Saho–Afar languages
The Saho–Afar languages (also known as Afar–Saho) are a dialect-cluster belonging to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They include the Afar and Saho languages, which are spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.[1]
| Saho–Afar | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti |
| Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | saho1245 |
Characteristic features of Saho-Afar include the following:[2]
- Preservation of the pharyngeal fricatives /ħ/ and /ʕ/
- Consistent Subject-Object-Verb word order
- Unique numerals '7' and '8': Saho malħin, baħar, Afar malħina, baħra.
- A contrast of high and low tone; gender is often marked by a high-low tone pattern on masculine nouns, low-high on feminine nouns, e.g. báḍà 'son', bàḍá 'daughter'.
- The Cushitic prefix conjugation is used commonly (ca. 40% of the vocabulary), and is also applied to loanwords from Ethiopian Semitic.
- A general negative prefix má- is used in both the imperative and declarative moods. The past tense of suffix-conjugated verbs uses in addition a single negative suffix for both, the present tense lacks a distinct negative suffix entirely.
Notes
- Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- Banti, Giorgio; Vergari, Moreno (2017). "Aspects of Saho dialectology". Afroasiatica Romana. Proceedings of the 15th meeting of Afroasiatic linguistics. Sapienza Università de Roma. pp. 65–81.
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