Burji language (alternate names: Bembala, Bambala, Daashi) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Burji people who reside in Ethiopia south of Lake Chamo. There are over 49,000 speakers in Ethiopia, and a further 36,900 speakers in Kenya. Burji belongs to the Highland East Cushitic group of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.
The language has the SOV (subject–object–verb) word order common to the Cushitic family. The verb morphology distinguishes passive and middle grammatical voice, as well as causative. Verbal suffixes mark the person, number, and gender of the subject.
The New Testament was published in the Burji language in 1993. A collection of Burji proverbs, translated into English, French, and Swahili, is available on the Web.
Numerals 1-1000
- 1,000. kuma
Syntax
Word order
Dhaashatee is a head-final language, which means that modifiers come before the main noun in the noun phrase. Dependent clauses come before independent clauses, while relative clauses come before the nouns they modify. The basic word order at the sentence-level is SOV, as in other HEC languages.
Relative clauses
Relative clauses in Burji (Dhaashatee) are not formally marked but they can be recognized from main clauses by having more than one completely inflected verb in a non-final position. In contrast, in a "regular" main clause with multiple verbs, all but the last one takes a converb suffix. Other types of subordinate clauses are marked by complementizers or subordinate conjunctions.
An examples of a relative clause is given below. Dhogoli functions as the subject of both the relative clause and the main clause.
Notes
References
- Amborn, Hermann; Kellner, Alexander (1999). "Burji vocabulary of cultural items: an insight into Burji culture, based on the field notes of Helmut Straube". Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere. 58: 5-67. S2CID 146595277.
- Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1982). An Etymological Dictionary of Burji. Kuschitische Sprachstudien 1. Hamburg: Buske. ISBN 3871185612.
- Sasse, Hans-Jürgen Sasse; Straube, Helmut (1977). "Kultur und Sprache der Burji in Süd-Äthiopien: Ein Abriss" [Burji Culture and Language in Southern Ethiopia: An Outline]. In Moehlig, Wilhelm J. G.; Rottland, Franz; Heine, Bernd (eds.). Zur Sprachgeschichte und Ethnohistorie in Afrika [On linguistic history and ethnohistory in Africa] (in German). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. p. 239–266. ISBN 978-3-496-00100-3. OCLC 5773661.
- Wedekind, Charlotte (1985). "Burji verb morphology and morphophonemics," The verb morphophonemics of five highland east Cushitic languages, including Burji". Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere. 2. Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik: 110–145.
- Wedekind, Klaus (1980). "Sidamo, Darasa (Gedeo), Burji: phonological differences and likenesses". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 14: 131–176.
External links
- World Atlas of Language Structures information on Burji
