Soddo language

Soddo is a Gurage language spoken by a quarter million people in southern Ethiopia. It is an Ethiopian Semitic language of the Northern Gurage subfamily. Its native speakers, the Soddo Gurage people, live predominantly in the Soddo district of the Gurage Zone.

Phonology

Consonants

is mainly heard when in between vowels, or in syllable-initial position before vowels.
Sounds /p, pʼ, tsʼ/ can also be heard in borrowed words.
Sounds /k, ɡ, kʼ/ can also have labialized allophones .
/b/ can also be heard as a voiced fricative when in intervocalic position.
/m/ can be heard as when before /f/, and /n/ as when before /k/.
Vowels

Grammar

Noun

As in most Ethiopian languages, noun qualifiers generally follow the noun.
The definite article is expressed by the suffix -i, e.g.: goš "boy" > goš-i "the boy"; ätit "sister" > ätiti "the sister"; bayyočč "children" > bayyočč-i. If the noun ends in -a or -ä, it normally loses this vowel when -i is suffixed: angačča "cat" > angačč-i "the cat". A noun ending in -i usually stays the same: abi " father, proprietor". A noun ending in -e, -o, -u adds a y before the suffix: ge "house" > geʸi "the house"; wälläho "neighbor" > wällähoʸi "the neighbor". If the noun has a qualifier, the article is used with the first element: maläk' ge "big house" > maläk'-i ge "the big house"; yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" ; yä-mät't'-i məss "the man who came"
There is no real indefinite article, though indefiniteness can be expressed by preposing the word attə or k'una, meaning "one".
Nouns have two genders, masculine and feminine, which affect verb concord.
Nouns which are definite objects are both marked with the prefix yä- or nä-: e.g. yä-geʸi ažžo "he saw the house"; yä-zämmihʷan abännət "he gave it to his brother". Direct objects may additionally be marked by adding the object suffix pronouns to the verb: e.g. yabiddi täšakkunnət "I asked my father"
A possessed noun is marked by the prefix yä-, and the possessor precedes the possessed: yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official". If the possessed noun has a preposition prefixed to it, this yä- is omitted: babiddi färäz rather than *bä-yä-abiddi färäz for "on my father's horse".

Pronoun

Personal pronoun

Possessives can also be formed by simply adding yä- to the standalone pronouns, e.g.: yädähəm t'əb "your clan".
Reflexive pronouns are formed by äras-, gubba-, k'um- plus the possessive suffixes, e.g. ädi äras-əddi mät'afi t'afkunnət "I myself wrote the book".

Demonstrative pronoun

Proximal: zi "this, these"; zini "this one". E.g.: zi məss "this man", zi məšt "this woman", zi säbočč "these men".
Distal: za "that, those, that one, those ones"; zani "that one there". E.g. tä-za məss goy mät't'ahi "I came with that man".

Interrogative pronoun

ma "who?" : man mät't'a? "who came?"
yäma "whose?"
mən "what?"; yämən "why?"
yitta, yittat "which?" E.g. yitta bayy mät't'am "which child came?"
yittani "which one?"
Indefinite pronoun
säb "someone, somebody"
mannəm "any"
attəm "any" ; attəmu "no one"
lela "other"
yäk'irrä k'äy "other"
attə "a certain"
ləyyu "different"
k'una, zam, zəč'ə "same"
äbälo "so-and-so"
zihom "such"

kulləm = "all" ; kulləm-u, bä-mollaw = "whole". yät'oma = "only, alone". "Each, every" is expressed by noun reduplication.

Copula and existential verbs

The copula is irregular in the present tense:

English	be	not be
I am	näw	ädäbukk
you are	nähä	ädäbəkkä
you are	näš	ädäbəčč
he is	-n, -ən	ädäbəll
she is	na	ädäbəlla
we are	nänä	ädäbəllänä
you are	nähəm	ädäbəkkəm
you are	nähma	ädäbəkkəma
they are	näm	ädäbəlläm
they are	näma	ädäbəäma

Example: zämmidi nähä "you are my brother".
The past tense is expressed by the verb näbbär conjugated regularly in the perfect; "he was not" etc. is with annäbär. The future tense is expressed by the imperfect of hono: yəhonu "he will be", etc. The negative future tense is likewise expressed by tihon. The present copula in subordinate clauses is expressed by the subordinate perfect of honä, e.g.: däffär yähonä tädi-goy yalfu "he who is courageous will go with me.
"It is he", etc. can be expressed by adding an element -tt between the pronoun and the copula: e.g. kʷa-ttə-n "it is he".
The existential verb "be at", "exist" in the present is:

English	be at/there	not be at/there
I am	yinähi	yellähu
you are	yinəho	yellähä
you are	yinäšin	yelläš
he is	yino	yellä
she is	yinätti	yellät
we are	yinäno	yellänä
you are	yinähmun	yellähəm
you are	yinähman	yellähma
they are	yinämun	yelləm
they are	yinäman	yelləma

In the past and future, it is expressed just like the copula, with näbbärä and honä. In subordinate clauses the present is expressed with -allä conjugated in the perfect, e.g.: bämeda yalləmi säbočč araš näm "the people who are in the field are farmers".
The possessive verb "he has" etc. is expressed with the existential verb yino "it is" plus object suffix pronouns

Verbs

A Soddo verb may have anywhere from one to four consonants, or may be a compound with balo "say" In the former case, they fall into three "conjugations" differing in their vowels and in gemination of the imperfect, illustrated for a three-consonant verb:

säbbäro, imperfect yəsäbru
tikkälo, imperfect yətikkəlu
č'affäro, imperfect yəč'affəru

Derived stems can be formed in several ways:

reduplicative: e.g. gäddälo "kill" > gədaddälo. This form has a wide variety of meanings, mostly intensifying the verb in some way.
passive/reflexive/intransitive tä- prefix: e.g. käffälo "pay" > tä-käffälo "be paid". A reciprocal action can be expressed by this prefix attached to a transitive verb with the vowel a after the first radical, or a reduplicative form, e.g. tä-gäddäl-mun or tä-gdaddäl-mun "they killed each other".
causative or transitive of intransitive verbs a-: e.g. säkkäro "be drunk" > a-säkkäro "get someone drunk"; näddädo "burn " > a-näddädo "burn ".
causative of transitive or passive verbs at- : e.g. käddäno "cover" > at-kiddäno "cause to cover" or "cause to be covered". Added to the -a- form, it expresses reciprocity and adjutative : atgaddälo "cause to kill one other" or help to kill".
Some verbs are formed with initial ən- or tän-; the only derived stem from these is the a- stem, with a- replacing ə- or tä-. E.g. ənkrättäto "be bent" > ankrättäto "bend".

There are two tenses/aspects, perfective and imperfective ; each has distinct forms for main versus subordinate clauses, and positive versus negative. There are also distinct jussive, imperative, and impersonal forms.

Conjugations

Perfect

The form with suffixed -m is used in subordinate clauses to connect verbs not otherwise connected, in a way analogous to Japanese -te; it can be translated as "and", as a gerund, or as a resultative. The perfect in -m followed by näbbär forms the pluperfect.
The negative perfect is formed by prefixing al-, with vowel change; for the conjugations mentioned above, the resulting forms are al-säfärä, al-täkkälä, and al-č'afärä.
Examples: ge aräššo "he built a house"; banätäw k'ən awänna-m bämida tonnaw "having put butter on the top of his head, he sat outside".

Imperfect

Like the perfect, the subordinate forms can take the suffix -m to express a series of non-past actions. This can be combined with näbbär to express a habitual past action.
Examples: ahoññ gäbäya nalfu "today we shall go to the market"; yəgädəl məss "the man who kills"; mas tənäsa-m yibara wawt'a tək'ärsi "she picks up the sleeping mats and begins to remove the dung."
It can be augmented by -ən, with no obvious change in meaning.

English	negative main clause	negative subordinate clause
I do not begin	täk'ärs	annək'ärs
you do not begin	təttək'ärs	attək'ärs
you do not begin	təttək'erš	attək'erš
he does not begin	tik'ärs	ayk'ärs
she does not begin	təttək'ärs	attək'ärs
we do not begin	tənnək'ärs	annək'ärs
you begin	təttək'ärsəm	attək'ärsəm
you advance	təttək'ärsəma	attək'ärsəma
they advance	tik'ärsəm	ayk'ärsəm
they advance	tik'ärsəma	ayk'ärsəma

Examples: ahoññ yəmät'a timäsəl "it does not seem that he will come today"; ädahʷan t-aykäfəl alläfo "he left without paying his debt".