Bambassi language

Bambassi (native name: Màwés Aasʼè) is an Omotic Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia around the towns of Bambasi and Didessa in the area east of Asosa in Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The parent language group is the East Mao group. Alternative names for the language are Bambeshi, Siggoyo, Amam, Fadiro, Northern Mao, Didessa and Kere.

The most current information on the number of Bambassi speakers is not known, as the 2007 census grouped the Mao languages together, despite low lexical similarity. 33,683 mother tongue speakers of Maogna (covering Bambassi, Hozo and Seze) were listed.

Similarities

Bambassi has a 31% lexical similarity with other Omotic languages.

Phonology

Bambassi has 5 vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/. The vowels have lengthened forms, and Bambassi has contrastive vowel length.

Orthography

Vowels and tones

• a - [a]
• aa - [aː]
• e - [e]
• ee - [eː]
• i - [i]
• ii - [iː]
• o - [o]
• oo - [oː]
• u - [u]
• uu - [uː]
• á - high tone
• a - middle tone
• à - low tone

Consonants

• b - [b]
• c' - [t͡s']
• ch - [t͡ʃ]
• d - [d]
• g - [g]
• h - [h]
• k - [k]
• k' - [k']
• l - [l]
• m - [m]
• n - [n]
• ng - [ŋ]
• p - [p/f/ɸ]
• p' - [p']
• r - [ɾ]
• s - [s]
• sh - [ʃ]
• t - [t]
• t' - [t']
• w - [w]
• y - [j]
• z - [z]

Morphology

This section gives information about different word types in the Bambassi language and how they relate to each other. It splits up in nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and numbers and will give information about tense, aspect and mood.

Nouns

Nouns in Northern Mao can be marked as singular, plural or dual. Dual and plural number are marked with specific suffixes, dual /-kuw/ and plural /-(w)ol/ (-> segmental morphology). In the singular number nouns have a zero morpheme. Nouns also usually agree with their quantifiers, e.g. numerals. In the citation form nouns, pronouns, demonstratives and verbal infinitives end with the vowel /-e/.

Example:

Adjectives

A separate word class of adjectives in Northern Mao hasn't yet been identified. The speakers use nominalizations, verbs or deverbal nouns to modify nouns. As in other African languages, the Bambassi language only has separate words for four basic colors which are expressed as verbs: black, white, red and blue. Other colors are expressed as metaphors and nominal constructions.

This is also the case to express dimension or value. We have verbs like 'be old', 'be small', 'be big', 'be good' and 'be bad'. They are always combined with a relative or associative construction.

Example:

tí-ŋ paːlt’-nà ha-nok-á

1SG-GEN girl-OBJ AFF-be.good-DECL

‘My girl (daughter) is good.’

Pronouns

Northern Mao knows personal, possessive and interrogative pronouns.

Personal pronouns

The following table shows an overview of the personal pronouns in Northern Mao each in the citation form with the terminal vowel /-e/, the subject, object case and genitive case.

Possessive pronouns

Interrogative pronouns

Adverbs

Màwés Aasʼè has adverbs of time, manner and location. They can modify clauses or verbs. Some of them are listed in the following:

hóllá - 'now'

kwalla - 'yesterday'

háʦʼà - 'tomorrow'

wó - 'like this'

pàtʼwáne - 'again'

hòʃkján - 'only'

zèːpʼés - 'together'

ʃené - 'before'

bekʼà - 'end'

Postposition

Northern Mao knows two different types of postposition, the location/source and the instrument/comitative postposition. To express location or source you use the postposition /-et(a)/, for instrument or comitative the postposition /-an/.

Example:

(1) tí-ŋ ↓kjat’-èt háːl-↓á

1SG-GEN house-LOC sleep-DECL

‘S/he slept at my house.’

(2) bàmbàs-ét ha-tí-kí-↓á

Bambassi-SOURCE AFF-1SG-come-DECL

‘I came from Bambassi.’

(3) kús-án ha-mí-↓á

hand-INS AFF-eat-DECL

‘S/he ate by hand.’

(4) rám-àn sùk’-ná ha-tí-hów-j-↓á

Rama-COM store-OBJ AFF-1SG-go-AWAY-DECL

‘I went to the store with Rama.’

Verbs

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In the Bambassi language we find three oppositions affecting the structure of verb forms, namely the infinitive and the finite verb forms, the realis and irrealis forms and final and non-final forms.

Starting with the irrealis and realis verb forms, the following table summarizes the most important aspects:

The nine aspectual categories on realis verbs are: a perfect with /-ti/, a perfect with /-kòt'/, a past habitual with /-òw/, a non past-habitual formed by reduplication and auxiliary, a progressive present, a progressive past, a completive aspect, a durative and an iterative/continuative.

Numbers

Northern Mao number system is a 10-base-system. Numbers 11-19 are formed from parts of kú:sé "hand" and túget "foot".

200 numbo-ku:s-an kú:s-án

Morphosyntaxe

Word order

The usual word order in the Bambassi language is subject - object - verb, the verb comes last. The following sentences are given as an example:

(1) íʃ es-ìʃ ʃóːʃ-ná ha-pí-↓á

DEF person-SBJ snake-OBJ AFF-kill-DECL

‘The person killed a snake.’

(2) múnts’-ìʃ p’iʃ-(na) ha-kaːm-á

woman-SBJ child-OBJ AFF-love-DECL

‘A woman loved a child.’

Notes

Further reading

• Ahland, Michael. 2009. Linguistic Discovery 7: 1-42.
• Alemayehu Dumessa. 2007. Word Formation in Diddessa Mao. Addis Ababa University, MA thesis.
• Wedekind, Charlotte, Klaus Wedekind and Ralph Siebert. 2002. , SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-056