Cushitic and Omotic Languages

What makes the unity of Cushitic and Omotic studies and the unity of the relatively few scholars working in this field? It is, of course, the clear-cut genetic division of the languages spoken in East Africa. In general it is easy to identify a Cushitic, Omotic or Semitic language. But there is more to it than this. Northeast Africa is a specific area; it has an exceptional position within Africa.

The landscape, the mild climate in the highlands, the dominance of the Ethiopic race (which is intermediate to the white and the black race without being a mixture of them), the strong Semitic impact since two and a half millenia, and the indigenous Christian culture have made East Africa a cultural province of its own that constitutes the third geographic-cultural larger area in Africa besides White Africa and Black Africa. All this contributes to the fascination of this area, and has had an influence on our commitment there. (from the Preface)

CONTENTS

I. Comparative articles

Afro-Asiatic Comparisons

Alexander Militarev: Home for Afrasian - African or Asian? Areal Linguistic Arguments

Anna Belova: Einige jemenitisch-afrikanische Isoglossen

Cushitic Comparisons

Gene Gragg: CUSHLEX - A Cushitic Etymological Index

Roland Kießling: Verbal Inflectional Suffixes in the West Rift Group of Southern Cushitic

Mauro Tosco: The Northern Highland East Cushitic Verb in an Areal Perspective

Rainer Voigt: Zur Gliederung des Kuschitischen - Die Präfixkonjugationen

Andrzej Zaborski: Intensive Verbs and the Present in Cushitic

Omotic Comparisons

M. Lionel Bender: The Limits of Omotic Revisited

Richard J. Hayward: The Velar Stem Alternation in Omotic


II. Particular Cushitic Languages

Agaw

David L. Appleyard: Preparing a Comparative Agaw Dictionary

Ma'a

Maarten Mous: Was there ever a Southern Cushitic Language (Pre- ) Ma'a?

Oromo

Tamene Bitima: European Loanwords in Afaan Oromoo

Catherine Griefenow-Mewis: The Rise of New Terms in Oromo - Means and Problems

Mohammed Hassen: A Brief Glance at the History of the Growth of Written Oromo Literature

Getachew Chemeda Nadhabasaa: Hamachiisaa - Naming a Child by the Oromo Qaalluu and the Social Meanings of the Names

Thomas Zitelmann: The Return of the Devils Tongue - Polemics about the Choice of the Roman Alphabet (qubee) for the Oromo Language

Georgi Kapchits: On Subjects and Motifs in Somali Folk-tales - Experience of Cataloguing

Mohamed Mohamed-Abdi: Standards de la poésie somalie - quelques critères de reconnaissance et d'appréciation des poèmes somalis


III. Particular Omotic Languages

Marcello Lamberti: A Few Remarks on Verb Derivation in Yemsa

Die folgenden Sammelbände dokumentieren die Ergebnisse der internationalen Konferenzen zu kuschitischen und omotischen Sprachen in unserem Programm:

"Omotic and Cushitic Language Studies - Papers from the Fourth Cushitic Omotic Conference, Leiden, 10-12 April 2003", ISBN 978-3-89645-482-9.

"Colloque international sur les langues couchitiques et les peuples qui les parlent - International Conference on Cushitic Languages and Peoples, Paris, 8-12 Sept. 1975", ISBN 978-3-89645-489-8.