Burji language explained

Burji
Nativename:ቡረጊ (Burji)
States:Ethiopia, Kenya
Region:South of Lake Chamo
Ethnicity:Burji people
Date:2007 & 2019 censuses
Ref:e25
Familycolor:Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:Cushitic
Fam3:Highland East
Script:Geʽez
Latin
Iso3:bji
Glotto:burj1242
Glottorefname:Burji

Burji language (alternate names: Bembala, Bambala, Daashi) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Burji people who reside in Ethiopia south of Lake Chamo. There are over 49,000 speakers in Ethiopia, and a further 36,900 speakers in Kenya. Burji belongs to the Highland East Cushitic group of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.

The language has the SOV (subject–object–verb) word order common to the Cushitic family. The verb morphology distinguishes passive and middle grammatical voice, as well as causative. Verbal suffixes mark the person, number, and gender of the subject.

The New Testament was published in the Burji language in 1993. A collection of Burji proverbs, translated into English, French, and Swahili, is available on the Web.[1]

Numerals 1-1000

base numeral+1010
1 micha11 tannaya micha10 tanna
2 lama12 tannaya lama20 lamattann
3 fadiya13 tannaya fadiya30 fadiitann
4 foola14 tannaya foola40 foolattan
5 umutta15 tannaya umutta50 umuttan
6 liya16 tannaya liya60 liittan
7 lamala17 tannaya lamala70 lamalattan
8 hiditta18 tannaya hiditta80 hidittan
9 wonfa19 tannaya wonfa90 wonfattan
10 tanna20 lamattann100 ch'ibba

Syntax

Word order

Dhaashatee is a head-final language, which means that modifiers come before the main noun in the noun phrase. Dependent clauses come before independent clauses, while relative clauses come before the nouns they modify. The basic word order at the sentence-level is SOV, as in other HEC languages.[2]

Relative clauses

Relative clauses in Burji (Dhaashatee) are not formally marked but they can be recognized from main clauses by having more than one completely inflected verb in a non-final position. In contrast, in a “regular” main clause with multiple verbs, all but the last one takes a converb suffix. Other types of subordinate clauses are marked by complementizers or subordinate conjunctions.

An examples of a relative clause is given below. Dhogoli functions as the subject of both the relative clause and the main clause.

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Angelique Chelo. 2016. A COLLECTION OF 100 BURJI PROVERBS AND WISE SAYINGS. Web Access
  2. Wedekind, Klaus. 1990. Generating Narratives – Interrelations of Knowledge, Text Variants, and Cushitic Focus Strategies. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.