Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromoo, Oromiffa(a), and sometimes in other languages as variant spellings of these names (Oromigna, Afan Oromo, etc.), is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic sub-phylum. As with Arabic, some (including SIL) view it as a set of closely related languages, but, at least within Ethiopia, its speakers consider it to be a single language. It is spoken by approximately 24–25 million Oromos and other neighboring nationalities in Ethiopia and in Kenya. Formerly the language and people were often referred to by non-Oromos within Ethiopia as well as by Europeans as Galla, but this term is considered pejorative by the Oromos and is no longer used. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ... The East Cushitic languages comprise more than thirty languages belonging to the Cushitic family within the Afro-Asiatic phylum. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Orma village in the Tana River District of Kenya The Orma is a tribe found in Eastern Kenya, mostly along the lower Tana River. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... SIL International is a worldwide non-profit evangelical Christian organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document lesser-known languages in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy and aid minority language development. ... For the language, see Oromo language. ...

Oromo uses a modified Latin alphabet called Qubee, which was formally adopted in 1991. The Ge'ez abugida was the most commonly used script in the past, though in Ethiopia, writing the Oromo language in any script had been banned by the government of Haile Selassie. With the adoption of Qubee, it is believed more texts were written in the Oromo language between 1991 and 1997 than in the previous 100 years. [1] [2] The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Emperor Haile Selassie I (Geez: , Power of the Trinity, full title His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia and Elect of God, Geez [sic] ) (born Lij Tafari Makonnen Geez , Amharic pronunciation lij teferī mekōnnin, July... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Arabic alphabet has also been used. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ...

Speakers

At least 99 percent of Oromo speakers live in Ethiopia, mainly in Oromia state, and few of the remainder live in Kenya,United states,and Europe. In Somalia there are also about 42,000 speakers of the language.[3] Within Ethiopia, Oromo is the language with the second most first-language speakers (31.6% vs. 32.7% for Amharic).[4] Within Africa, it is the language with the fifth most speakers, after Arabic (assuming the spoken dialects of Arabic are treated as a single language), Swahili, Hausa, and Amharic. Besides first language speakers, a number of members of other ethnicities who are in contact with the Oromos speak Oromo as a second language, for example, the Omotic-speaking Bambassi and the Nilo-Saharan-speaking Kwama in northwestern Oromia.[5] Oromo flag The land of the Oromo Nation is known as Oromia (sometimes spelled Oromiya). ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see below for derivation) is a Bantu language. ... Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 24 million people, and as a second language by about 15 million more. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Omotic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken in northeast Africa. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... Various types of Kwama as seen on one of the loading screens of Morrowind. ...

Dialects

Varieties of Oromo divide into three main clusters of dialects (data are mainly from Ethnologue[6][7] and Stroomer (1987)^[1]):

• Western (or West Central) Oromo
  • Wellega (Wallagga) or Macha (Macca), spoken in northwestern Oromia
  • Tulama (Tuulamaa) or Shewa (Shawaa), spoken in north central Oromia and by many people within the city of Addis Ababa (Finfinnee or Shaggar), which is administratively separate from Oromia
  • Wollo (Wallo), spoken in a north-south strip east of the city of Wollo, partly in the Oromia Zone of Amhara Region and not adjacent to any of the Oromo-speaking areas of central and southern Ethiopia
  • Raya (Raayyaa), spoken further north than the Wollo dialect, in an area bounded on the west by Amharic and Tigrinya speakers and on the east by Afar speakers
• Eastern Oromo, spoken in the northeastern part of Oromia, as well as in and around the cities of Harar and Dire Dawa (Dirree Dhawaa), which are administratively separate from Oromia; also called Harar Oromo and Humbanna-Ituu Oromo ( major tribes of the east)
• Southern Oromo
  • Arsi, spoken around the Arsi Zone of central Oromia
  • Guji (Gujii), spoken around the Guji area of south central Oromia
  • Borana (Boranaa), spoken in southern Oromia, parts of Eastern Province in Kenya, and parts of the Gedo region of Somalia
  • Gabra, spoken in the northwestern part of Eastern Province in Kenya
  • Garre-Ajuraan, spoken in Mandera and Wajir districts in North Eastern Province in Kenya
  • Sakuye, spoken in a region south of Moyale in Eastern Province in Kenya
  • Orma (including Munyo), spoken along the Tana River in Coast Province in Kenya
  • Waata, spoken in isolated villages along the Indian Ocean in Coast Province in Kenya

Much work remains to be done on Oromo dialects, in particular on their degree of mutual intelligibility. It appears that the most divergent dialects are the southern ones. For example, in these dialects the gender of most nouns is identifiable from the final vowel.^[2] The dialects spoken in Ethiopia and in Kenya differ in terms of what languages they are most likely to borrow words from. In Ethiopia, Oromo has been in contact with Amharic for hundreds of years, and this has resulted in mutual lexical influence. In Kenya, on the other hand, the Oromo dialects have borrowed many words from Swahili or English. Shewa (also spelled Shoa) is a historical region of Ethiopia. ... For the long-distance runner, see Addis Abebe. ... Wollo was a province in the north-eastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessye. ... Oromia is a Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. ... Map of Ethiopia highlighting the Amhara region. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Tigrinya (Geez ትግርኛ tigriññā, also spelled Tigrigna) is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea (there referred to as the Tigrinya people), where it is one of the main working languages (Eritrea does not have official languages), and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia (whose... Afar () is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. ... Harar (sometimes spelled Harrar, Hārer, or Harer) is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari ethno-political division (or kilil) of Ethiopia. ... Map of Ethiopia showing Dire Dawa (in red). ... Arsi (or Arusi) is one of the 12 zones of the Oromia region, Ethiopia. ... The East Province (French Province de lEst) occupies the southeastern portion of the Republic of Cameroon. ... Location of Gedo in Somalia Gedo is also the stage name of Japanese professional wrestler Keiji Takayama, and the name of a fictional high school in the film Battlefield Baseball Gedo (Somali: Gedo; Arabic: ‎ ) is an administrative region (gobolka) in southwestern Somalia. ... The East Province (French Province de lEst) occupies the southeastern portion of the Republic of Cameroon. ... . North Eastern is one of Kenyas administrative provinces. ... Moyale is a town on the border of Ethiopia and Kenya, with parts of it existing in both countries. ... The East Province (French Province de lEst) occupies the southeastern portion of the Republic of Cameroon. ... The Tana River is the longest river in Kenya. ... Coast Province is a province of Kenya. ... Coast Province is a province of Kenya. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see below for derivation) is a Bantu language. ...

Language policy

Before the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974, publishing or broadcasting in Oromo was prohibited, and the few works that were published, most notably Onesimos Nesib's translation of the Bible from the late nineteenth century, were written in the Ge'ez script. Following the Revolution, the government undertook a literacy campaign in several languages, including Oromo, and publishing and radio broadcasts began in the language. Plans to introduce Oromo instruction in the schools, however, were not realized until the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown in 1991, except in regions controlled by the Oromo Liberation Front. With the creation of Oromia under the new system of ethnic regions, it has been possible to introduce Oromo as the medium of instruction in elementary schools throughout the region and as a language of administration within the region. Onesimos Nesib (about 1856 - 21 June 1931), was a native Oromo who converted to Lutheran Christianity and translated the Christian Bible into Oromo. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Derg party badge, c. ... Mengistu Haile Mariam Mengistu Haile Mariam (IPA: mɛngəstuː hɑjəlɛ mɑːʀjɑm) (born 1937[1] [2]) is a Communist politician who was the President of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991. ... OLF symbol The Oromo Liberation Front (also known as the OLF) is a rebel front established in 1973 by Oromo nationalists to lead an alleged liberation struggle of the Oromo people against the what they call Abyssinian colonial rule. ...

Within Kenya there has been radio broadcasting in Oromo (in the Borana dialect) on the Voice of Kenya since at least the 1980s.^[3] Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is the state run media (Radio and Television) organization. ...

Sounds and orthography

Consonant and vowel phonemes

Like most other Ethiopian languages, whether Semitic, Cushitic, or Omotic, Oromo has a a set of ejective consonants, that is, voiceless stops or affricates that are accompanied by glottalization and an explosive burst of air. Oromo has another glottalized phone that is more unusual, an implosive retroflex stop, "dh" in Oromo orthography, a sound that is like an English "d" produced with the tongue curled back slightly and with the air drawn in so that a glottal stop is heard before the following vowel begins. Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants in a language. ...

Oromo has the typical Southern Cushitic set of five short and five long vowels, indicated in the orthography by doubling the five vowel letters. The difference in length is contrastive, for example, hara 'lake', haaraa 'new'. Gemination is also significant in Oromo. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another, for example, badaa 'bad', baddaa 'highland'. Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

In the Oromo alphabet, a single "letter" consists either of a single symbol or a digraph ("ch", "dh", "ny", "ph", "sh"). Gemination is not obligatorily marked for the digraphs, though some writers indicate it by doubling the first symbol: qopphaa'uu 'be prepared'. In the charts below, the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for a phoneme is shown in brackets where it differs from the Oromo letter. The phonemes /p/, /v/ and /z/ appear in parentheses because they are only found in recent loan words. Note that there have been minor changes in the orthography since it was first adopted: "x" (IPA [t']) was originally represented as "th", and there has been some confusion among authors in the use of "c" and "ch" in representing the phonemes /ʧ'/ and /ʧ/, with some early works using "c" for /ʧ/ and "ch" for /ʧ'/ and even "c" for different phonemes depending on where it appears in a word. This article uses "c" consistently for /ʧ'/ and "ch" for /ʧ/. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ) but release as a fricative (such as or or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... Look up implosive in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Grammar

Nouns

Gender

Like other Afro-Asiatic languages, Oromo has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, and all nouns belong to either one or the other. Grammatical gender in Oromo enters into the grammar in the following ways: The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ...

• Verbs (except for the copula be) agree with their subjects in gender when the subject is third person singular (he or she).
• Third person singular personal pronouns (he, she, it, etc. in English) have the gender of the noun they refer to.
• Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender.
• Some possessive adjectives ("my", "your") agree with the nouns they modify in some dialects.

Except in some southern dialects, there is nothing in the form of most nouns that indicates their gender. A small number of nouns pairs for people, however, end in -eessa (m.) and -eettii (f.), as do adjectives when they are used as nouns: obboleessa 'brother', obboleettii 'sister', dureessa 'the rich one (m.)', hiyyeettii 'the poor one (f.)'. Grammatical gender normally agrees with biological gender for people and animals; thus nouns such as abbaa 'father', ilma 'son', and sangaa 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as haadha 'mother' and intala 'girl, daughter' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender.

Names of astronomical bodies are feminine: aduu 'sun', urjii 'star'. The gender of other inanimate nouns varies somewhat among dialects.

Number

Oromo has singular and plural number, but nouns that refer to multiple entities are not obligatorily plural. That is, if the context is clear, a formally singular noun may refer to multiple entities: nama 'man', nama shan, 'five men'. Another way of looking at this is to treat the "singular" form as unspecified for number. In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ...

When it is important to make the plurality of a referent clear, the plural form of a noun is used. Noun plurals are formed through the addition of suffixes. The most common plural suffix is -oota; a final vowel is dropped before the suffix, and in the western dialects, the suffix becomes -ota following a syllable with a long vowel: mana 'house', manoota 'houses', hiriyaa 'friend', hiriyoota 'friends', barsiisaa 'teacher', barsiiso(o)ta 'teachers'. Among the other common plural suffixes are -(w)wan, -een, and -(a)an; the latter two may cause a preceding consonant to be doubled: waggaa 'year', waggaawwan 'years', laga 'river', laggeen 'rivers', ilma 'son', ilmaan 'sons'. Look up Suffix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ...

Definiteness

Oromo has no indefinite articles (corresponding to English a, some), but (except in the southern dialects) it indicates definiteness (English the) with suffixes on the noun: -(t)icha for masculine nouns (the ch is geminated though this is not normally indicated in writing) and -(t)ittii for feminine nouns. Vowel endings of nouns are dropped before these suffixes: karaa 'road', karicha 'the road', nama 'man', namicha/namticha 'the man', haroo 'lake', harittii 'the lake'. Note that for animate nouns that can take either gender, the definite suffix may indicate the intended gender: qaalluu 'priest', qaallicha 'the priest (m.)', qallittii 'the priest (f.)'. The definite suffixes appear to be used less often than the in English, and they seem not to co-occur with the plural suffixes. // An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. ... In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and entities which are not (indefinite noun phrases). ...

Case

An Oromo noun has a citation form or base form that is used when the noun is the object of a verb, the object of a preposition or postposition, or a nominal predicative. In linguistics, citation form is the way a word is prononunced when it is spoken carefully and in isolation, such as when reading a list of words. ... The predicative is an element of the predicate of a sentence which supplements the subject or object by means of the verb. ...

• mana 'house', mana binne 'we bought a house'
• hamma 'until', dhuma 'end', hamma dhuma 'until (the) end'
• mana keessa, 'inside (a/the) house'
• inni 'he', barsiisaa 'teacher', inni barsiisaa (dha) 'he is a teacher'

A noun may also appear in one of six other grammatical cases, each indicated by a suffix or the lengthening of the noun's final vowel. The case endings follow plural or definite suffixes if these appear. For some of the cases, there is a range of forms possible, some covering more than one case, and the differences in meaning among these alternatives may be quite subtle. In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ...

Nominative

The nominative is used for nouns that are the subjects of clauses.

• Ibsaa man's name, Ibsaan 'Ibsaa (nom.)', makiinaa, qaba 'he has', Ibsaan makiinaa qaba 'Ibsaa has a car'

Most nouns ending in short vowels with a preceding single consonant drop the final vowel and add -ni to form the nominative. Following certain consonants, assimilation changes either the n or that consonant (the details depend on the dialect).

• nama 'man', namni 'man (nom.)'
• namoota 'men'; namootni, namoonni 'men (nom.)' (t + n may assimilate to nn)

If a final short vowel is preceded by two consonants or a geminated consonant, -i is suffixed.

• ibsa 'statement', ibsi 'statement (nom.)'
• namicha 'the man', namichi 'the man (nom.)' (the ch in the definite suffix -icha is actually geminated, though not normally written as such)

If the noun ends in a long vowel, -n is suffixed to this. This pattern applies to infinitives, which end in -uu.

• maqaa 'name', maqaan 'name (nom.)'
• nyachuu 'to eat, eating', nyachuun 'to eat, eating (nom.)'

If the noun ends in n, the nominative is identical to the base form.

• afaan 'mouth, language (base form or nom.)'

Some feminine nouns ending in a short vowel add -ti. Again assimilation occurs in some cases.

• haadha 'mother', haati (dh + t assimilates to t)
• lafa 'earth', lafti

Genitive

The genitive is used for possession or "belonging"; it corresponds roughly to English of or -'s. The genitive is usually formed by lengthening a final short vowel, by adding -ii to a final consonant, and by leaving a final long vowel unchanged. The possessor noun follows the possessed noun in a genitive phrase. Many such phrases with specific technical meanings have been added to the Oromo lexicon in recent years.

• obboleetti 'sister', namicha 'the man', obboleetti namichaa 'the man's sister'
• hojii 'job', Caaltuu, woman's name, hojii Caaltuu, 'Caaltuu's job'
• barumsa 'field of study', afaan 'mouth, language', barumsa afaanii 'linguistics'

In place of the genitive it is also possible to use the relative marker kan (m.) / tan (f.) preceding the possessor.

• obboleetti kan namicha 'the man's sister'

Dative

The dative is used for nouns that represent the recipient (to) or the benefactor (for) of an event. The dative form of a verb infinitive (which acts like a noun in Oromo) indicates purpose. The dative takes one of the following forms:

• Lengthening of a final short vowel (ambiguously also signifying the genitive)

• namicha 'the man', namichaa 'to the man, of the man'

• -f following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel; -iif following a consonant

• intala 'girl, daughter', intalaaf 'to a girl, daughter'
• saree 'dog', sareef 'to a dog'
• baruu 'to learn', baruuf 'in order to learn'
• bishaan 'water', bishaaniif 'for water'

• -dhaa or -dhaaf following a long vowel

• saree 'dog'; sareedhaa, sareedhaaf 'to a dog'

• -tti (with no change to a preceding vowel), especially with verbs of speaking

• Caaltuu woman's name, himi 'tell, say (imperative)', Caaltuutti himi 'tell Caaltuu'

Instrumental

The instrumental is used for nouns that represent the instrument ("with"), the means ("by"), the agent ("by"), the reason, or the time of an event. The formation of the instrumental parallels that of the dative to some extent:

• -n following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel; -iin following a consonant

• harka 'hand', harkaan 'by hand, with a hand'
• halkan 'night', halkaniin 'at night'

• -tiin following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel

• Afaan Oromoo 'Oromo (language)', Afaan Oromootiin 'in Oromo'

• -dhaan following a long vowel

• yeroo 'time', yeroodhaan 'on time'
• bawuu 'to come out, coming out', bawuudhaan 'by coming out'

Locative

The locative is used for nouns that represent general locations of events or states, roughly at. For more specific locations, Oromo uses prepositions or postpositions. Postpositions may also take the locative suffix. The locative also seems to overlap somewhat with the instrumental, sometimes having a temporal function. The locative is formed with the suffix -tti.

• Arsiitti 'in Arsii'
• harka 'hand', harkatti 'in hand'
• guyyaa 'day', guyyaatti 'per day'
• jala, jalatti 'under'

Ablative

The ablative is to represent the source of an event; it corresponds closely to English from. The ablative, applied to postpositions and locative adverbs as well a nouns proper, is formed in the following ways:

• When the word ends in a short vowel, this vowel is lengthened (as for the genitive).

• biyya 'country', biyyaa 'from country'
• keessa 'inside, in', keessaa 'from inside'

• When the word ends in a long vowel, -dhaa is added (as for one alternative for the dative).

• Finfinneedhaa 'from Finfinnee (Addis Ababa)'
• gabaa 'market', gabaadhaa 'from market'

• When the word ends in a consonant, -ii is added (as for the genitive).

• Hararii 'from Harar'

• Following a noun in the genitive, -tii is added.

• mana 'house', buna 'coffee', mana bunaa 'cafe', mana bunaatii 'from cafe'

An alternative to the ablative is the postposition irraa 'from' whose initial vowel may be dropped in the process:

• gabaa 'market', gabaa irraa, gabaarraa 'from market'

The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... Dative has several meanings. ... In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In linguistics, the ablative case is a noun case found in several languages, including Latin, Sanskrit and in the Finno_Ugric languages. ...

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

In most languages, there is a small number of basic distinctions of person, number, and often gender that play a role within the grammar of the language. Oromo and English are such languages. We see these distinctions within the basic set of independent personal pronouns, for example, English I, Oromo ani; English they, Oromo isaani and the set of possessive adjectives and pronouns, for example, English my, Oromo koo; English mine, Oromo kan koo. In Oromo, the same distinctions are also reflected in subject-verb agreement: Oromo verbs (with a few exceptions) agree with their subjects; that is, the person, number, and (singular third person) gender of the subject of the verb are marked by suffixes on the verb. Because these suffixes vary greatly with the particular verb tense/aspect/mood, they are normally not considered to be pronouns and are discussed elsewhere in this article under verb conjugation. Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... Personal pronouns are pronouns that refer to objects of a sentence, usually (but not always), people or animals. ... Headline text hjvhwhatsgm,Possessive adjectives modify nouns. ... A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. ... In languages, agreement is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... It has been suggested that prohibitive mood be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ...

In all of these areas of the grammar — independent pronouns, possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns, and subject-verb agreement — Oromo distinguishes seven combinations of person, number, and gender. For first and second persons, there is a two-way distinction between singular ('I', 'you sg.') and plural ('we', 'you pl.'), whereas for third person, there is a two-way distinction in the singular ('he', 'she') and a single form for the plural ('they'). Because Oromo has only two genders, there is no pronoun corresponding to English it; the masculine or feminine pronoun is used according to the gender of the noun referred to.

Oromo is a subject pro-drop language. That is, neutral sentences in which the subject is not emphasized do not require independent subject pronouns: kaleessa dhufne 'we came yesterday'. The Oromo word that translates 'we' does not appear in this sentence, though the person and number are marked on the verb dhufne ('we came') by the suffix -ne. When the subject in such sentences needs to be given prominence for some reason, an independent pronoun can be used: nuti kaleessa dhufne 'we came yesterday'. A pro-drop language (from pronoun-dropping) is a language where pronouns can be deleted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable (the precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite intricate). ...

The table below gives forms of the personal pronouns in the different cases, as well as the possessive adjectives. For the first person plural and third person singular feminine categories, there is considerable variation across dialects; only some of the possibilities are shown.

The possessive adjectives, treated as separate words here, are sometimes written as noun suffixes. In most dialects there is a distinction between masculine and feminine possessive adjectives for first and second person (the form agreeing with the gender of the modified noun). However, in the western dialects, the masculine forms (those beginning with k-) are used in all cases. Possessive adjectives may take the case endings for the nouns they modify: ganda kootti 'to my village' (-tti: locative case).

As in languages such as French, Russian, and Turkish, the Oromo second person plural is also used as a polite singular form, for reference to people that the speaker wishes to show respect towards. This usage is an example of the so-called T-V distinction that is made in many languages. In addition, the third person plural may be used for polite reference to a single third person (either 'he' or 'she'). This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

For possessive pronouns ('mine', 'yours', etc.), Oromo adds the possessive adjectives to kan 'of': kan koo 'mine', kan kee 'yours', etc.

Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

Oromo has two ways of expressing reflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself', etc.). One is to use the noun meaning 'self': of(i) or if(i). This noun is inflected for case but, unless it is being emphasized, not for person, number, or gender: isheen of laalti 'she looks at herself' (base form of of), isheen ofiif makiinaa bitte 'she bought herself a car' (dative of of). In some languages, there is a difference between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns. ...

The other possibility is to use the noun meaning 'head', mataa, with possessive suffixes: mataa koo 'myself', mataa kee 'yourself (s.)', etc.

Oromo has a reciprocal pronoun wal (English 'each other') that is used like of/if. That is, it is inflected for case but not person, number, or gender: wal jaalatu 'they like each other' (base form of wal), kennaa walii bidan 'they brought each other gifts' (dative of wal). A reciprocal is a linguistic structure that marks a particular kind of relationship between grammatical agents. ...

Demonstrative pronouns

Like English, Oromo makes a two-way distinction between proximal ('this, these') and distal ('that, those') demonstrative pronouns and adjectives. Some dialects distinguish masculine and feminine for the proximal pronouns; in the western dialects the masculine forms (beginning with k-) are used for both genders. Unlike in English, singular and plural demonstratives are not distinguished, but, as for nouns and personal pronouns in the language, case is distinguished. Only the base and nominative forms are shown in the table below; the other cases are formed from the base form as for nouns, for example, sanatti 'at/on/in that' (locative case). A demonstrative pronoun in grammar and syntax is a pronoun that shows the place of something. ...

Verbs

An Oromo verb consists minimally of a stem, representing the lexical meaning of the verb, and a suffix, representing tense or aspect and subject agreement. For example, in dhufne 'we came', dhuf- is the stem ('come') and -ne indicates that the tense is past and that the subject of the verb is first person plural. In common parlance, a stem is any elongated, usually narrow, extension or supporting structure of an object. ... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a base morpheme to form a word. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ...

As in many other Afro-Asiatic languages, Oromo makes a basic two-way distinction in its verb system between the two tensed forms, past (or "perfect") and present (or "imperfect" or "non-past"). Each of these has its own set of tense/agreement suffixes. There is a third conjugation based on the present which has three functions: it is used in place of the present in subordinate clauses, for the jussive ('let me/us/him, etc. V', together with the particle haa), and for the negative of the present (together with the particle hin). For example, deemne 'we went', deemna 'we go', akka deemnu 'that we go', haa deemnu 'let's go', hin deemnu 'we don't go'. There is also a separate imperative form: deemi 'go (sg.)!'. The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... A clause is a group of words consisting of a subject (often just a single noun) and a predicate (sometimes just a single verb). ... The jussive mood is a grammatical mood that indicates commands, permission or agreement with a request. ... Negation (i. ... Imperative programming, as opposed to functional programming, is a sort of programming employing side-effect as central execution feature. ...

Conjugation

The table below shows the conjugation in the affirmative and negative of the verb beek- 'know'. The first person singular present and past affirmative forms require the suffix -n to appear on the word preceding the verb or the word nan before the verb. The negative particle hin, shown as a separate word in the table, is sometimes written as a prefix on the verb.

For verbs with stems ending in certain consonants and suffixes beginning with consonants (that is, t or n), there are predictable changes to one or the other of the consonants. The dialects vary a lot in the details, but the following changes are common.

Verbs whose stems end in two consonants and whose suffix begins with a consonant must insert a vowel to break up the consonants since the language does not permit sequences of three consonants. There are two ways this can happen: either the vowel i is inserted between the stem and the suffix, or the final stem consonants are switched (an example of metathesis) and the vowel a is inserted between them. For example, arg- 'see', arga 'he sees', argina or agarna 'we see'; kolf- 'laugh', kolfe 'he laughed', kolfite or kofalte 'you (sg.) laughed'. Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ...

Verbs whose stems end in the consonant ' (which may appear as h, w, or y in some words, depending on the dialect) belong to three different conjugation classes; the class is not predictable from the verb stem. It is the forms that precede suffixes beginning with consonants (t and n) that differ from the usual pattern. The third person masculine singular, second person singular, and first person plural present forms are shown for an example verb in each class.

1. du'- 'die': du'a 'he dies', duuta 'you (sg.) die', duuna 'we die'
2. beela'-, 'be hungry': beela'a 'he is hungry', beelofta 'you (sg.) are hungry', beelofna 'we are hungry'
3. dhaga'- 'hear': dhaga'a 'he hears', dhageessa 'you (sg.) hear', dhageenya 'we hear' (note that the suffix consonants change)

The common verbs fedh- 'want' and godh- 'do' deviate from the basic conjugation pattern in that long vowels replace the geminated consonants that would result when suffixes beginning with t or n are added: fedha 'he wants', feeta 'you (sg.) want', feena 'we want', feetu 'you (pl.) want', hin feene 'didn't want', etc.

The verb dhuf- 'come' has the irregular imperatives koottu, koottaa. The verb deem- 'go' has, alongside regular imperative forms, the irregular imperatives beenu, beenaa.

Derivation

An Oromo verb root can be the basis for three derived voices, passive, causative, and autobenefactive, each formed with addition of a suffix to the root, yielding the stem that the inflectional suffixes are added to.

Passive voice

The Oromo passive corresponds closely to the English passive in function. It is formed by adding -am to the verb root. The resulting stem is conjugated regularly. Examples: beek- 'know', beekam- 'be known', beekamani 'they were known'; jedh- 'say', jedham- 'be said', jedhama 'it is said'

Causative voice

The Oromo causative of a verb V corresponds to English expressions such as 'cause V', 'make V', 'let V'. With intransitive verbs, it has a transitivizing function. It is formed by adding -s, -sis, or -siis to the verb root, except that roots ending in -l add -ch. Verbs whose roots end in ' drop this consonant and may lengthen the preceding vowel before adding -s. Examples: beek- 'know', beeksis- 'cause to know, inform', beeksifne 'we informed'; ka'- 'go up, get up', kaas- 'pick up', kaasi 'pick up (sing.)!'; gal- 'enter', galch- 'put in', galchiti 'she puts in'; bar- 'learn', barsiis- 'teach', nan barsiisa 'I teach'.

Autobenefactive voice

The Oromo autobenefactive (or "middle" or "reflexive-middle") voice of a verb V corresponds roughly to English expressions such as 'V for oneself' or 'V on one's own', thought the precise meaning may be somewhat unpredictable for many verbs. It is formed by adding -adh to the verb root. The conjugation of a middle verb is irregular in the third person singular masculine of the present and past (-dh in the stem changes to -t) and in the singular imperative (the suffix is -u rather than -i). Examples: bit- 'buy', bitadh- 'buy for oneself', bitate 'he bought (something) for himself', bitadhu 'but for yourself (sing.)!'; qab- 'have', qabadh- 'seize, hold (for oneself)', qabanna 'we hold'. Some autobenefactives are derived from nouns rather than verbs, for example, hojjadh- 'work' from the noun hojii 'work'.

The voice suffixes can be combined in various ways. Two causative suffixes are possible: ka'- 'go up', kaas- 'pick up', kaasis- 'cause to pick up'. The causative may be followed by the passive or the autobenefactive; in this case the s of the causative is replaced by f: deebi'- 'return (intransitive)', deebis- 'return (transitive), answer', deebifam- 'be returned, be answered', deebifadh- 'get back for oneself'. In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... The causative voice is a grammatical voice promoting the oblique argument of a transitive verb to an actor argument. ...

A further derived verb aspect is the frequentative or "intensive," formed by copying the first consonant and vowel of the verb root and geminating the second occurrence of the initial consonant. The resulting stem indicates the repetition or intensive performance of the action of the verb. Examples: bul- 'spend the night', bubbul- 'spend several nights', cab- 'break', caccab- 'break to pieces, break completely'; dhiib- 'push, apply pressure', dhiddhiib- 'massage'. In linguistics, grammatical aspect is a property of a verb that defines the nature of temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... In grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one which indicates repeated action. ...

The infinitive is formed from a verb stem with the addition of the suffix -uu. Verbs whose stems end in -dh (in particular all autobenefactive verbs) change this to ch before the suffix. Examples: dhug- 'drink', dhuguu 'to drink'; ga'- 'reach', ga'uu 'to reach'; jedh- 'say', jechu 'to say'. The verb fedh- is exceptional; its infinitive is fedhuu rather than the expected fechuu. The infinitive behaves like a noun; that is, it can take any of the case suffixes. Examples: ga'uu 'to reach', ga'uuf 'in order to reach' (dative case); dhug- 'drink', dhugam- 'be drunk', dhugamuu to be drunk', dhugamuudhaan 'by being drunk' (instrumental case).

Notes

External links

Oromo language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Ethnologue report for Oromo.
• Voice of America news broadcast in Afaan Oromoo.
• Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) website contains many articles written in Oromo, and an online radio broadcast.
• Serlugaa Afaan Oromoo, Oromo grammar in Oromo, by Abdusamad Muhammadiin.
• PanAfriL10n page on Oromo

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Bibliography

Grammar

• Griefenow-Mewis, Catherine; Tamene Bitima (1994). Lehrbuch des Oromo. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-927620-05-X.  [8]
• Griefenow-Mewis, Catherine (2001). A Grammatical Sketch of Written Oromo. Köln, Germany: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-039-5. [9]
• Mohammed Ali; Zaborski, A. (1990). Handbook of the Oromo Language. Wroclaw, Poland: Polska Akademia Nauk. ISBN 83-04-03316-X.  [10]
• Praetorius, Franz [1872] (1973). Zur Grammatik der Gallasprache. Hildesheim; New York: G. Olms. ISBN 3-487-06556-8. 
• Stroomer, Harry (1987). A comparative study of three Southern Oromo dialects in Kenya. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. ISBN 3-87118-846-8.  [11]
• Taha M. Roba (2004). Modern Afaan Oromo grammar : qaanqee galma Afaan Oromo. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4184-7480-0. 
• Hodson, Arnold Weinholt (1922). An elementary and practical grammar of the Galla or Oromo language. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 

Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson (1881 – 1944) was a British colonial administrator. ...

Dictionaries

• Bramly, A. Jennings (1909). English-Galla-Amharic Vocabulary. [Typescript in Khartoum University Library]. 
• Foot, Edwin C. [1913] (1968). A Galla-English, English-Galla dictionary. Cambridge University Press (repr. Farnborough, Gregg). ISBN 0-576-11622-X. 
• Tamene Bitima (2000). A dictionary of Oromo technical terms. Oromo - English. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-062-X. [12]
• Tilahun Gamta (1989). Oromo-English dictionary. Addis Ababa: University Printing Press. 
• Gragg, Gene B. et al. (ed., 1982) Oromo Dictionary. Monograph (Michigan State University. Committee on Northeast African Studies) no. 12. East Lansing, Mich. : African Studies Center, Michigan State Univ.
• Mayer, Johannes (1878). Kurze Wörter-Sammlung in Englisch, Deutsch, Amharisch, Gallanisch, Guragesch, hrsg. von L. Krapf.. Basel: Pilgermissions-Buchsdruckerei St. Chrischona.