Amha, Azeb (2010) From gender identification to assertion: on the use of -tte and -tta in Zargulla, an endangered Omotic language. The Journal of West African Languages, 37 (1). 57-73.

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Abstract

Zargu1la is a member of the East-Ometo branch of the Omotic language family. It is spoken within the Bonke district in South-west Ethiopia. In the 1994 national census, about 8000 mother-tongue speakers of Zargulla are reported. Of these, 390 claim that they are ethnic Zargulla; the others consider themselves ethnic Gamo, a name also used to refer to a demographically and socially dominant group that speaks a distinct (North Ometo) language known as Gamotso 'the language of the Garno'. This etlmic identification led the authorities to treat the Zargulla and Garno people as speakers of the same language. Because of this, Zargulla is dominated by Garno and risks extinction. The two languages belong to two different subgroups of the Ometo branch of Omotic and they are not mutually intelligible. In some grammatical features such as verbal inflection and focus marking they are very different. In the present contribution we Will examine one of the features that distinguishes Zargulla from Garno and other North Ometo languages. This involves the morphological marking of emphatic assertion and focus.

Item ID:	28514
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	0022-5401
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2013 02:01
FoR Codes:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2004 Linguistics > 200403 Discourse and Pragmatics @ 20% 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2004 Linguistics > 200408 Linguistic Structures (incl Grammar, Phonology, Lexicon, Semantics) @ 80%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture @ 100%
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