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Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa
Edited by Andrea Hollington, Alice Mitchell and Nico Nassenstein
[Culture and Language Use 23] 2024
► pp. 104–134

Chapter 5
Notes on glottonyms and ethnonyms in Ethiopian languages

| Addis Ababa University

This paper gives a grammatical and sociolinguistic account of glottonyms and ethnonyms in Ethiopian languages. As a metonymic relationship, glottonyms are derived from ethnonyms by attaching the roots of the vocal organs: ‘mouth’, ‘tongue’ and ‘tooth’. The mouth-based glottonyms are widespread in Cushitic, Omotic and Semitic languages. Nilo-Saharan languages have mouth- and tongue-based glottonyms. Few suppletive forms of glottonyms and ethnonyms were recorded. The use of multiple names for the same language and ethnic group is frequent. The disparity between endonyms and exonyms has long been a source of confusion. In particular, the use of derogatory names has created discontent among ethnolinguistic groups. To alleviate the problems emanating from this polyonymous situation, a uniform use of endonyms as standard names is proposed in this study.

Keywords: Ethiopian languages, glottonyms, ethnonyms, metonymy, polyonymy, standardization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Glottonym markers
    • 2.1Vf(f)(V)(C) ‘mouth’
    • 2.2(C)Vf(f)V(V)(C) ‘mouth’
    • 2.3Glottonym markers other than Vf(f)(V)(C) and (C)Vf(f)V(V)(C)
    • 2.4Tongue-based glottonyms
    • 2.5VVs’è and gV- ‘tooth’
    • 2.6-(V)ɲɲa, -ŋa, -s(s)a, - tstso and -te
    • 2.7Suppletive forms of glottonyms
    • 2.8Remarks on glottonyms
  • 3.Ethnonyms
    • 3.1Relationship between glottonyms and ethnonyms
    • 3.2Etymology of glottonyms and ethnonyms
    • 3.3Mononymous and polyonymous names
    • 3.4Self-names vs. imposed names
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 February 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.23.05ley
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