Omotic languages

The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region and southeastern Sudan in Blue Nile State. The Geʽez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have complex tonal systems (for example, the Bench language). The languages have around 7.9 million speakers. The group is generally classified as belonging to the Afroasiatic language family, but this is disputed by some linguists.

Omotic
Geographic distribution	Ethiopia, Sudan
Native speakers	7.9 million
Linguistic classification	Afro-Asiatic Omotic
Proto-language	Proto-Omotic
Subdivisions	North Omotic South Omotic
Language codes
ISO 639-5	omv
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Omotic languages: South Omotic languages:   Aroid languages North Omotic languages:   Mao   Dizoid   Gonga (Kefoid)   Yemsa   Bench (Gimira)   Chara   Ometo Neighboring languages:   Nilo-Saharan   Afroasiatic

Four separate "Omotic" groups are accepted by Glottolog 4.0 and Güldemann (2018): North Omotic, Dizoid (Maji), Mao, and Aroid ("South Omotic").

Languages

New Testament in the Bench language

The North and South Omotic branches ("Nomotic" and "Somotic") are universally recognized, with some dispute as to the composition of North Omotic. The primary debate is over the placement of the Mao languages. Bender (2000) classifies Omotic languages as follows:

• Omotic
  • South Omotic / Aroid (Hamer-Banna, Aari, Dime, Karo)
  • North Omotic / Non-Aroid
    • Mao
      • Bambassi
      • West Mao (Hozo, Seze, Ganza)
    • Dizoid (Dizi, Sheko, Nayi)
    • Gonga–Gimojan
      • Gonga/Kefoid (Boro, Anfillo, Kafa, Shekkacho)
      • Gimojan
        • Yemsa
        • Ometo–Gimira
          • Bench
          • Chara
          • Ometo languages

Apart from terminology, this differs from Fleming (1976) in including the Mao languages, whose affiliation had originally been controversial, and in abolishing the "Gimojan" group.^{[clarification needed]} There are also differences in the subclassification of Ometo, which is not covered here.

Hayward (2003)

Hayward (2003) separates out the Mao languages as a third branch of Omotic and breaks up Ometo–Gimira:

• Omotic
  • South Omotic
  • Mao
  • North Omotic
    • Dizoid
    • Ta–Ne languages
      • Gonga
      • Gimojan
        • Yemsa
        • Bench
        • Ometo–Chara

Blench (2006)

Blench (2006) gives a more agnostic classification:

• Omotic
  • South Omotic
  • North Omotic
    • Mao
    • Dizoid
    • Gonga (Kefoid)
    • Yem
    • Gimira
    • Ometo (?Chara)

Bosha† is unclassified; Ethnologue lists it as a dialect of Kafa but notes it may be a distinct language.

Classification

Omotic is generally considered the most divergent branch of the Afroasiatic languages. In early work up to Greenberg (1963), the languages had been classified in a subgroup of Cushitic, called most often "West Cushitic". Fleming (1969) argued that it should instead be classified as an independent branch of Afroasiatic, a view which Bender (1971) established to most linguists' satisfaction, though a few linguists maintain the West Cushitic position or that only South Omotic forms a separate branch, with North Omotic remaining part of Cushitic.^{[citation needed]} Blench notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary with Cushitic but not cattle-related vocabulary, suggesting that the split occurred before the advent of pastoralism. A few scholars have raised doubts that the Omotic languages are part of the Afroasiatic language family at all, and Theil (2006) proposes that Omotic be treated as an independent family. However, the general consensus, based primarily on morphological evidence, such as pronominal prefixes, grammatical number and plural form, as well as prefix conjugation is that membership in Afroasiatic is well established.

The Aroid (South Omotic) languages were first included in "West Cushitic" by Greenberg; they were excluded from earlier classifications by Italian Cushiticists such as Enrico Cerulli and Mario Martino Moreno, and their inclusion in Omotic remains contested.

Glottolog

Hammarström, et al. in Glottolog does not consider Omotic to be a unified group, and also does not consider any of the "Omotic" groups to be part of the Afroasiatic phylum. Glottolog accepts the following as independent language families.

• Ta-Ne-Omotic
• Dizoid (Maji)
• Mao
• Aroid (Ari-Banna; "South Omotic")

These four families are also accepted by Güldemann (2018), who similarly doubts the validity of Omotic as a unified group.

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 (SOV) 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/, /y/, /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 (/ɓ/, /ɗ/, /ɠ/) 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 (high and low), some languages have more tones: Dizi distinguishes three, Bench six. Certain Omotic languages such as Aari and Ganza (Mao) 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 (examples from Wolaita):

• Absolute keett-a "the house"
• Nominative keett-i "the house"

Some common case suffixes are:

• Nominative *-i (Gonga-Gimojan, Dizi-Sheko)
• Accusative *-m (South Domotic)
• Genitive *-kV (Gonga-Gimojan, Dizi-Sheko, Mao, Dime)
• Dative *-s (Gonga-Gimojan, Dizi-Sheko, Mao?)

A typological peculiarity, which is also isolated within Omotic, is the person and gender dependency of the nominative in Bench (either -i˧ or -a˧, depending on the person):

• a˦tsin˦-a˧ “a woman” (3rd person sg. femininum)
• nun˧-a˧ "we" (1st person plural exclusive)
• nas˦i˧ “a man” (3rd person sg. masculine)

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:

		1st person		2nd person		3rd person
		sg.	pl.	sg.	pl.	sg.		pl.
						m.	f.
Omotic	Nordomotic
	Proto-Gonga-Gimojan	*ta	*nu~*no	*no	*int-	*isi	?	*is-
	Proto-Dizi-Sheko	*ǹ	*ń	*yeta	*iti	*iz-	*iži	*iš-
	Proto-Mao	*ti-	?	*hiya	*nam	?	?	?
	Proto-Southomotic	*inta	*wo-ta	*yaa/*in	*ye-ta	*nuo	*naaa	*ke-ta
Other	Afroasiatic: Akkadian	ī	nī	k-a/k-ī	k-unu/k-ina	š-u	š-a	š-unu/š-ina
	Nilotic: Teso	ɛɔŋɔ	ɔnɪ/ɪs(y)ɔ	ɪjɔ	yɛsɪ	ŋɛsɪ		kɛsɪ

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 (1987: 33–35) reconstructs the following proto-forms for Proto-Omotic and Proto-North Omotic, the latter which is considered to have descended from Proto-Omotic.

English gloss	Proto- 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	*si(n)t’
root	*ts’ab-
snake	*šooš
stand (vb.)		*yek’
this	*kʰan-
thou (2.SG)	*ne(n)
water	*haats’
we (1.PL)	*nu(n)
ye (2.PL)	*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 (2008):

Language	eye	ear	nose	tooth	tongue	mouth	blood	bone	tree	water	eat	name
Basketo	af	waytsi	sints	ačči	B ɪnts'ɨrs	no·na	suuts	mεk'εts	B mɪts	B waːtse	A moy-	B sumsa
Dokka	af	waytsi	si·nts	ačči	ɨrs'ɪns	no·na	su·ts	mik'әts	mittse	wa·tsi	m-	suntsa
Male	’aːpi	waizi	sied‘i	’ači	’ɪndɪrsi	daŋka	sugutsi	mεgεtsi	mitsi	waːtsi	mo-	sunsi
Wolaita	ayf-iya; A ayp'-iya	haytta	sir-iya	acca; A acc'a	int'arsa	doona	suutta; Ch maččamié	mek'etta	mitta	hatta	m-	sunta
Kullo	ayp'-iya	haytsa	siid'-iya	acc'a	ins'arsa	doona	sutsa	mek'etsa	barzap'-iya	hatsa	m-	sutta
Cancha	ayp'e	hayts	sire	acc‘a	ins‘arsa	doona	suts	mek'etsa	mits	haats	m-	sunts
Malo	’áɸe	hʌ́je	síd'e	’áčʰә	’irɪ́nts	dɔ́nʌ	sútsʰ	mεk‘ɨ́ts‘	mɪ́ts	’átsә	m-	sʊns
Gofa	ayp'e	haytsa	siide	acc'a	intsarsa	doona	sutsa	mek'etta	mitsa	hatse	m-	suntsa
Zala	ayfe	(h)aytsa	sid'e	ačča	int'arsa	duna	tsutsa		mitsa	hatsa	maa-
Gamu	ayp'e	haytsa	siire	acc'a	ins'arsa	doona	suuts	mek'ets	mitsa	hatse	m-	sunts
Dache	ayfe	hayts'e	siyd'e	acé	ɪntsεrs	duna	suts	mek'ets	šara	hatse	m-	sunts
Dorze	ayp'e	waye	sire	acc'a	ins'arsa	duuna	suts	mek'etsa	mits	haats	m-	sunts
Oyda	ápe, ayfe	B haːye	sid'e	’ač, pl. o·či	iláns	B doːna	suts	mεk'εts	mɪns'a	haytsi	mu’-	suntsu
Zayse	’áaɸε	waayέ	kuŋké	’acc'	ints'έrε	baadέ	súuts'	mεk'έεte	mits'a	wáats'i	m-	č'úuč'e
Zergulla	’aːɸe	wai	kuŋki	’ac'e	’insәre	haː’e	suːts	nεkεtε	mintsa	waːtse	m-	suːns
Ganjule	’áaɸε	waašέ	kuŋkε	gaggo	ints'úrε	baadέ	súuts'	mεk'έtε	mits'i	waats'i	m-	ts'únts'i
Gidicho	’áaɸε	waašέ	kuŋké	gaggo	ints'úrε	baadέ	súuts'i	mεk'εte	míts'i	wáats'i	m-	ts'únts'i
Kachama	’áaɸε	uwaašέ	kuŋkέ	gaggo	ints'úrε	baadέ	súuts'ε	mέk‘έtee	mits'i	wáats'i	m-	ts'únts'i
Koyra	’áɸε	waayέ	siid'ε	gaggo	’únts'úrε	’áaša	súuts'	mεk‘έεte	míts'e; Ce akka	wáats'e	múuwa	súuntsi
Chara	áːpa	wóːya	sínt'u	áč'a	’íns'ila	noːná	súːta	mertá	mítsa	áːs'a	ḿ-na	sumá
Bench	ap	(h)ay	sint'	gaš; san	eyts'	non	sut	mert	inč	so’	m’	sum
She	af	ai	sint'	gaš	ets'	non	sut	mεrt	enc	so’	mma	sum
Yemsa	aafa; kema	odo	siya	a’ya	terma	noono	anna	mega	i’o	aka	me	suna
Bworo	aawa	waaza	šint'a	gaša	albeera	noona	ts'atts'a	mak'әttsa	mitta	aatsa	maa-	šuutsa
Anfillo	aːfo	waːjo	šiːnto	gaːššo	εrɪːtso	nɔːno	ts'antso	šaušo	mɪːtso	yuːro	m	šiːgo
Kafa	affo, aho	wammo; kendo	muddo	gašo	eč'iyo	nono; koko	dammo	šawušo	met'o	ač'o	mammo; č‘okko	šiggo
Mocha	á·p̱o	wa·mmo	šit'ó	gášo	häč'awo	no·no	damo	ša·wúšo	mit'ó	à·č'o	ma̱·(hä)	šəgo
Proto-Omotic			*si(n)t’			*non-				*haats’
Maji
Proto-Maji	*ʔaːb	*háːy		*aːç’u		*eːdu		*uːs	*inču	*haːy	*um
Dizi	ab-u	aːi	sin-u	ažu	yabɪl	εd-u	yεrm-u	us	wɪč	aːi	m-	sɪm-u
Shako	áːb	aːy	B sɪnt'	áːč'u	érb	eːd	yärm	uːsu	íːnču	áːy	m̥̀-	suːm
Nayi	’aːf	B haːy	si.n	B acu	B yalb	eːdu	yarbm	’uːs	B incus	B hai	m-	suːm
Mao
Mao	áːfέ	wáːlέ	šíːnt'έ	àːts'ὲ	ánts'ílὲ	pɔ́ːnsὲ	hándέ	máːlt‘έ	’íːntsὲ	hàːtsὲ	hà míjà	jèːškέ
Seze	aːb, áːwi	wέὲ	šíːnté	háːts'έ, haːnsì	jántsílὲ/ t'agál	waːndè	hámbìlὲ	bàk‘ílí	’innsì	háːns'ì	máːmɔ́	nìːší
Hozo	abbi	wεεra	šini	ats'i	S wìntə́lә	waandi	hambilε	bak‘ilε	S ’íːnti	haani	maa	iiši
Aroid
Dime	’afe, ’aɸe	k'aːme	nʊkʊ	F baŋgɪl; ɪts; kәsɪl	’ɨdәm	’afe; B ’app-	maχse; F dzumt	k‘oss; F k‘ʊs	’aχe; B haːɣo	naχe; B nәːɣ-	’ɨčɨn	mɨze; F naːb
Hamer	api, afi	k'a(ː)m-	nuki	’ats'	’ad’ab	ap-	zum’i	leːfi	ak'-	noko	kʊm-	nam-
Banna	afi	k'ami	nuki	atsi	adʌb/adɪm	afa	zump'i	lεfi	ɑhaka/haːk'a	noko	its-; kum-	na(a)bi
Karo	afi	k'ami	nuki	asi	attәp'	M ’apo	mәk'әs	lefi	aka	nuk'o	isidi
Ari	afi	k'ami	nuki	atsi; B kasel geegi	adim	afa	zom’i	lεfi	ahaka	noɣa; B nɔk'ɔ	its-	nami
Ubamer	a·fi	ɣ/k'a·mi	nuki	atsi	admi	afa	mək'əs ~ -ɣ-	lεfí	aɣa	luk'a, luɣa	’its-	na·mi
Galila	a·fi	k'a·mi	nuki	ači	admi	afa	mәk'әs	lεfí	aɣa/aháɣa	lu·ɣa/lo·ɣa	ič-	la·mi

See also

• Languages of Ethiopia

Notes

1. "Omotic languages". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
2. Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9. S2CID 133888593.
3. Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List Archived 2013-10-07 at the Wayback Machine
4. Hayward 2000, p. 85. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHayward2000 (help)
5. Lamberti 1991.
6. Zaborksi 1986. sfn error: no target: CITEREFZaborksi1986 (help)
7. Blench 2006, pp. 150–152.
8. I. M. Diakonoff (1998) Journal of Semitic Studies 43:209: "It is quite evident that cultural ties between Proto-Semitic and the African branches of the Afrasian macrofamily must have been severed at a very early date indeed. However, the grammatical structure of [Common Semitic] (especially in the verb) is obviously close to that of Common Berbero-Libyan (CBL), as well as to Bedauye. (Bedauye might, quite possibly, be classified as a family distinct from the rest of Kushitic.) The same grammatical isoglosses are somewhat more feebly felt between Semitic and (the other?) Kushitic languages. They practically disappear between the Semitic and the Omotic languages, which were formerly termed Western Kushitic, but which actually may not be Afro-Asiatic at all, like their neighbours the Nubian languages and Meroitic."
9. Newman 1980.
10. Rolf Theil (2006) Is Omotic Afro-Asiatic? Archived 2021-02-24 at the Wayback Machine pp 1–2: "I claim to show that no convincing arguments have been presented [for the inclusion of Omotic (OM) in Afro-Asiatic (AA)], and that OM should be regarded as an independent language family. No closer genetic relations have been demonstrated between OM and AA than between OM and any other language family."
11. Gerrit Dimmendaal (2008) "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", in Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5:841: "Although its Afroasiatic affiliation has been disputed, the allocation of Omotic within this family is now well-established, based on the attestation of morphological properties that this family shares with other Afroasiatic branches."
12. Ehret, Christopher (2010-12-17). History and the Testimony of Language. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94759-7. Archived from the original on 2024-05-26. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
13. Lecarme, Jacqueline (2003-01-01). Research in Afroasiatic Grammar Two. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-4753-7. Archived from the original on 2024-05-26. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
14. Mammo Girma: Yemsa Verb Morphology. Some Inflections and Derivations. 1986, quoted from Bender 2000, p. 120; Clay marking according to the different forms in Lamberti 1993, p. 190
15. Hayward 1990 quoted in Bender 2000, p. 171
16. R. Hayward, Y. Tsuge: Concerning case in Omotic. In: Africa and Overseas. Volume 81, pp. 21-38. 1998.
17. Bender 2000, p. 21.
18. Bender 2000, p. 212.
19. Bender 2000, p. 127.
20. Mary J. Breeze: Personal Pronouns in Gimira (Benchnon). In: (Ed.): Pronominal Systems. Narr, Tübingen 1986, ISBN 3-87808-335-1, pp. 47–70, p. 53.
21. Hayward 2003, p. 246.
22. Lamberti 1993, p. 70 f.
23. Bender 2000.
24. Lamberti 1993, p. 71.
25. Reconstructions according to Bender 2000, p. 196
26. Bender 2000, p. 163.
27. Bender, Lionel M. 1987. "First Steps Toward proto-Omotic." Current Approaches to African Linguistics 3 (1987): 21–36.
28. Blažek, Václav. 2008. A lexicostatistical comparison of Omotic languages. In Bengtson (ed.), 57–148.
29. Aklilu, Yilma. 2003. Comparative phonology of the Maji languages. Journal of Ethiopian studies 36: 59–88.

Sources cited

• Bender, M. Lionel (2000). Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages. Munich: LINCOM.
• Blench, Roger (2006). Archaeology, Language, and the African Past. Oxford: AltaMira Press. ISBN 9780759104662.
• Fleming, Harold (1976). "Omotic overview". In Bender, M. Lionel (ed.). The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University. pp. 299–323.
• Hayward, Richard J., ed. (1990). Omotic Language Studies. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
• Hayward, Richard J. (2003). "Omotic: the 'empty quarter' of Afroasiatic linguistics". In Jacqueline Lecarme (ed.). Research in Afroasiatic Grammar II: selected papers from the fifth conference on Afroasiatic languages, Paris 2000. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 241–261. doi:10.1075/cilt.241.13hay.
• Newman, Paul (1980). The classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic. Universitaire Pers Leiden.
• Lamberti, Marcello (1991). "Cushitic and its Classifications". Anthropos. 86 (4/6): 552–561.
• Lamberti, Marcello (1993). Materialien zum Yemsa. Studi Linguarum Africae Orientalis, Band 5. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter. ISBN 3-8253-0103-6.

General Omotic bibliography

• Bender, M. L. 1975. Omotic: a new Afroasiatic language family. (University Museum Series, 3.) Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University.
• Zaborski, Andrzej. 1986. Can Omotic be reclassified as West Cushitic? In Gideon Goldenberg, ed., Ethiopian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference pp. 525–530. Rotterdam: Balkema.

External links

• Is Omotic Afro-Asiatic? by Rolf Theil