Omotic languages


The Omotic languages are a traditionally recognized but disputed grouping of languages spoken mainly in southwestern Ethiopia, around the Omo River region, and in parts of southeastern Sudan. This classification conventionally includes the Damotic, Dizoid, Mao and Aroid languages.
Some of these languages are written in the Geʽez script, while others use the Latin alphabet. They are generally agglutinative and exhibit complex tonal systems, as in the Bench language. The group comprises about 7.9 million speakers.
They are generally classified within the Afroasiatic family, though the internal coherence of Omotic as a linguistic unit is questioned by some linguists. For example, Güldemann treats Damotic and Dizoid as Afroasiatic, but considers Mao and Aroid to be separate language groups outside Afroasiatic, influenced by contact with North Omotic.

Classification

The Omotic languages are generally considered the most divergent branch of the Afroasiatic languages, but both their internal unity and their Afroasiatic affiliation are debated. In 19th century classifications linguists such as d’Abbadie and Latham grouped most of what are now classified as Damotic under the name Gonga and treated them as "Hamitic languages of Great Damot". Later classifications up to Greenberg placed the Omotic languages within Cushitic as “West Cushitic”. Fleming argued instead that Omotic should be considered an independent branch of Afroasiatic, a view largely accepted after Bender, although some scholars still support the West Cushitic position or propose that only part of Omotic is independent, with North Omotic remaining Cushitic. Blench notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary with Cushitic but not cattle-related terms, suggesting a very early split, possibly before the spread of pastoralism.
The main groups usually distinguished are Damotic, Dizoid, Mao, and Aroid. Damotic is generally considered the clearest candidate for Afroasiatic affiliation, while Dizoid shows some Afroasiatic features but its classification remains uncertain and requires further research. In contrast, it has been argued that Mao and Aroid may not belong to the Omotic family at all.
The Mao languages, spoken on the Sudan-Ethiopian border, are poorly documented and show strong influence from Koman languages. Because of this and the lack of basic descriptive work, their genealogical affiliation remains unclear.
The Aroid languages are the most controversial. Their external classification has long been disputed, with proposals linking them to Nilo-Saharan languages. At the same time, scholars acknowledge heavy contact influence from neighboring Nilo-Saharan languages and from Afroasiatic languages, including Damotic, Dizoid, and Cushitic. Güldemann stresses that existing proposals do not adequately distinguish inherited features from areal effects, making it impossible to reach firm conclusions. As a result, Aroid is often treated as a possibly isolated family with no established higher-level affiliation.
Recent genome-wide and ancient DNA studies provide independent support for this linguistic separation: Damotic groups such as the Wolayta cluster genetically with Cushitic speakers and bear substantial West Eurasian admixture, whereas Aroid populations such as the Aari show stronger continuity with the ancient local hunter-gatherer Mota genome and much lower levels of that Eurasian signal. This clear genetic discontinuity complements the linguistic evidence, reinforcing the view that Damotic and Aroid are not closely related genealogically, but instead reflect distinct population histories, and supports the interpretation that any linguistic similarities between them are primarily the result of long-term contact rather than common descent.
Because of these issues, some linguists, including Güldemann, classify only Damotic and Dizoid as Afroasiatic, while treating Mao and Aroid as separate groups outside Afroasiatic that have been strongly shaped by contact.
Omotic?

Characteristics

General

The Omotic languages have a morphology that is partly agglutinative and partly fusional:
  • Agglutinating: Yem am-se-f-∅-à go+plural+present+3. Person+Femininum “they go”
  • Fusional: Aari ʔíts-eka eat+3. Person Pl. Converb “by eating”
Inflection through suprasegmental morphemes is found in individual languages such as Dizi and Bench; Historically, these are partly reflexes of affixes:
  • Bench sum˩ "name", sum-s˦ "to name"
The nominal morphology is based on a nominative-accusative-absolutive system; for verbal morphology, a complex inflection according to categories such as tense/aspect, interrogative/declarative, and affirmative/negative, as well as agreement, is more predicative, characterizing forms with the subject. In syntax, the word order subject-object-verb is generally valid; postpositions are used, which can be considered typical for both SOV languages in general and for the Ethiopian region.

Phonology

The Omotic languages have on average slightly less than thirty consonant phonemes, which is a comparatively high number, but is also found in other primary branches of Afro-Asiatic. Commonly used are bilabial, alveolar, velar and glottal plosive, various fricative, alveolar affricates and /w/, /j/, /l/, /r/, /m/, /n/. What is typical for the non-glottal plosives is that they are each represented by a voiced, a voiceless, and an ejective phoneme; All three types can also be found in fricatives and affricates. Most Omotic languages have additional consonants. Examples of this are the Implosive in South Omotic and the Retroflex of the Bench. In some cases, consonants can also occur geminated. Representatives of the Nordomotic and Mao have five to six vowel phonemes, the quantity is partly a difference in meaning; In contrast, much more extensive vowel systems are typical for South Omotic.
All Omotic languages for which sufficient data is available are tonal languages, which usually only distinguish two tones, some languages have more tones: Dizi distinguishes three, Bench six. Certain Omotic languages such as Aari and Ganza have tonal accent systems in which each independent word has exactly one high tone, whereas in most languages the tones are freely distributed.

Morphology

Nouns

The Omotic languages distinguish between the nominal categories number, case, and definiteness. These categories are marked by different suffixes, which can be fusional or analytic depending on the language. The two genders in all omotic languages for which sufficient data are available are masculine and feminine; they essentially correspond to natural gender. The case system distinguishes the omotic languages as accusative languages; other cases form various adverbial determinations. A number of omotic languages have an absolutive case, which marks the citation form and the direct object :
  • Absolute keett-a "the house"
  • Nominative keett-i "the house"
Some common case suffixes are:
  • Nominative *-i
  • Accusative *-m
  • Genitive *-kV
  • Dative *-s
A typological peculiarity, which is also isolated within Omotic, is the person and gender dependency of the nominative in Bench :a˦tsin˦-a˧ “a woman” nun˧-a˧ "we" nas˦i˧ “a man”
In most languages, the singular is unmarked, while the plural has its own suffix. It is possible that plural suffixes in some languages arose from a partitive construction. This is supported by the length of certain plural suffixes, formal relationships to the genitive singular and the fact that the determining suffix sometimes comes before the plural suffix, which is typologically unusual:
  • Dizi kìan-à-kʾankàs dog+det.+plural “the dogs”
  • Yem ʔasú-nì-kitó human+gene+plural “people”

Pronouns

The personal pronouns distinguish similar categories to the nouns in most omotic languages; However, the genera are usually only marked in the 3rd person singular. The personal pronouns usually have their own stem for each number-person-gender combination, to which case suffixes are then added, which are the same for all persons. Some of the pronouns show similarities with other Afro-Asian language families and can therefore be traced back to Proto-Afro-Asiatic; Certain South Omotic personal pronouns can be explained as borrowings from the neighboring Nilo-Saharan:
The case endings of the personal pronouns and the nouns are usually identical:
  • Aari: Accusative -m: yé-m "you", fatir-in-ám "the corn"
Possessive pronouns in particular have their own forms:
  • Aari: yé "yours," ʔéed-te "a man's"

Reconstruction

Bender reconstructs the following proto-forms for Proto-Omotic and Proto-North Omotic, the latter which is considered to have descended from Proto-Omotic.
English glossProto-
Omotic		Proto-North
Omotic
ashes*bend
bird*kaf
bite*sats’
breast*t’iam
claw*ts’ugum
die*hayk’
dog*kan
egg*ɓul
fire*tam
grass*maata
hand*kuc
head*to-
hear*si-
mouth*non-
nose*sit’
root*ts’ab-
snake*šooš
stand *yek’
this*kʰan-
thou *ne
water*haats’
we *nu
ye *int-
green*c’il-
house*kyet
left*hadr-
elephant*daŋgVr
sister, mother*ind
armpit*šoɓ-
boat*gong-
grave*duuk
vomit*c’oš-

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary of 40 Omotic languages from Blažek :
Languageeyeearnosetoothtonguemouthbloodbonetreewatereatname
BasketoafwaytsisintsaččiB ɪnts'ɨrsno·nasuutsmεk'εtsB mɪtsB waːtseA moy-B sumsa
Dokkaafwaytsisi·ntsaččiɨrs'ɪnsno·nasu·tsmik'әtsmittsewa·tsim-suntsa
Male’aːpiwaizisied‘i’ači’ɪndɪrsidaŋkasugutsimεgεtsimitsiwaːtsimo-sunsi
Wolaitaayf-iya; A ayp'-iyahayttasir-iyaacca; A acc'aint'arsadoonasuutta; Ch maččamiémek'ettamittahattam-sunta
Dawroayp'-iyahaytsasiid'-iyaacc'ains'arsadoonasutsamek'etsabarzap'-iyahatsam-sutta
Canchaayp'ehaytssireacc‘ains‘arsadoonasutsmek'etsamitshaatsm-sunts
Malo’áɸehʌ́jesíd'e’áčʰә’irɪ́ntsdɔ́nʌsútsʰmεk‘ɨ́ts‘mɪ́ts’átsәm-sʊns
Gofaayp'ehaytsasiideacc'aintsarsadoonasutsamek'ettamitsahatsem-suntsa
Zalaayfeaytsasid'eaččaint'arsadunatsutsamitsahatsamaa-
Gamuayp'ehaytsasiireacc'ains'arsadoonasuutsmek'etsmitsahatsem-sunts
Dacheayfehayts'esiyd'eacéɪntsεrsdunasutsmek'etsšarahatsem-sunts
Dorzeayp'ewayesireacc'ains'arsaduunasutsmek'etsamitshaatsm-sunts
Oydaápe, ayfeB haːyesid'e’ač, pl. o·čiilánsB doːnasutsmεk'εtsmɪns'ahaytsimu’-suntsu
Zayse’áaɸεwaayέkuŋké’acc'ints'έrεbaadέsúuts'mεk'έεtemits'awáats'im-č'úuč'e
Zergulla’aːɸewaikuŋki’ac'e’insәrehaː’esuːtsnεkεtεmintsawaːtsem-suːns
Ganjule’áaɸεwaašέkuŋkεgaggoints'úrεbaadέsúuts'mεk'έtεmits'iwaats'im-ts'únts'i
Gidicho’áaɸεwaašέkuŋkégaggoints'úrεbaadέsúuts'imεk'εtemíts'iwáats'im-ts'únts'i
Kachama’áaɸεuwaašέkuŋkέgaggoints'úrεbaadέsúuts'εmέk‘έteemits'iwáats'im-ts'únts'i
Koyra’áɸεwaayέsiid'εgaggo’únts'úrε’áašasúuts'mεk‘έεtemíts'e; Ce akkawáats'emúuwasúuntsi
Charaáːpawóːyasínt'uáč'a’íns'ilanoːnásúːtamertámítsaáːs'aḿ-nasumá
Benchapaysint'gaš; saneyts'nonsutmertinčso’m’sum
Sheafaisint'gašets'nonsutmεrtencso’mmasum
Yemsaaafa; kemaodosiyaa’yatermanoonoannamegai’oakamesuna
Bworoaawawaazašint'agašaalbeeranoonats'atts'amak'әttsamittaaatsamaa-šuutsa
Anfilloaːfowaːjošiːntogaːššoεrɪːtsonɔːnots'antsošaušomɪːtsoyuːromšiːgo
Kafaaffo, ahowammo; kendomuddogašoeč'iyonono; kokodammošawušomet'oač'omammo; č‘okkošiggo
Mochaá·p̱owa·mmošit'ógášohäč'awono·nodamoša·wúšomit'óà·č'oma̱·šəgo
Proto-Omotic*sit’*non-*haats’
MajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMajiMaji
Proto-Maji*ʔaːb*háːy*aːç’u*eːdu*uːs*inču*haːy*um
Diziab-uaːisin-uažuyabɪlεd-uyεrm-uuswɪčaːim-sɪm-u
ShakoáːbaːyB sɪnt'áːč'uérbeːdyärmuːsuíːnčuáːym̥̀-suːm
Nayi’aːfB haːysi.nB acuB yalbeːduyarbm’uːsB incusB haim-suːm
MaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMao
Maoáːfέwáːlέšíːnt'έàːts'ὲánts'ílὲpɔ́ːnsὲhándέmáːlt‘έ’íːntsὲhàːtsὲhà míjàjèːškέ
Sezeaːb, áːwiwέὲšíːntéháːts'έ, haːnsìjántsílὲ/ t'agálwaːndèhámbìlὲbàk‘ílí’innsìháːns'ìmáːmɔ́nìːší
Hozoabbiwεεrašiniats'iS wìntə́lәwaandihambilεbak‘ilεS ’íːntihaanimaaiiši
AroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroidAroid
Dime’afe, ’aɸek'aːmenʊkʊF baŋgɪl; ɪts; kәsɪl’ɨdәm’afe; B ’app-maχse; F dzumtk‘oss; F k‘ʊs’aχe; B haːɣonaχe; B nәːɣ-’ɨčɨnmɨze; F naːb
Hamerapi, afik'am-nuki’ats'’ad’abap-zum’ileːfiak'-nokokʊm-nam-
Bannaafik'aminukiatsiadʌb/adɪmafazump'ilεfiɑhaka/haːk'anokoits-; kum-nabi
Karoafik'aminukiasiattәp'M ’apomәk'әslefiakanuk'oisidi
Ariafik'aminukiatsi; B kasel geegiadimafazom’ilεfiahakanoɣa; B nɔk'ɔits-nami
Ubamera·fiɣ/k'a·minukiatsiadmiafamək'əs ~ -ɣ-lεfíaɣaluk'a, luɣa’its-na·mi
Galilaa·fik'a·minukiačiadmiafamәk'әslεfíaɣa/aháɣalu·ɣa/lo·ɣaič-la·mi

General Omotic bibliography