Ale language

Socio-linguistics

Ale (also known as Gawwada, Gauwada, Gawata, Kawwad'a, Kawwada) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in southern Ethiopia in the province of Game Gofa. It is a Dullay language. Varieties include Dihina, Gergere, Gollango (= Gaba?), Gorose, Harso; Blench (2006) considers these to be distinct languages.^[2]

Dullay-speaking tribes inhabit an area that stretches from the Gaedulla-Dobase Mountains south of Lake Cam to the highlands of Hanna-Hamar. The Gawwada language has various endonimous and exonimous names. In the Amharic administrative name it is called 'Gäwwada'. The autochthonous name of the country is 'kawwáad'a' and the autochthonous name of the people is 'kawwáako'.^[3]

The name Gawwada originally comes from the village of the same name and the surrounding area that gave the language its name. The Weyt'o River demarcates the western areas where the Ts'amakko live from the Dullay-speaking people.^[3] Gawwada and other Dullay variations, apart from Ts'amakko, are spoken in the mountainous regions at an altitude of around 1600-1700 metres. ^[4]

There is no superordinate ethnonym. The name 'Dullay' was established by AMBORN, MINKER and SASSE (1980) and named after the river of the same name, which is known as Weyt'o in Amharic. This is therefore an exonime name, but is also officially used in Ethiopia. ^[4]

There is generally little information about the Dullay-speaking tribes before the end of the 19th century. The most significant historical event in the modern consciousness of the Dullay-speaking Triebes is the conquest of their territory by Menilek the 2nd's troops in 1897/98. Through fighting, deportation and slavery, the population was decimated to such an extent that today only 1/3 of the former population still lives in this area.^[3]

There are several distinct dialect centres within the Dullay language area. For example the 'Harso-Dobase'. However, this differs only very slightly and is often treated as a single unit. There is also the Gawwada-Gollango. There are greater differences here than with the Harso-Dobase dialects. Other ALE-Gawwada variations are, for example, Dihina, Gergere, Gobeze or Gorose.

Here is an example of a distinction between two variations:

According to the 1994 census, there were 32,636 Gawwada speakers.^[3] The language is not threatened with extinction.^[4]

Bilingualism and multilingualism are widespread in the Dullay language area. People often speak Amharic first, which is now the official language in Ethiopia and is spoken and used in official offices etc. This is usually followed by Konso and other Konsoid variations. In most cases, Dullay variations are not written.^[3]

Phonology^[3]

The phonological system consists of 22 consonants and 10 vowels. The consonants include 12 plosives, five fricatives, one affricate, one trill and three approximants. There are also seven alevolar consonants.

Although the words usually end with a vowel, all consonants can occur at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a word.

Consonants:

Here is a selection of the different vowel phonologies:

1. oral, plosives:

/p/, a bilabial pulmonic stop, realised as:

• [p] voiceless bilabial pulmonic stop when geminate (/pp/)

• [b] (at least partially) voiced bilabial pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced between vowles and in clusters

• [p̚] devoiced unreleased bilabial pulmoni stop, word-final

• [β], rarely; voiced bilabial fricative in intervocalic position

/t/, an alveolar pulmonic stop realised as:

• [t] voiceless alveolar pulmonic stop when geminate (/tt/)

• [d] (at least partially) voiced aleveolar pulmonic stop word-initiatially, voiced between vowels and in clusters;

/k/, a velar pulmonic stop, realised as:

• [k] voiceless velar pulmonic, when geminate (/kk/)

• [g] (at least partially) voiced velar pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced between vowels ad in clusters;

• [k̚] devoiced unreleased velar pulmonic stop with early voice oneset;

• [gˤ]voiced velar pharyngealised stop before /i/, both simpleton and geminate

/q/, unvular pulmonic stop, realised as:

• [q] voiceless unvular pulmonic stop, espacially when geminate (/qq/)

• [G] (at least partially) voiced unvular pulmonic stop word-initially, voiced in clusters

• [q̚] devoiced unreleased uvular pulmonic stop word-finally

• [ʁ] voiced uvular fricative between vowels

• [ʔ] rarely, voiceless laryngeal/glottal pulmonic stop between vowels

/ʔ/, a voiceless laryngeal/glottal pulmonic stop, realised as lengthening of a preceding vowel when postvocalic, often with accompanying glottalization ([vʔ:]);

2. glottalic, implosives :

• [ɓ], a voiced bilabial implosive stop, realised as a glottal-bilabial coarticulation [ʔɓ] when geminate;

/ɗ/ a voiced postalveolar implosive stop, realised as:

• a glottal-alveolar coarticulation [ʔɗ] before vowels other than high fronted /i/ and when geminate

• postveolar plain /ɖ/ before a high fronted vowel /i/;

/ɠ/ a voiced velar implosive stop, realised as a glottal- velar coarticulation [ʔɠ]when geminate;

3. glottalic, ejectives:

/t'/, an alveolar ejective stop;

/k'/ a voiceless velar ejective stop;

4. affricate

• The only affricate is also ejective, and its articulation place is either postceolar or alveolo-palatal;

5. etc.

Vowels

Long vowls will be written with the doubling of the corresponding grapheme except in phonetic transcriptions (/aa/, /ee/, /ii/, /oo/, /uu/) and both [a,a:] and [ɐ, ɐ:] will be written. /a,aa/. The phonological value of length is shown by a sisable number of minimal pairs:

Syllable structure

The following table defines all possible syllable structures:

σ = CV(V)(C)

The oneset of a syllable is therefore always consonantal in Gawwada, while a coda can be represented by (rarely) a singel consonant or (more usually) be null.

Morphosyntax^[3]

The Dullay variations are characterised by a very rigid construction of subject-object-verb (SOV).

More often the MP Coreferential with the subject clitic is missing.

There are differences in linguistic coding between polar questions and constituent questions, although both types use the same TAM coding. When using yes/no questions, the voice goes up, as in English, for example.

With a consonant-final word the lengthening of the final bowl is replaced by =i

Constituent questions involve a particular element, which is substituted by an interrogative word. The interrogative word may be led by a postposition.

Morphology^[3]

From a morphological perspective, nouns can be inflected according to gender, number or case. If you inflect a word in the Gawwada language, you add a suffix to the word or the word stem changes as a whole. There are different types of nouns: common nouns, proper nouns (names), adjectival nouns, positional nouns and the proniminal head and personal pronouns. Nouns in the plural generally end in the syllable -e. There are only rare exceptions, such as with: "-a, kaalá: camels" or "-i, atifti: intestinal fat"

The suffixes [-d'e], [-g'e] and [-e].

References

External links

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Dullay (Gollango)
• Gawwada language topical vocabulary list (from the World Loanword Database)
• Yoshino, Hiroshi (2013). "Preliminary survey on 'Alle verbal system" (PDF). Studies in Ethiopian Languages. 2: 82–95.