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Gamo-Gofa-Dawro is an Omotic language of the Afroasiatic family (Te-Ne-Omotic according to Glottolog) spoken in the Dawro, Gamo Gofa and Wolayita Zones of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia. Varieties are spoken by the Gamo, Gofa, Dawro; Blench (2006) and Ethnologue treat these as separate languages. Zala presumably belongs here as well. Dialects of Dawro (Kullo-Konta) are Konta and Kucha. In 1992, Alemayehu Abebe collected a word-list of 322 entries for all three related dialects.

Phonology

Segmentally, Gamo phonology operates with a system of twenty-six consonants and five vowel qualities, and in nearly every case a segment may occur short or long.

Vowels sound in Gamo language

(Reference page 21/22)

Morphology

Noun plural

The morphology of plural making in Gamo is straightforward and uniform.

In masculine nouns, plural is marked by means of a suffix -t, affixed to the oblique case form. The oblique is also the base for the suffixation of definiteness marking.

Feminine nouns take a suffix -int to form their plurals. This is affixed to the absolutive singular:

(Reference page 81)

Adjectives

By comparison with certain other languages of Ethiopia, Gamo has a large vocabulary of adjectives. Like nominals, adjectives fall into declension classes, and although, being adjectives, they do not inflect for nominative case and there is no agreement within the phrase for number or definiteness, the declensional differences relating to oblique case marking do appear in U-declension adjectives when they function attributively.

The correlation between which particular TV an adjective has and its membership of a declension class appears to hold exactly as in nouns; thus, adjectives having a TV-o are always S-declension, adjective having a TV-i are always U-declension, while those having the TVs-a and -e are distributed between the two declensions, although almost all are S-declension.

Example;

(Reference page 150)

Adjective and noun agreement

In the definite noun phrases where the noun is modified by an adjective the definite marker does not shift to the adjective, but remains on the noun

Example:

Gita

big.OBL

mittsai

tree.M-DEF

kundides

fall.PF-3M

Gita mittsai kundides

big.OBL tree.M-DEF fall.PF-3M

The big tree fell down Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Boottsa

white.OBL

miizati

cow.PL-DEF.NOM

haik'k'ida

die.PF-3PL

Boottsa miizati haik'k'ida

white.OBL cow.PL-DEF.NOM die.PF-3PL

The white cows died Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

(Reference page 151)

Adverbs

Adverbial notion however, can be expressed in a wide variety of ways. In terms of syntactic constructions the two most frequent means of expressing adverbial notions are postpositional phrases and converbial clauses.

A number of verb lexemes contain some intrinsic reference to temporal or spatial features. Thus,

Examples:

1. gam’-‘~k’am’-‘ ‘be(come)/last a long time’
2. giddotsiss-‘ ‘stay late’
3. na’at-‘ ‘act childishly’
4. minétt- ‘act bravely’
5. miizat- ‘behave naively
6. godat-‘ ‘behave in a masterly way

Other more examples

K’uma

Lunch

katso

cook-VNO

wontara

dawn

oikkadus

OBL+PP(-ra)

start.PF-3F

K’uma katso wontara oikkadus

Lunch cook-VNO dawn OBL+PP(-ra) start.PF-3F

She started cooking lunch very early in the morning Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 4 word(s) in line 1, 5 word(s) in line 2 (help); Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Zilaittsape

Last-year.OBL+PP(-ppe)

oikkidi

begin.PF.CVB.3PL.PRON.NOM

isti

secret.OBL+PP(-ra)send-a-message-to-one-another.IMPF-3PL

k’otara

kiitetettes

Zilaittsape oikkidi isti k’otara kiitetettes

Last-year.OBL+PP(-ppe) begin.PF.CVB.3PL.PRON.NOM secret.OBL+PP(-ra)send-a-message-to-one-another.IMPF-3PL

Since last year they have been corresponding secretly. Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 5 word(s) in line 1, 3 word(s) in line 2 (help); Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

(Reference page 300)

Postpositions

Gamo has very few postpositions; my analysis recognizes just six;

(-n), (-s), (-ppe), (-kko), (-ra) and (-u).

Phonologically, these are fairly minimal and in all cases their phonological structure obliges them to occur as attachments to other words.

There are however, instances where a postposition attaches to other clitic elements, such as to the inclusivity marker (-kka) or to the hypotheticality marker (-kko).

Example

Awokkonka

LOC.INT.PRON

demmakad

+

UNI.E+PP(-N)+INCL

find.IMPF-2SG-NEG

Awokkonka demmakad

LOC.INT.PRON + UNI.E+PP(-N)+INCL find.IMPF-2SG-NEG

You won't find (it) anywhere at all Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 2 word(s) in line 1, 4 word(s) in line 2 (help); Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Banga

barley.OBI

buuts'an

straw.OBL+PP(-n)house

keettse

cover.PF-SG

kammadis

Banga buuts'an keettse kammadis

barley.OBI straw.OBL+PP(-n)house cover.PF-SG

I thatched a house with barley straw Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 4 word(s) in line 1, 3 word(s) in line 2 (help); Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

The range of senses for the postposition (-s) may not appear to be quite so extensive but perhaps this is because English itself uses the preposition "for" so widely

Example;

Ne

2SG.DET

butaletappe

puppy.PL-DEF+PP(-ppe)

taas

1SG.DET.JN-OBL+PP(-s)

dičča

rear.IMPT-2SG

Ne butaletappe taas dičča

2SG.DET puppy.PL-DEF+PP(-ppe) 1SG.DET.JN-OBL+PP(-s) rear.IMPT-2SG

Bring up one of your puppies for me Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

(Reference page 155)

Pronouns

Personal pronouns have long and short forms, but while, for most of them, the short form can clearly be identified with the leftmost portion of the long form, in the 3rd  person singular pronouns the short form consists of the rightmost portion of the long form.

Example:

(Reference page 99)

Negation of verb

Negation in all subordinate clauses employs the simple-base with (-onta), which is also the form that functions in converbial negation. Since this form shows no agreement with its clause subject, the 'same subject': 'changed subject' marking which distinguishes converbial from subordinate clauses is neutralized. This situation is apparent in sentences (a - c). In other cases a subordinate clause status is made clearer periphrastically by the addition of the perfect or imperfect forms of the inherently negative verb (-agg).

Examples:

Na'ita

child.PL-DEF

č'oo-gissonta

cause-to-shut-up.SUB.NEG

haasa'oi

have-a-conversation.infO.NOM

hanenna

be-possible.ImpF-3M-NEG

Na'ita č'oo-gissonta haasa'oi hanenna

child.PL-DEF cause-to-shut-up.SUB.NEG have-a-conversation.infO.NOM be-possible.ImpF-3M-NEG

Without (someone) making the children shut up, it's not possible to have a conversation

Iza

3F.PRON

zore

advice

siyo

hear-VNO

itts'

refuse.SUB.NEG

onta

remain-silent.3PL

muumi

cause-a-disaster.PF-3PL

godoltsida

Iza zore siyo itts' onta muumi godoltsida

3F.PRON advice hear-VNO refuse.SUB.NEG remain-silent.3PL cause-a-disaster.PF-3PL

Remaining silent (at the time) when she would not have refused to listen to advice, they allowed her to get into a real disaster Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 7 word(s) in line 1, 6 word(s) in line 2 (help); Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Ta

1SG.DET]N

šammonta

buy.SUB.NEG

aggi-šin

fail.1.IMPF.SUB-DS

uyees!

drink.IMPF-3M

Ta šammonta aggi-šin uyees!

1SG.DET]N buy.SUB.NEG fail.1.IMPF.SUB-DS drink.IMPF-3M

He drinks when I don't buy it! Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

(Reference page 266)

Numerals

In Gamo, the counting forms are in general identical to the citation (absolutive) forms, except in the case of issinno ‘one’, for which a variant form ista can be used.

The forms denoting multiples of ten are based on tamma, which is preceded by the appropriate cardinal numeral in its pre-nominal oblique case form.

Examples

(Reference page 141)

Notes

1. Gamo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
   Gofa at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
   Dawro at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
3. Abebe, Alemayehu, Ometo Dialect Pilot Survey Report (PDF), SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-068, archived from the original (PDF) on April 16, 2015

External links

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Gamo

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