Burji language

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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.[1]

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.[2]

Numerals 1-1000

base numeral +10 Template:Times10
1 micha 11 tannaya micha 10 tanna
2 lama 12 tannaya lama 20 lamattann
3 fadiya 13 tannaya fadiya 30 fadiitann
4 foola 14 tannaya foola 40 foolattan
5 umutta 15 tannaya umutta 50 umuttan
6 liya 16 tannaya liya 60 liittan
7 lamala 17 tannaya lamala 70 lamalattan
8 hiditta 18 tannaya hiditta 80 hidittan
9 wonfa 19 tannaya wonfa 90 wonfattan
10 tanna 20 lamattann 100 ch'ibba
  • 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.[3]

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.

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Notes

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  2. Angelique Chelo. 2016. A COLLECTION OF 100 BURJI PROVERBS AND WISE SAYINGS. Web Access Template:Webarchive
  3. Wedekind, Klaus. 1990. Generating Narratives – Interrelations of Knowledge, Text Variants, and Cushitic Focus Strategies. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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References

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External links

Template:Languages of Ethiopia Template:Languages of Kenya Template:Cushitic languages

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