Saho–Afar languages explained
The Saho–Afar languages (also known as Afar–Saho) are a dialect-cluster belonging to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They include the Afar and Saho languages, which are spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.[1] [2]
Characteristic features of Saho-Afar include the following:[3]
- Preservation of the pharyngeal fricatives /pronounced as /ink// and /pronounced as /ink//
- Consistent Subject-Object-Verb word order
- Unique numerals '7' and '8': Saho malħin, baħar, Afar malħina, baħra.
- A contrast of high and low tone; gender is often marked by a high-low tone pattern on masculine nouns, low-high on feminine nouns, e.g. báḍà 'son', bàḍá 'daughter'.
- The Cushitic prefix conjugation is used commonly (ca. 40% of the vocabulary), and is also applied to loanwords from Ethiopian Semitic languages.
- A general negative prefix má- is used in both the imperative and declarative moods. The past tense of suffix-conjugated verbs uses in addition a single negative suffix for both, the present tense lacks a distinct negative suffix entirely.
Notes and References
- Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- Web site: Saho-Afar languages . Encyclopedia Britannica . 2022-01-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220104223747/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saho-Afar-languages . 2022-01-04.
- Giorgio. Banti. Moreno. Vergari. Aspects of Saho dialectology. 2017. Afroasiatica Romana. Proceedings of the 15th meeting of Afroasiatic linguistics. 65–81. Sapienza Università de Roma.
