TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface
ix
Abbreviations and Conventions Introduction Phonology
Distributed by Scholars Press PO Box 5207
Missoula, Montana 59806
INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL ETHIOPIC by Thomas O. Lambdin
Copyright © 1978 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lambdin, Thomas Oden. Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) (Harvard Semitic studies; v. 24 ISSN 0147· 9342) Bibliography: p. 1. Ethiopic language-Grammar. I. Harvard University. Semitic Museum. II. Title. III. Series: Harvard Semitic series; v. 24. PJ9023.L3 492'.8 78-12895 ISBN 0-89130-263-8 Printed in the United Stut('H or Alll('rim
1
2
(l
4
fi
x
1
2
A.
The Vowels
B.
The Consonants
2 3
C.
Stress
D.
Root and Pattern
E.
The Ethiopic Alphabet
F.
Special Phonological Rules
G.
Manuscript Errors and Normalization
5 5 6 7 13
1.1
Absence of Definite and Indefinite Articles
1.2
Prepositions
1.3
Third Person Forms of the Verb
2.1
Noun Plurals
2.2
Syntax (Verb plus Noun Subject)
3.1
Noun Plurals (cont.)
15
15
(Perfect)
15
18 18
21
3.2
Collectives
4.1
The Construct State
5.1
Gender
26
5.2
Number
27
5.3
Some Demonstrative Adjectives
6.1
The Personal Pronouns
6.2
Non-verbal Sentences with a Nominal Predicate
6.3
The Plural Demonstratives
7.1
The Accusative Case
7.2
Word Order in a Verbal Clause
21 23
27
(Independent Form)
29
30
33 33
7.3
The Accusative of Goal
7.4
The Accusative Forms of the Demonstratives
8.1
Interrogative Pronouns and Adjectives
8.2
Interrogative Adverbs
8.3
The Particles -nu and -hu
36
8.4
The Remote Demonstratives
37
8.5
Accusative of Time
37
33
36
36
34
29
10.1
Prepositions with Pronominal Suffixes
10.2
The
10 . 3
JteZZ-
11 . 1
Types of Verbs
11.2
The Full Inflection o f the Perfect
12 . 1
The Perfect:
Roots II-Guttural
13.1
The Perfect:
Roots III-Guttural
13 . 2
The Perfect with Object Suffixes
14 . 1
The Perfect: Roots III-W!Y
15.1
The Perfect:
15.2
The Perfect with Object Suffixes (cont.)
waldu la-negus
Construction
49
Roots II-W!Y
qatalo la-negus
16 . 2
Attribut�ve Adjectives
68
17.1
Adjectives: The
Qetul
Pattern
Adjectives as P redi cates
17 . 3
Adv rblal
18 . I
AdJ
11302
Tllu C;OlllplIl'nllv
Ifl.1
Ad)
Predicates
eli v
s:
ltlv
�I:
Vll'.
Pattern
'I'll
Pattern
In
AdJ
I�).I\
Qualification
20.1
64
ctJvos:
72
73
Qatil
76
76
QattaZ
-iilJi and -Ciy
79
79
Miscellaneous Types
79
79
Substantivization
La-
63
73
1'h
ll).�
20.2
56
68
17 . 2
H).S
56
Construction
Adjectives
1
53
63
16.1
l't
50
60
The
AdJ
44
45
15 . 3
11)."
44
80
with Pronominal Suffixes
83
Object suffixes in a Dative or Prepositional Sense
20.3
Partitive Apposition
21 . 1
Medio-passive Verbs: Gt
88
22 . 1
Medio-passive Verbs: Dt,
Lt,
23 . 1
Cardinal Numbers
97
23.2
Ordinal Numbers
23 . 3
Cardinal Adverbs
24 . 1
Associative (Reciprocal)
25.1
Relative Pronouns and Relative Clauses
25 . 2
'Ama
and
85
(1-10) (1-10) (1-10)
Qt
93
97 98 Verbs: G1t
xaba 108
26 . 1
Causative Verbs: CG, CD,
CL, CQ
26.2
The Meaning of CG Verbs
III
III
101 106
83
27 . 1
Causative Verbs:
CG
27.2
Causative Verbs:
CD,
(cont.) CL,
117
CQ
118
27.3
General Remarks on the Verbal System
28 . 1
Ba-
with Pronominal Suffixes Indicating Possession
118
122
28 . 2
Ba-
28 . 3
Bo(tu)
Indicating Existence
28 . 4
Bo za-
as the Equivalent of an Indefinite Pronoun
28 . 5
'Albo .. . za'enbala:
29 . 1
Interrogatives with'
29 . 2
Indefinite Pronouns
Only
za-
122 123 123
123
128
128
29.3
'Akko
30.1
The Infinitive: Form
30.2
The Infinitive: Uses
31 . 1
The Perfective Active Participle
32.1
The Imperfect:
32 . 2
Independent Uses of the Imperfect
129 134 134 140
G Verbs from Sound Roots
32 . 3
Dependent Uses of the Imperfect
33 . 1
The Subjunctive:
14 4
144 145
G Verbs from Sound Roots
33 . 2
The Uses o f the Subjunctive
34 . 1
The Imperative:
34.2
The Agent Noun
35 . 1
The Verbal Adjective
149
G Verbs from Sound Roots
qatali
149
154
154
qetuZ
159
35.2
Further Remarks on Complements
36 . 1
The Verbal Noun (G Verbs)
160
164
36 . 2
The Cognate Accusative
37.1
Nouns of Place: The Pattern
37.2
Nouns of the Pattern
38.1
G Verbs from Roots I-Guttural:
39 . 1
G Verbs from Roots II-Guttural: Remaining Forms
39 . 2
The Verb
40.1
G Verbs from Roots III-Guttural: The Remaining Forms
behZa
166
meqtal
maqtaZ(t)
to say
170
170 Remaining Forms
41 . 1
G Verbs from Roots I-W: The Remaining Forms
G Verbs from Roots II-W!Y: The Remaining Forms
43 . 1
G Verbs from Roots III-W!Y: The Remaining Forms
44 . 1
Gt Verbs: Imperfect, Glt Verbs: Imperfect,
44 . 3
HaZZawa
180
181
42 . 1
44.2
174
Subjunctive,
191 195
and Imperative
Subjunctive, and Imperative
with the Subjunctive and Imperfect
206
200 205 205
186
45 . 1
CG Verbs: The Remaining Forms
46 . 1
0 Verbs: Imperfect, Subjunctive, and Imperative
46 . 2
The Names of the Months
46 . 3
The Numbers Above Ten
47 . 1
0 Verbs: Verbal Adjectives
47 . 2
0 Verbs: Agent Nouns
47 . 3
0 Verbs: Verbal Nouns
209
214
The present work was developed during more than a decade of
215
teaching Classical Ethiopic on the elementary and intermediate levels.
218
It is designed to provide a detailed but carefully graded introduc
218
tion to the grammar and basic vocabulary of the language.
219
0 Verbs: Nouns with P refixed
48 . 1
Ot Verbs: Imperfect, Subjunctive, and Imperative
48 . 2
Ot Verbs: Verbal Nouns
48. 3
CD Verbs
48. 4
Independent Personal Pronouns (Secondary Forms)
220
as Semitists or students of textual criticism, require only a working
2 22
222
knowledge of the language as a tool within a wider discipline .
I
hope too that beginning Ethiopicists will find it an orderly and com
223
prehensive introduction to their study of the classical language.
49. 1
L, CL, and L t Verbs: The Remaining Forms
49 . 2
CGt, COt, CLt, and CGlt Verbs
223
2 25
Because the grammar is presented entirely in transliteration, the student is urged to familiarize himself with the Ethiopic alpha
226
bet as soon as possible and to copy out and study at least the
50 . 1
Quadriliteral Verbs: The Remaining Forms
50. 2
Quinquiliteral Verbs
50 . 3
N Verbs
50 . 4
A Special Adjective Type:
228
vocabulary of each lesson in the native script .
229
In this way he will
considerably lessen the difficulty in making the transition to the
229
reading of published texts and manuscripts.
51 . 1
Conditional Sentences
51 . 2
Optative Sentences
Qataltil
2 30
It is a pleasure to acknowledge my gratitude to the many
231
classes which have worked with me through the successive drafts of
232
this grammar.
Za .. , 'efo
51 . 3
The Syllogistic Construction
51 . 4
The Sentence P articles
51 . 5
The Repeated Prepositions
51 . 6
A Special Use of the Third P erson Singular Pronominal
232
of teaching so many interested and gifted students.
ba-ba-, la-la-, za-za-
234 2 35
The P eriphrastic Passive
Attributive Adjectives in Construct Phrases
Texts in Transliteration with Glosses
235
for the great care and professional skill which she exercised in pre Her patience with a tedious manu
Ma��afa ijeywat.
Lastly, I cannot let go unexpressed my deep appreciation for the genius and diligence of August Oillmann, whose grammatical, tex
236 236
tual, and lexical work in the last century laid the firmest possible foundation for all subsequent scholarly investigation in the field.
2 76
It is on that foundation that the present work is based.
298
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew V, 1 - 24, in Ethiopic Script
377 Thomas O . Lambdin
378 Cambridge, Massachusetts
381
P rincipal Part of G Verbs
also wish to express my sincere thanks to Miss Carol Cross
script and author is undoubtedly registered in the
Lives o f the Saints (from the Synaxarion)
A Selected Bibliography
234
paring the copy for publication.
51.7
The Book of Baruch
I have profited greatly from their criticism, ques
tions, and corrections, but most of all from the practical experience
232
51 . 8
Glossary
The mate
rial covered in this book should be adequate in itself for those who, m-
47 . 4
Suffixes
PREFACE
214
450
June 1978
Abbreviations and Conventions Introduction
negative
accusative direct
neg.
object
o.
S.
object suffix
a. n.
agent noun (also an.)
O. T.
Old Testament
acc.
accusative
obj.
object
adj.
adjective
part.
particle
adv.
adverb
pass.
passive
c.
common gender
perf.
perfect
material survives from this earliest
main source is the extensive religious literature which was trans.
a. d. o.
Classical Ethiopic, or Ge'ez, is the literary language devel oped by missionaries for the translation of the scriptures afte� the Christianization of Ethiopia in the 4th century. (,
\
The new written
language was presumably based on the spoken language of Aksum, the commercial and political center �t the time.
period
Some inscriptional of the language, but our
caus.
causative
pers.
person
colI.
collective
pI.
plural
comp!.
complement
pred.
predicate
coord.
coordinated
prep.
preposition
spoken counterpart in a manner analogous to the survival of Latin in
dat.
dative
pron.
pronoun
demo
demonstrative
q.
Europe.
dir.
direct
reI.
relative
e.g.
for example
subj.
subjunctive, subject
encl.
enclitic
s.
singular
esp.
especially
sing.
singular
ex(x).
example(s)
suff.
suffix(es)
exclam.
exclamation
v. n.
verbal noun (also vn.)
f.
feminine
voc.
vocative
fem.
feminine
w.
with
/
or (used in listing alter
fig.
figuratively
foIl.
following, followed
Gk.
Greek
i. e.
that is.
imperf.
imperfect
indef.
indefinite
indir.
indirect
inf.
infinitive
interrog.
interrogative
introd.
introductory
lit.
literally
m.
masculine
masc.
ma.scul n
n.
nOLl11
N. 1'.
N w
'I'
� Llunc nl
V.
,
lated into Ge'ez during the ensuing centuries.
guage of the church, the written language survived the demise of its
which see
"has the same meaning(s) as "has the same range of "is completely equivalent to in regard to meanings and constructions"
In tho reading of plurals, suffixes are to a.dded to the preceding item:
I
'11/
t' /.Trl. , x
I,a' CuneI' -at) J
/,(1' arner J
The real ancestral language on Arabian
=
te'mert
te'mert (p 1.
ta' amerat).
the modern South Arabic dialects such as Mehri, Soqotri, and Shahri, when these can be extricated from their North Arabian admixtures. '" Because the Ethiopic script is fully vocalized, the main fea- c..
tures of the grammar are clear from the texts themselves. �rthog � raphy, however, has two defects: ( 1 ) consonantal doubling (gemination) is not indicated, and ( 2 ) the presence of one of the vowels (e in our transliteration) is not clearly indicated.
These problems may be re
solved in two ways: the first is to examine the evidence of corre ' sponding forms in other S;;;W�- i anguages; the second is to consult the reading tradition preserved by scholars in the modern Ethiopic Church.
with or without
-i"I! J
South Arabic as known from Sabaean, Minaean, Qatabanian, and othor soil is irretrievably lost to us, but we do have its descendants in
meanings as the main entry'
(p I.
Ge'ez is linguistically a member of the South-east
Semitic family, but does not seem to be derivable directly from Old inscriptions during this time.
the preceding entry"
b
the result of migrations from South Arabia in the form of co�ncrcjal millennium B.C.
scriptions, or meanings)
etc.
Although evidence is sparse and scholarly opinion is not unani mous, the Semitic presence in Ethiopia is most plausibly explain d 0 colonizations beginning possibly as early as the middle of the first
nate constructions, tran idem
As the official lan-
Neither of these, if taken alone, is conclusive: Semitic
historical linguistics is itself ambiguous on certain crucial ques tions because of insufficient data; the modern reading tradition, as published by various European scholars, contains many contradictions and is heavily influenced by the informants I own modern languages 1
2
(usually Amharic).
3
'
In developing the grammar of Ge ez in the follow
ing lessons I have followed as closely as possible the traditional pronunciation as studied and published by E. Mittwoch, Die tradi tioneZZe Aussprache des Athiopischen (Berlin 1926).
All major devia
tions from this tradition are noted in the appropriate sections of
e and
\..�""
a [a,a]
to imitate the modern reading pronunciation in every detail, it may The correct pronunciation of e and a is very difficult
for the speaker of English.
Since Ge'ez is no longer a spoken lan
guage, the following approximations should prove adequate:
Phonology A.
a [re, 11]
0
be ignored.
The interested reader may consult the Bibliography.
��
o [0]
not represented in the script, and unless the student is determined
To
attempt a harmonization of all published material would be far more
�
u [u]
e [e]
are very often preceded by palatal and labial glides respec ' Y W tively: for example, beton is pronounced [b et on]. This feature is
Since all deviations involve either consonantal dou
......-;
e [i]
High-Mid
Low
bling or the presence of an e-vowel, the reader is not likely to be
confusing.
Back
Mid- Low
from an attempt to minimize the influence of Amharic present in the
seriously misled by my interpretation of a particular form.
Central
i [i]
Mid
the lessons; these result either from a choice among variant forms or pronunciation.
Front High
The Vowels
The distinction between long and short vowels, a property of earlier Semitic according to standard reconstruction, probably per sisted into the period when Ge'ez was first reduced to written form,
a
as in father, short
i
as in machine, long
e
as in let, short
o
as in boat, long
a
as in father, long
u
as in boot, long.
e
as in bait, long
The length distinction between a and a is not difficult to make.
but because this cannot be proven except by appeal to certain struc
For
those who have no concept of vowel length, however, a may be pro
tural features, an argument that not all scholars would accept, and because the modern reading traditions do not recognize vowel length
nounced like the vowel of up, and a like the first vowel of father,
as a significant vowel feature, reference to long and short vowels in
in order to maintain this important distinction.
the following discussion should be regarded as a classification which
B.
the writer finds convenient for the description of the phonology
Most of the Ethiopic consonants have an approximate counterpart
rather than a universally accepted fact about the Ge'ez vowel system. �
�
There are seven vowels: ..!.,,'
short:
a, e" /
r;�
�..
in English and offer no problems in pronunciation: "", i'
l)
I'
ILong: �"
ii, i, u,
e,
0
Only a and � are marked with macrons in our transcription, since no confusion can result from leaving i, u, and
and
0
0
unmarked.
The vowels e
usually result from the contraction of the diphthongs ay and
respectively.
There are many situations where
optionally (e.g. taZoku, taZawku I followed) .
aw
and
0
aw
alternate
Optional alternation
between ay and e is less common but not problematic. The modern reading pronunciation of these vowels is indicated by their position on the following standard chart. _. __ 1..
.... 1,..
The_Consonants
Brackets enclose
b
as in boy
k
as in king
s
like sh in should
d
as in dog
Z
as in leaf
t
as in tea
f
as in foot
n
as in man
W
as in wall
g
as in goat
n
as in no
as in yet
as in hope
s
y
as in so
h
,1"
No distinction is made between are pronounced as s.
8
8
as in zoo
and s in the modern tradition; both
b tends to be pronounced as a voiced bilabial
spirant [a], in medial positions when not doubled. �_The five sounds ' gutturals.
(h
�
x will be referred to collectively as
Three of the gutturals (h � x) are pronounced simply as II
4
5
distinction among these three sounds:
does not preserve the doubling of the guttural consonants, but there
h
is ordinary [h], as in hope.
is no reason to suppose that they were an exception in the classical
x
is the voiceless velar fricative [x], as in German Bach
language.
h
is the voiceless pharyngeal continuant [H], an h-sound accom
(Arabi c
c:).
A sequence of two labialized consonants is realized as a
doubled simple consonant plus labialization and is transcribe accord
w w
w
ingly: _k k _ ) _kk _.
panied by a tense narrowing between the base of the tongue
C.
and the back of the throat (Arabic r)' Two of the gutturals ( '
cnn:;onant merely means ho Iding it notice-
,hllil
1," " '"f�l"
I i
I1f�
Root and Pattern
In Ethiopic, as in Semitic languages in general, most verbs,
There are two p-sounds, both of which occur only in words of foreign origin.
Words in construct (see Lesson 4)
/I
(·IJllIllerpart.
]
[The reader
The modern pronunciation
nouns, and adj ecti ves may be analyzed into a sequence of three conso nants and a vowel pattern, with or without a prefixal or suffixal element.
For example,
negus
king
Consonant Base
Vowel Pattern
ngs
negest
queen
ngs
berhcm
light
brh
manbar
throne
nbr
The consonantal sequence
(CI-C2-C3)
CleC2uC3 Cl eC2eC3CleCi3-CIC2aC3
Additional Elements none suffix -t suffix -an prefix ma-
is called the root of the set of
\,on15 which share that sequence and can usually be assigned a meaning common
to Lile scI:;
compare, for example, negus and negest above with
6
! jI
,
7
negs (rule, reign), nagasi (king), mangest (kingdom), nagsa (he be
which are given in Table B.
came king), all sharing the common notion of "ruling."
left to right), and a letter, e.g.
Because most of the morphology is devoted to a study of the triliteral root and the patterns (nominal, adjectival, and verbal)
vowel of the third order.
negus, berur, beZuy
are of the pattern
For this Thus,
qetuZ
is spoken of as k with a
We shall not adopt this awkward terminol-
The forms of the letters in the first column (read with the vowel -a) are the basic forms of the borrowed consonants.
These
should be mastered thoroughly before taking up the remaining forms. Each column should then be analyzed separately, since there is a
berhan, res'an, qWerban
qetZan
great deal of consistency in the way particular vowels are indicated.
manbar, manfas, marxo (from *marxaw)
maqtaZ
Note that the signs for the labialized sounds are secondary modifica
and similarly for all the words in the language that can be associ ated with a triliteral root.
The extreme usefulness of this device
will become apparent in the lessons.
When discussing roots or
sequences of more than three consonants, we shall employ C C C C l 2 3 4 (and similarly for more than four), since no other convention exists. The vocalic patterns, together with prefixes and suffixes, form the subject matter of the grammar.
Very few patterns have a com
pletely predictable meaning, but a large number of them belong to the "almost predictable" category.
For example, qetul is almost always
adjectival in meaning (see Lessons 17 and 35), but the two frequent nouns cited above (negus and berur) are exceptions to this rule. Close attention to the formative patterns and the relationships among them will give the reader a proper feeling for the derivational pro cesses at work in the language. E.
tions of the non-labialized counterpart. To express numbers in numeral form the Greek alphabet was em ployed, written within a top and bottom frame.
the combinations: 1000
10 hundred; 10,000
=
=
See Table C.
Note
100 hundred.
Several new letters were developed for the writing of Amharic These sometimes
by modifying certain forms of the Ge'ez alphabet.
occur in Ge'ez manuscripts in writing native personal and place names. See Table D. The Old South Arabic monumental script regularly employed a vertical stroke as a word divider.
This too was borrowed and appears
after every single word in an Ethiopic text as : text for examples). a sentence, and
The Ethiopic Alphabet
:I
(see the specimen
The sign I is used as a colon or semicolon within is used as a period.
F.
The Ethiopic alphabet was borrowed directly from the Old South Genuine
cursive forms are modern; manuscripts consistently (and happily) employ a more or less hand-printed form, with separation of all the The individuals responsible for the borrowing of the alpha
bet and its adaptation to their literary purposes showed an ortho
Other more elaborate de
was altered into a fully vocalized syllabary by the addition of vari ous strokes and modifications to the individual letters.
The result
The order of the
lettorsis trnliltionlll lind doos not include the labialized consonants,
Special Phonological Rules
These rules are taken up in detail in appropriate lessons of the Grammar; they are summarized here for convenience in reference and need not be studied before beginning the lessons.
The presenta
tion is purely synchronic, dealing only with forms as they can be paired in the language, without reference to antecedent reconstructed forms.
The treatment of the latter would take us too far afield.
graphic acumen rare in the Semitic world: the consonantal alphabet
ing "alphabetic syllabary" Is given in Table A.
The numerical valu s
are the same as those known from Greek sources.
vices are sometimes used to mark off paragraphs and longer sections.
Arabic monumental script, gradually modified for book use.
letters.
h. (ki)
ogy.
associated with it, it is convenient to have a way of specifying "any triliteral root" in a less clumsy fashion than C -C -C . l 2 3 purpose Semitists generally employ the "dummy" root qtZ.
The columns are sometimes numbered (from
1.
The presence of a guttural consonant (
duces an alteration of a given word pattern.
'
< h h x) often pro
Many of these are
according to fixed rules:
(a)
*-aU- > -CiG-, where G is any guttural that closes a sy1111-
9
8
Table A: Ca
j
!
IJ Il tit
h 1
h
Cu
U· fr the
m
no
oo-
s
lP
IP-
+ n T
()4! 01:
l fI
r
s q
b t x
n
... �
h
k W
z y
d
h OJ 0 H f
�
g
-,
!
ill
p s d f
�
� 0
�
{.
"1-
�. �
.... OJ. 0It �
�. �
ffil"
-ew
I'.
101\,: lev. ev('):
a nd -cy:
max2itt'IJ
l.IIIIPS
laycdey nights
(eZew perverse
Zal;tey beautiful.
13
12
larly becomes in
>
-ut, as in *<elewt
*beluyt
*beleyt -an and
-awiy- and -awey- when the plural endings In adjectives of the pattern
radical i s
the end of a verb (where -0,
replaced by
*<aragkemu
as in
usually contract to
-0
and -e respectively, as in
fere (for *feray, fruit) .
added to nouns ending in
-aw
and
at
l arly b ecomes
-ay
marxo (for *marxaw,
When the plural ending
as
in
-at is
-e, the result i s e i ther -eyat or -eyat ( e . g .
-aw (where w is the third root con
Sometimes i t remains, as in
ing) , and sometimes it is lost , as in (for
�eyaw (liv
tasfii (for *tasraw, hope), feda
*fedaw debt) . 7.
-y-
se�up
+
-t (a feminine adjectival and nominal ending) is
+
t
-7
kebedt
>
d or t.
kebedd
.,
_
..... __
__
_ .:t....:,_
.......
(J
-y- wi l l be transcri bed as
Manuscript E rrors and Normalization
n!;s
Lilli lalou T'egularly to a follow;0;'
Rough ly in chronological order, these errors are the
The earli est was the confusion of Ij. and?, as the former
merged with the latter .
If)'
This change was so ear l y , in fact , that it
contaminated nearly all manuscri pts, and our choice of 4- or ? (or TIe
vice versa) in spelling a particular root is sometimes arbi trary .
4- or ? in th i s text usually fo llows that of Dill
Lexicon, but i n a few i nstances ( e . g . bq se te tt ·
t �
'i-ya�er I shall not go
dialects into the modern languages of Ethiopia l ed to the introduc
1.
regu lar l y assimilated to a preceding dental stop
kebud
'i-yafqara he did not love
G.
behavior of prefixal and suffixal t: Suffixal
'afqara he loved 'a�er I shall go
throughout this text.
accordingly .
Consonant assimilations are relatively rare except for the
(a)
proflx
The gradual evolut i on of spoken Ge ' ez and its anci ent sister
The treatment of final
sonant) i s also inconsistent:
'a- (see Lesson 26) and the
To faci l i tate recognition , this secondary
daset, pI . dasayat.
6.
< araggemu you (pl . ) went up .
y after the procli tic negative 'i-:
'enabber
r T'eyZit, fereyat); the "historically correct" form occasionally shows lip,
you l eft
�a-/'e- of the first person (Imperfect and Subjunctive) the' rogu
yetraxxaw or yetraxxo ( it will open); -ay usu At the end of a noun ,
.
I fell
xadagga
In the causative prefix
w is the third radical) may optionally b e
ally remains in this situation .
>
wadaqqu
See Lesson 11 ( end).
9. -aw
>
*xadagka
dewuy or dew(w)ey sick . -aw and -ay is inconsistent .
>
*wadaqku
-at are added.
-ewwe-), e.g .
The b ehavior of final
-k- of the verb a l subject suffixes -ku, -ka, -ki, -kemu, ,
-ken is regularly assimi l ated to a preceding q or g:
qetuZ from roots whose second
mewut or mew(w)et dead
key) and
belit.
w, the sequence -ewu alternates optiona lly with -ewe- (per
haps to b e read as
S.
>
-awi show a frequent variation between
Nouns and adj ectives ending in
4.
The
8. >
ye��anmaq he w i l l be baptized .
For further e xamples see Lesson 44 .
-eyt results from *-uyt b y rule 2 above: beluy old, worn out
yessammay he will be named
>
*yetpammaq
<elu� Final -eyt may remain, as
la�eyt, but usually appears as -it; this is especially true i f
>
*yetsammay
-t to adjectives , -ewt re gu
With the addition of the feminine ending
and
Probably next in order was th e loss of contrast between
a after a guttural consonant, with a becoming a.
a
The spelling
errors produced by thi s change are ub i quitous: any sy l lab l e beg] nn I nft
Ca- may
he
wri tten CCl-, and vice versa .
This error has been COT'T'll
'i-ya'mero
spelled
'i-ya'mero (ignorance).
Almost equally common in all but the best manuscripts is
the confusion among the three h ' s (h � xJ,
although a given manu
W
in only a few roots (e.g. hg Z)
is there any real
5. and
"
as noted above (p.
).
Perhaps the most recent error is the'confusion between '
an error which is not present in many manuscripts at all,
frequent in others.
Normalization here is not problematic,
earlier and correct spellings are,
for the most part,
but
since the
known.
The cumulative effect of the preceding errors can be quite bewildering unless one has a firm grasp of the forms and lexicon of
genuinely ambiguous);
(unless,
of course,
a word is unknown or
even more reprehensible is the burdening of a
Most prepositions are written as separate
westa hagar
in/into/to the city
diba dabr
on the mountain.
in,
Za-
to, for (dative)
, em-
from (ablative,
with (location,
agent,
mannor)
source),
baxayZ
with strength (xayZJ, Zanegus to the king, 'emhagar from the city. For the sake of clarity we shall always transcribe these with hyphens:
, ba-xay Z,Za-negus, em-hagar.
form of the preposition 'em-,
, emenna hagar
=
There is also an independent (unbound) namely 'emenna:
' em-hagar
from the city,
Ba- and 'em- are freely combined with the other prepositions.
The failure of modern editors of Ethiopic texts to normal
ize spelling is puzzling
the king.
which are always written a s a unit with the following word:
the older language as it has been recovered by Dillmann and other scholars.
Prepositions.,
the city
ba
Many texts show a confusion between s and s, . reflecting the
merger of these two sounds in Amharic,
a king
or
The exceptions are
uncertainty about the correct form.
4.
negus 1. 2
Here again we have followed the lexical norm estab
lished by Dillmann;
a city
words before the noun they govern:
script may show consistency in the spelling (wrong or right) of a particular root.
hagar
Ba-, as in ba-diba and ba-westa, seldom alters the meaning of the sec ond preposition.
'Em- has its usual force:
critical apparatus with such trivial and predictable pronunciation
westa from in.
errors.
laries as they are required. 1.3 later,
'em-diba from on, Jem_
These various compounds will be noted in the vocabu
Although we shall defer full treatment of the verb unti 1
it is necessary here to introduce the 3rd person forms of tho
inflection called the Perfect: Singular 3rd pers.
masc.
3rd pers. fern.
Plural
nabara
he sat
nabaru
they
(Ill. )
nabarat
she sat
nabara
they
(r. )
The four endings, -a, -at,
-u,
-a)
suL
�tlL
are used on all verbs in the 1 U/I
guage Lo lIIark these four forms of the Perfect, regardless of tho
16
17
mot-a he died, re'y-a he saw, 'anbar-a he set , W 'astabq e�a he implored. Note t hat t he pronominal sub ject (he , she ,
xaba or ba-xaba by , wi t h , at , near (person or place); t o , t oward ,
they) is i ncluded in the verb form itself and need not be expressed
ba-
shape of the stem:
The E thiopic Perfect corresponds to the English simple
separat ely . past
unto;
Exercises A.
The basic le xical form o f the E t hiopic verb is the 3rd pers . masc . si ngular of the Perfect .
In the l esson vocabularies and in the
Glossary we shall always give the English meaning in the infinitive
nabara to sit .
form; t hus:
W i t h verbs of motion the goal is expressed by various preposi t ions, the most frequent o f which are westa and xaba.
Westa is used
if the goal is a place, as i n He went to t he city .
ijora westa hagar.
Xaba is used with both persons and places: ijora xaba negus.
He went to the k ing.
ljom xaba bet.
H e went to the house .
Whether a preposition like westa means " to," "into , " or "in" depends on t he verb with which it is employed:
nabara westa to dwell in,
bo'a westa t o enter into , �ora westa to go t o . V ocabulary 1 Nouns:
hagar city.
bet house .
negus king.
dabr mountain.
V erbs:
nabara to sit , sit down; to stay, remain, continue; to li ve , dl�ell .
'�' . •
\.1 warada to descend, come down , go down .
. �1
f, -
'\.- )
.,�
to ascend, come up , go up, climb .
�ora to go . Prepo si tions :
, emf' emenna from, out of , alvay from . weota o r l'a-I,}er.i:a ",./,,,
'em-xaba from wi t h , from the presence o f .
into; b y , w i t h ( o f agent) .
(he went , wrote , etc . ) or present perfect (he has gon e , he has
wri t t en, etc . ) .
, " i
in,
'"
wi I I I i I..,
II.
jn,
i !lto, to (a place); 'em-westa from i n , from
/'/'" "'I, "1'''".
11111,,;
','m-diha
from on, from upon .
B.
1.
westa hagar
6.
2.
diba dabr
7.
3.
' emenna bet
'em-negus
8.
4.
'em-westa bet
ba-xaba negus
9.
ba-westa bet
diba negus
5.
' em-diba dabr
10.
' em-westa hagar
Nabara westa bet .
6.
Nabarat ba-westa bet .
�ora west a dabr .
7.
!:lora westa bet .
8.
Waradu ' em-diba dabr .
1.
2.
3.
'Argu diba dab r .
4.
'Arga westa hagar .
5.
9.
'Arga xaba bet .
Waradat ' em-diba b1:lt.
10.
Warada 'emenna hagar.
18
19 Vocabulary 2 Nouns : Lesson 2 Noun P lura l s .
2. 1
hagar (pl . ' ahgur) c i t y .
I n genera l , the p lural of a noun i s formed
bet (pl. ' abyat) house.
in one of two ways : a.
P attern repl acement :
b.
Addition o f an ending :
dabr (pl . ' adbCir) mountain .
dcibr -) ' adbar 'amat -) 'Qmatat
P lurals formed by pat t ern repl acement are often referred to as "bro ken" p l urals or " i nternal" p lural s ; those with suffixe s , as " external' p l ural s .
Because there is no sure way to predict the form of the
p l ural from that of the s ingu l ar , i t i s neces s ary to l e arn both forms These w i l l be g iven in the lesson vocabu l ar ies.
[rom the out s et.
Some nouns have more than one p lural form , though they may not be of equal frequency. The patterns used for noun p lura l s are for the most p art d i s t i n c t ive and s e l dom occur i n s i ngular noun s .
For reference onl y , the
fo l l owing l i st of p lural noun types includes a l l but the rare forms : e . g . ' egar
qetal
negus ( p l . nagast) king .
the p l ural o f
' egr
foot
gabr (p l . ' agbert) s ervant . be' si (pl . sab' ) man , husband ; the pl. also means peop l e in general . be' s i t (p l . ' anest) woman, wife .
�amar
(pl . ' a�ar) boat , ship ( o f any s i z e) .
Verb s :
ma?' a to come wad . ' a to go/ come forth , emerge ,' Wl' th
'
to I eave , d epart r rOIll ; I ( )
em ',
spring from, originate i n .
bo' a to enter (westa, ba-J . wadqa to fal l , fal l down , co l l ap s e . Adverbs :
, aqtal
' adbCir
dabr
mountain
heyya/ba-heyya ther e , in that p l ace ; ' em-heyya from there , the n ce .
, aqtu l
' ahgur
hagar
c ity
zeyya/ba-zeyya here , in this p l ace ; ' em-zeyya from here , hence .
, aqtel
' cib ter
batr
rod , staff
Conj unction :
' aqteU
' agbert
gcibr
serv ant
qataU
nagast
negus
k ing
C aC aC eC 4 t l 2 3 C aC aC eC l 2 3 4 ' aqatel
mala' ekt
mal'ak
messeng er , ange l
' anCiqel}
' anqal}
gate
' cibage '
bag '
sheep
2.2
Syntax.
immediate ly.
The nominal sub j ect of a verb normal ly fo l l ows i t
The problem of the agreement between verb and sub j ect
wi l l be di s cus sed in Lesson 5 .
I t i s sufficient here to not e that
nouns denoting male human b eings are mas cul ine and those denoting femal e human beings are feminin e .
The verb agrees with the s e nouns
in numb er and gender :
wa- and (written as p art of the fo l lowing word , e. g . be' si wa-be' sit a man and a woman) . Exercises A. l . xaba gabr
6.
2 . ba-xaba b e ' s it 3 . diba � amar
8 . xaba nagast
4 . ' emenna be ' s i
9 . ' emenna ' ahgur
5 . diba ' adbar
1 0 . ba-xaba s ab '
B . l . N abaru ' agbert heyya. 2.
7 . Mas ' a ' an est xaba negus.
Nabarat be' s it b a-heyya .
8 . Wadqa b e ' s i ' em-diba bet .
' Arga be ' s 1 d i ba dabr .
9 . Wadqu sab ' ' em-diba dabr.
ijora negus .
The king went.
ijoru nagast .
The kings went.
3.
ijorat be' sit.
The woman went .
ijorQ. ' anest.
The women went .
4. Waradu sab ' ' em-diba bet .
See the exercises for further ex�np l es .
ba-diba ' a�mar
7 . ' em-wes t a ' abyat
5 . I. loru n
