Chapter in:
Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian LanguagesEdited by Derib Ado, Almaz Wasse Gelagay and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 48] 2021
► pp. 269–300
Verbal derivations in Inor
Tsehay Abza | Hawassa University
This paper is concerned with the verbal derivation of Inor
(which is the group’s self-designation), formerly called Ennemor, its Amharic name,
a Peripheral Western Gurage language in the southern part of Ethiopia. Conducting
research on this topic is a task well worth doing, as a detailed work has not been
carried out on this area. Verbal derivation applies to the verb stem and has the
function of increasing or decreasing arguments, as well as conveying intensity,
reciprocity or reflexivity. It may do so by affixation or by altering the stem’s
morpho-phonological properties. However, not all root morphemes of a simplex stem
may apply to all the possible derivational processes. The linguistic data have been
collected from consultants. The findings show that affixes that are involved in the
verbal derivational processes in Inor are the passive prefix tə-,
and the causative prefixes a – and at- that are
attached to a template (Berhanu & Hetzron
2000: 39–44 for Inor, Rose
2007: 411 for Chaha). Another group of derivational morphemes (internal
root-morpheme modification) increases the number of consonants vis-à-vis the simplex
by reduplication of root-consonants, and insertion of an additional vowel
a after the first or second root-consonant in combination with
the passivizer tə-. The findings of this study also show that
certain derivations are only applicable to a restricted set of root-morphemes.
Keywords: verb, derivation, Gurage, language, Ethiopia
References
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