| Muher | |
| Region: | Ethiopia |
| Speakers: | 90,000 |
| Date: | no date |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Semitic |
| Fam3: | West Semitic |
| Fam4: | South Semitic |
| Fam5: | Ethiopic |
| Fam6: | South |
| Fam7: | West Gurage |
| Iso3: | sgw |
| Glotto: | seba1251 |
| Linglist: | sgw-muh |
Muher (Muxar) is an Ethiopian Semitic language belonging to the Gurage group. It is spoken in the mountains north of Cheha and Ezhana Wolene in Ethiopia. The language has two dialects, which are named after the first-person singular pronoun "I" they use: Ana uses əni/anä, Adi uses adi/ädi (similar to the related language Soddo). The language is sometimes written in a modified Arabic (Ajam) or Amharic script.[1] [2] It has approximately 90,000 speakers.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar/Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Rounded | Sibilant | Non-sibilant | Plain | Rounded | ||||
| Stop | Voiceless | t | pronounced as /t͡ʃ/ | c | k | kʷ | |||
| Voiced | b | bʷ | d | pronounced as /d͡ʒ/ | ɟ | g | gʷ | ||
| Ejective | tʼ | cʼ | kʼ | kʼʷ | |||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | fʷ | s | ʃ | ç | h | hʷ | |
| Voiced | z | ʒ | |||||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | ɲ | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||
| Close | i | u | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | e | ɨ (ə)ɑ̈ (ɜ) | o | |
| Open | pronounced as /ɑ/ |
Like many Semitic languages, Muher has triconsonantal roots for verbs and nominals.
Personal pronouns both substitute for subjects and function as possessive suffixes on nominals.
| Gender | Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Possessive | Pronoun | Possessive | ||
| 1 | Common | ɑ̈di | -ddi | ɨɲɲɑ | -nnɑ |
| 2 | Male | (-)dɑ̈-hɑ̈ | (-)dɑ̈-hɨmʷ | ||
| Female | (-)dä-ç (<*dähʲ) | (-)dɑ̈-hmɑ | |||
| 3 | Male | hʷɑ | -hʷt(ɑ) | (-)hinnɑ̈mʷ | |
| Female | (-)çɑ/(-)hijɑ | (-)hinnɑ̈mɑ | |||
Muher has a decimal number system. The teens are formed by ɑsrɑ̈- plus the digits, usually preceded by -m.
| ɑtt/kʼunɑ | 'one' | |
| hʷett | 'two' | |
| sɔɑst/sost | 'three' | |
| ɑrbɑ̈tt | 'four' | |
| ɑmmɨst | 'five' | |
| sɨddɨst | 'six' | |
| sɑ̈bɑ̈tt/sɑ̈bɑtt | 'seven' | |
| simmutt | 'eight' | |
| ʒɑ̈tʼɑ̈ | 'nine' | |
| ɑssir/ɑsrɑ̈ | 'ten' |
The basic word order of Muher is SOV. However, a known argument always has to precede a new argument, regardless of their function. Primary conjugations differentiate between the perfective and imperfective aspects. The subject and object are marked on the verb. Object markers are divided into the categories Light and Heavy. Heavy object markers are those who occur with impersonal and plural subjects. Light markers are any others. Light markers may differ based on if the aspect is perfective or non-perfective.
| Light | Heavy | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfective | Non-perfective | |||
| -e | -e | -rɨ | ||
| -nnɑhɑ̈ | -hɑ̈ | -kkɑ̈ | ||
| -nnɑç | -ç | -kc | ||
| -nn | -ʷ/-nn | -ʲ/-ʷ (-c) | ||
| -nnɑ | -ːɑ/-nnɑ | -jɑ/-wɑ (-cɑ) | ||
| -(ɑ̈)nɑ̈ | -ɑ̈nɑ̈ | -nnɑ̈ | ||
| -nnɑhmʷ | -hɨmʷ | -kkɨmʷ | ||
| -nnɑhmɑ | -hmɑ | -kkimɑ | ||
| -nnɑ̈mʷ | -ːɑ̈mʷ/-nnɑ̈mʷ | -jɑ̈mʷ/-wɑ̈mʷ (-cɑ̈mʷ) | ||
| -nnɑ̈mɑ | -ːɑ̈mɑ/-nnɑ̈mɑ | -jɑ̈mɑ/-wɑ̈mɑ (-cɑ̈mɑ) |