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Soddo (autonym kəstane "Christian"; formerly called Aymälläl in Western sources, after a particular dialect of it) is a Gurage language spoken by about 300,000 people in southeastern Ethiopia. It is a South Ethiopian Semitic language of the Northern Gurage subfamily.
| Soddo (Kəstane) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Ethiopia |
| Region: | Wolaita woreda, Southern Region |
| Total speakers: | 0.25 million |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | sem |
| SIL | GRU |
| Linguasphere | 12-ACE-aa |
As in most Ethiopian languages, noun qualifiers generally precede the noun.
The definite article is expressed by the suffixSUF-FIX In linguistics, a suffix is an affix that succeeds the morphemes to which it can attach. Example: establish ( verb) + ment suffix —> establishment ( noun). See derivation). A suffix is also a style at the end of a person's name which gives additio -i, eg: goš "boy" > goš-i "the boy"; ätit "sister" > ätiti "the sister"; bayyocc "children" > bayyocc-i. If the noun ends in -a or -ä, it normally loses this vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract, in contrast to consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. The word vo when -i is suffixed: angacca "cat" > angacc-i "the cat". A noun ending in -i usually stays the same: abi "(the) father, proprietor". A noun ending in -e, -o, -u adds a y before the suffix: ge "house" > geʸi "the house"; wälläho "neighbor" > wällähoʸi "the neighbor". If the noun has a qualifier, the article is used with the first element: maläk' ge "big house" > maläk'-i ge "the big house"; yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"); yä-mätt-i məss "the man who came" (lit. "who-came-the man".)
There is no real indefinite article, though indefiniteness can be expressed by preposing the word attə or k'una, meaning "one".
Nouns have two genderGender is the perceived masculinity or femininity of a person or characteristic. A person's aggregate gender is complex, encompassing countless characteristics of appearance, speech, movement and more. This aggregate gender is often not easily categorizeds, masculineThe word masculine can refer to: the property of being biologically male masculinity, a traditionally male gender role the masculine grammatical gender. and feminineThe word feminine can refer to: the property of being biologically female femininity, a traditionally female gender role the feminine grammatical gender., which affect verb concord.
Nouns which are definite objects ( direct or indirect) are both marked with the prefix yä- or nä-: eg yä-geʸi ažžo "he saw the house"; yä-zämmihʷan abännət "he gave it to his brother" (lit. "to-his-brother he-gave-him"). Direct objects may additionally be marked by adding the object suffix pronouns to the verb: eg yabiddi täšakkunnət "I asked my father" (lit. "my-father-obj. I-asked-him".)
A possessed noun is marked by the prefix yä-, and the possessor precedes the possessed: yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"). If the possessed noun has a preposition prefixed to it, this yä- is omitted: babiddi färäz rather than *bä-yä-abiddi färäz for "on my father's horse".