and Dullay with part of Lowland and replaces them with all of South Cushitic as the fourth daughter branch of East Cushitic:[6]
Tosco's revised 2020 classification leaves the disputed Dahalo and South Cushitic languages out of consideration, leaving a binary split between Highland and Lowland (although he states that this is negatively defined and could also be seen as separate branches of East Cushitic):[2]
Finally, Lionel Bender's posthumous 2019 classification also places Dahalo outside East Cushitic,[7] making it a primary branch of Cushitic as also suggested by Kießling and Mous.[8] Yaaku is not listed, being placed within Arboroid. Afar–Saho is removed from Lowland East Cushitic; since they are the most 'lowland' of the Cushitic languages, Bender calls the remnant 'core' East Cushitic.
- East Cushitic
- Afar–Saho
- Highland East Cushitic
- Lowland East Cushitic ('core' East Cushitic)
- Dullay
- SAOK
- Eastern Omo–Tana (Somaloid)
- Western Omo–Tana (Arboroid)
- Oromoid (Oromo–Konsoid)
Morphology
editVerb
editAs in most other branches of Cushitic, the majority of East Cushitic verbs mark their subject agreement and tense–aspect–mood information with suffixes. A typically East Cushitic feature is the threefold distinction between imperfective, perfective, and jussive forms, marked by a changing vowel.[9] This is most clearly seen in Lowland languages like Oromo, but also recognizable in Highland languages like Sidamo:[9]
| Imperfective | Perfective | Jussive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oromo | Sidamo | Oromo | Sidamo | Oromo | Sidamo | |
| 1sg. | deem-a | it-eemmo | deem-e | it-ummo | deem-u | it-o[ni] |
| 2sg. | deem-ta | it-atto | deem-te | it-itto | deem-tu | - |
| 3sg.m. | deem-a | it-anno | deem-e | it-í | deem-u | it-o[na] |
| 3sg.f. | deem-ti | it-tanno | deem-te | it-tú | deem-tu | it-to[na] |
Lexicon
editThe East Cushitic languages share a sizeable amount of basic vocabulary inherited from Proto-East-Cushitic, such as the following:[10]
| Meaning | Somali (Omo-Tana) | Oromo (Oromoid) | Burji (Highland) | Yaaku | Saho | Proto-East-Cushitic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'bone' | laf | laf-ee | - | - | laf-a | *laf- |
| 'cough' | qufac- | qufa- | k'uf-ey- | qopɛʔɛ- | ufuʕ- | *k'uf(a)ʕ- |
| 'elephant' | arb-e | arb-a | arb-a | arap-e 'carnivorous animal' | - | *ʔarb- |
| 'give birth' | dhal- | dhal- | ɗal- | del- | ɖal- | *ɗal- |
| 'head' | madax | mataa | - | miteh | - | *matħ- |
| 'heart' | wadne | onn-ee | - | - | wazana, wadana | *wazn- |
| 'navel' | xundhur | handhuur-a | hanʔur-a | hender-o | - | *ħanɗur-/*ħunɗur- |
| 'pus' | malax | mala-a | mal-a | mileh | malaħ | *malħ- |
| 'right-hand (side)' | midig | mirg-a | (mirg-a)[a] | - | midg-a, mizg-a | *mizg- |
| 'wake up, get up' | kac- | ka'- | kaʔ- | kɛʔɛ 'plant, put up' | - | *kaʕ |
- ^ Oromo loanword.
References
edit- ^ a b Appleyard, David (2012). "Cushitic". In Edzard, Lutz (ed.). Semitic and Afroasiatic: Challenges and Opportunities. Porta Linguarum Orientalium. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 199–295.
- ^ a b Tosco, Mauro (2020). "East Cushitic". In Vossen, Rainer; Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 290–299.
- ^ a b Mous, Maarten (2012). "Cushitic". In Frajzyngier, Zygmunt; Shay, Erin (eds.). The Afroasiatic Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 342–422.
- ^ Hetzron, Robert (1980). "The Limits of Cushitic". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (2): 7–126.
- ^ Moreno, M. M. (1940). Manuale di sidamo. Grammatiche e lessici delle lingue dell'Africa italiano. Milan: Mondadori.
- ^ a b Tosco, Mauro (2000). "Cushitic Overview". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 33 (2): 87–121.
- ^ Bender, M. Lionel (2019). Grover Hudson (ed.). Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology. Schriften zur Afrikanistik – Research in African Studies. Vol. 28. Berlin: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-60089-4.
- ^ Kießling, Roland; Mous, Maarten (2003). The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic. Cushitic Language Studies. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
- ^ a b Appleyard, David L. (1996). "The Position of Agaw within Cushitic". In Zemánek, Petr (ed.). Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Memorial Volume of Karel Petráček. Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Oriental Institute. pp. 1–14.
- ^ Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1979). "The Consonant Phonemes of Proto-East-Cushitic (PEC): A First Approximation". Afroasiatic Linguistics. 7 (1): 1–67.