Somali
1st Edition
Published on 15. November 1999
XV, 295 pages
978-90-272-8307-8 (ISBN)
Description
Somali is spoken by more than nine million people in the Horn of Africa and by expatriate communities in the Middle East, Europe and North America. It is the official language of Somalia and an important regional language in Ethiopia and Kenya. As a Cushitic language Somali is part of the great Afroasiatic language family whose other branches include Semitic, Berber, Chadic and Ancient Egyptian. This book provides a comprehensive description of the grammar of the language that will be of interest to non-specialists and linguists interested in typology and language comparison. The author's accessible investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax and discourse structure allows the reader a clear view of the linguistic character of Somali and, through Somali, of a Cushitic language. A further important feature of the book is its use of authentic data from a range of sources, including prose, poetry and proverbs.
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Content
- SOMALI
- Editorial page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Table of contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations and Symbols
- Chapter 1. Introduction
- 1.1 The speakers and the land
- 1.2 The language
- 1.3 Linguistic studies
- 1.4 Design ofthis book
- Chapter 2. Phonological units
- 2.1 Consonant inventory
- 2.2 Vowels
- 2.3 The syllable
- 2.4 Tone and accent
- Chapter 3. Phonological Rules
- 3.1 Syllable structure processes
- 3.1.1 Syllablefinalstops
- 3.1.2 Consonant cluster simplification
- 3.1.3 Restrictions on Vsyllables
- 3.1.4 Stem contraction
- 3.2 Sandhi
- 3.2.1 Determiner suffixes
- 3.2.2 Nounfinal vowel assimilation
- 3.2.3 Verbal causative affix
- 3.2.4 Verbalmiddle voice affix
- 3.2.5 Verbal agreement affixes
- 3.3 Coalescence
- 3.3.1 Verbal subject pronouns
- 3.3.2 Focus words
- 3.3.3 Verbal adpositions
- 3.4 Tonal accent rules
- 3.4.1 Basic assignment oftonalaccent
- 3.4.2 Accentual patterns and grammatical rules
- 3.4.3 Contextual effects
- 3.5 Reduplication
- Chapter 4. Grammatical Categories
- 4.1 Nouns
- 4.1.1 Common nouns
- 4.1.1.1 Gender
- 4.1.1.2 Number
- 4.1.1.3 Noun declensions
- 4.1.1.4 Case
- 4.1.2 Names
- 4.1.3 Independent pronouns
- 4.1.4 Numerals
- 4.2 Clitic Pronouns
- 4.2.1 Subject clitic pronouns
- 4.2.2 Object clitic pronouns
- 4.2.3 Non-specific subject pronoun
- 4.2.4 Reflexive/reciprocal object clitic pronoun
- 4.3 Verbs
- 4.3.1 Morphological classes
- 4.3.2 Main and auxiliary verbs
- 4.3.3 Inflectional categories
- 4.3.4 Suffix Verb Paradigms
- 4.3.5 Prefix Verb Paradigms
- 4.3.6 The copula verb yahay
- 4.4 Adjectives
- 4.4.1 Basic adjectives
- 4.4.2 Comparative and superlative
- 4.4.3 Attributive adjectives
- 4.4.4 Agreement features
- 4.5 Verbal appositions
- 4.6 Determiners
- 4.6.1 Definite articles
- 4.6.2 Demonstratives
- 4.6.3 Interrogatives
- 4.6.4 Possessives
- 4.7 Focus words
- 4.8 Sentence type markers
- 4.9 Conjunctions
- 4.9.1 Clausal conjunctions
- 4.9.2 Noun phrase conjunction
- 4.10 Adverbs
- 4.10.1 Time adverbs
- 4.10.2 Intensifier àad
- 4.10.3 Preverbal adverbial clitics
- 4.10.4 ba
- 4.10.5 uun
- 4.11 Ideophones
- 4.12 Interjections and other items
- Chapter 5. Word formation
- 5.1 Derived verbs
- 5.1.1 Derived inchoative verbs
- 5.1.2 Derived experiencer verbs
- 5.1.3 Factitive
- 5.1.4 Passive
- 5.1.5 Causatives
- 5.1.6 Middle voice
- 5.2 Derived adjectives
- 5.3 Derived nouns
- 5.3.1 Verb roots as nouns
- 5.3.2 Nominalising affixes
- 5.3.3 Noun to noun derivation
- 5.4 Compounds
- 5.4.1 Compound nouns
- 5.4.2 Compound verbs
- 5.4.3 Compound adjectives
- Chapter 6. Phrases
- 6.1 Verbal group (VGP)
- 6.1.1 The structure of the VGP
- 6.1.2 Clitic pronouns in the VGP
- 6.1.3 Infinitival constructions
- 6.1.4 Predicative adjectives
- 6.1.5 Noun incorporation in the VGP
- 6.1.6 Permutations in the Verbal Group
- 6.2 Noun phrase
- 6.2.1 Nouns modified by determiners
- 6.2.2 Nouns modified by nominals: possessive noun phrases
- 6.2.3 Other modifiers
- 6.2.4 Multiple modifiers
- 6.3 Discontinuous phrases
- Chapter 7. Simple sentences
- 7.1 Sentence types
- 7.2. Declaratives without focus
- 7.3 Verbless declarative sentences
- 7.4 Declaratives with focus
- 7.4.1 Focus with baa and ayàa
- 7.4.2 Focus with wáxa(a)
- 7.5 Interrogatives
- 7.5.1 Polar Questions
- 7.5.2 Information questions
- 7.5.3 Tag questions
- 7.6 Other sentence types
- 7.6.1 Imperative
- 7.6.2 Optative
- 7.6.3 Potential
- Chapter 8. Subordinate Clauses
- 8.1 Restrictive relative clauses
- 8.1.1 Basic features
- 8.1.2 Case marking
- 8.1.3 Subject-verb agreement
- 8.1.4 Attributive adjectives
- 8.2 Appositive relative clauses
- 8.3 Adverbial clauses
- 8.3.1 Time
- 8.3.2 Location
- 8.3.3 Manner
- 8.3.4 Purpose
- 8.3.5 Reason
- 8.3.6 Conditional
- 8.3.7 Concession
- 8.3.8 Comparison
- 8.4 Verb complement clauses
- 8.4.1 Finite in clauses
- 8.4.2 Infinitival complements
- 8.4.3 Nominalized complements
- Chapter 9. Discourse
- 9.1 Information structure
- 9.1.1 Bàa/ayàa focus
- 9.1.2 Wáxa(a) focus
- 9.1.3 The status of waa
- 9.1.4 Word order and topics
- 9.2 Reference assignment
- 9.3 Analysis of a text
- Appendix I Data Sources
- Appendix II Texts
- Notes
- References
- Index
