Oromo language
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Oromo | |
---|---|
Afaan Oromoo | |
Pronunciation | /ɔːˈroʊmoʊ/ |
Native to | Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia[1] |
Region | Oromia |
Ethnicity | Oromo |
Native speakers | 45.5 million (all countries) (2022)[2] 41.7 million in Ethiopia (2022),[3] 627,000 in Kenya (2019),[3] 110,000 in Sudan (2022),[4] 100,000 in Somalia (2024)[3] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Glottolog | nucl1736 |
Areas in East Africa where Oromo is spoken | |
Oromo (
With more than 36 million speakers
Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of
Varieties
Ethnologue (2015) assigns five ISO codes to Oromo:
- Boranaa–Arsii–Gujii Oromo(Southern Oromo, including Gabra and Sakuye dialects), ISO code [gax]
- Eastern Oromo (Harar), ISO code [hae]
- Orma (Munyo, Orma, Waata/Sanye), ISO code [orc]
- West–Central Oromo (Western Oromo and Central Oromo, including Mecha/Wollega, Raya, Wello (Kemise), Tulema/Shewa), ISO code [gaz]
- Waata, ISO code [ssn]
Blench (2006)[24] divides Oromo into four languages:
- Western Oromo (Maca)
- Shewa (Tuulama, Arsi)
- Eastern Oromo (Harar)
- Southern Oromo (Ajuran, Borana, Gabra, Munyo, Orma, Sakuye, Waata)
Some of the varieties of Oromo have been examined and classified.[25]
Speakers
About 85 percent of Oromo speakers live in
Within Africa, Oromo is the language with the fourth most speakers, after Arabic (if one counts the mutually unintelligible spoken forms of Arabic as a single language and assumes the same for the varieties of Oromo), Swahili, and Hausa.
Besides first language speakers, a number of members of other ethnicities who are in contact with the Oromo speak it as a second language. See, for example, the Omotic-speaking Bambassi and the Nilo-Saharan-speaking Kwama in northwestern Oromia.[28]
Language policy
The Oromo people use a highly developed oral tradition. In the 19th century, scholars began writing in the Oromo language using Latin script. In 1842, Johann Ludwig Krapf began translations of the Gospels of John and Matthew into Oromo, as well as a first grammar and vocabulary. The first Oromo dictionary and grammar was produced by German scholar Karl Tutschek in 1844.[29] The first printing of a transliteration of Oromo language was in 1846 in a German newspaper in an article on the Oromo in Germany.[30]
After
Plans to introduce Oromo language instruction in schools, however, were not realized until the government of
Radio broadcasts began in the Oromo language in Somalia in 1960 by
Phonology and orthography
Writing systems
Oromo is written with a
The Sapalo script was an indigenous Oromo script invented by Sheikh
The Arabic script has also been used intermittently in areas with Muslim populations.
Consonant and vowel phonemes
Like most other Ethiopian languages, whether Semitic, Cushitic, or Omotic, Oromo has a set of ejective consonants, that is, voiceless stops or affricates that are accompanied by glottalization and an explosive burst of air. Oromo has another glottalized phone that is more unusual, an implosive retroflex stop, "dh" in Oromo orthography, a sound that is like an English "d" produced with the tongue curled back slightly and with the air drawn in so that a glottal stop is heard before the following vowel begins. It is retroflex in most dialects, though it is not strongly implosive and may reduce to a flap between vowels.[39] One source describes it as voiceless [ᶑ̥].[40]
Oromo has the typical Eastern Cushitic set of five short and five long vowels, indicated in the orthography by doubling the five vowel letters. The difference in length is contrastive, for example, hara 'lake', haaraa 'new'. Gemination is also significant in Oromo. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another, for example, badaa 'bad', baddaa 'highland'.
In the Qubee alphabet, letters include the digraphs
Labial | Alveolar/ Retroflex |
Palato- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosives and Affricates |
voiceless
|
(p) | t
|
tʃ ⟨ch⟩ | k | ʔ ⟨'⟩ |
voiced
|
b | d
|
dʒ ⟨j⟩ | ɡ ⟨g⟩ | ||
ejective
|
pʼ ⟨ph⟩ | tʼ ⟨x⟩
|
tʃʼ ⟨c⟩ | kʼ ⟨q⟩ | ||
implosive | ᶑ ⟨dh⟩ | |||||
Fricatives | voiceless
|
f | s | ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | h | |
voiced
|
(v) | (z) | ||||
Nasals
|
m | n
|
ɲ ⟨ny⟩ | |||
Approximants | w | l
|
j ⟨y⟩ | |||
Rhotic | r
|
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | ɪ ⟨i⟩, iː ⟨ii⟩ | ʊ ⟨u⟩, uː ⟨uu⟩ | |
Mid | ɛ ⟨e⟩, eː ⟨ee⟩ | ɔ ⟨o⟩, oː ⟨oo⟩ | |
Open | ɐ ⟨a⟩ | ɑː ⟨aa⟩ |
Tone and stress
Only the penultimate or final syllable of a root can have a high tone, and if the penultimate is high, the final must also be high;[42] this implies that Oromo has a pitch-accent system (in which the tone need be specified only on one syllable, the others being predictable) rather than a tone system (in which each syllable must have its tone specified),[43] although the rules are complex (each morpheme can contribute its own tone pattern to the word), so that "one can call Oromo a pitch-accent system in terms of the basic lexical representation of pitch, and a tone system in terms of its surface realization."[44] The stressed syllable is perceived as the first syllable of a word with high pitch.[45]
Grammar
Nouns
Gender
Like most other Afroasiatic languages, Oromo has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, and all nouns belong to either one or the other. Grammatical gender in Oromo enters into the grammar in the following ways:
- Verbs (except for the copula be) agree with their subjects in gender when the subject is third person singular (he or she).
- Third person singular personal pronouns (he, she, it, etc., in English) have the gender of the noun they refer to.
- Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender.
- Some possessive adjectives ("my", "your") agree with the nouns they modify in some dialects.
Except in some southern dialects, there is nothing in the form of most nouns that indicates their gender. A small number of nouns pairs for people, however, end in -eessa (m.) and -eettii (f.), as do adjectives when they are used as nouns: obboleessa 'brother', obboleettii 'sister', dureessa 'the rich one (m.)', hiyyeettii 'the poor one (f.)'. Grammatical gender normally agrees with natural gender for people and animals; thus nouns such as Abbaa 'father', Ilma 'son', and sangaa 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as haadha 'mother' and intala 'girl, daughter' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender.
Names of astronomical bodies are feminine: aduu 'sun', urjii 'star'. The gender of other inanimate nouns varies somewhat among dialects.
Number
Oromo displays singular and plural number, but nouns that refer to multiple entities are not obligatorily plural: nama 'man' namoota 'people', nama shan 'five men' namoota shan 'five people'. Another way of looking at this is to treat the "singular" form as unspecified for number.
When it is important to make the plurality of a referent clear, the plural form of a noun is used. Noun plurals are formed through the addition of suffixes. The most common plural suffix is -oota; a final vowel is dropped before the suffix, and in the western dialects, the suffix becomes -ota following a syllable with a long vowel: mana 'house', manoota 'houses', hiriyaa 'friend', hiriyoota 'friends', barsiisaa 'teacher', barsiiso(o)ta 'teachers'. Among the other common plural suffixes are -(w)wan, -een, and -(a)an; the latter two may cause a preceding consonant to be doubled: waggaa 'year', waggaawwan 'years', laga 'river', laggeen 'rivers', ilma 'son', ilmaan 'sons'.
Definiteness
Oromo has no indefinite
Case
Oromo nouns appear in seven grammatical cases, each indicated by a suffix, the lengthening of the noun's final vowel, or both. For some of the cases, there is a range of forms possible, some covering more than one case, and the differences in meaning among these alternatives may be quite subtle.
- Absolutive
- The absolutive case is the nominal predicative.
- mana 'house', mana binne 'we bought a house'
- hamma 'until', dhuma 'end', hamma dhumaatti 'until (the) end'
- mana keessa, 'inside (a/the) house'
- inni 'he', barsiisaa 'teacher'
- inni barsiisaa (dha) 'he is a teacher'
- Nominative
- The nominative is used for nouns that are the subjects of clauses.
- Ibsaa (a name), Ibsaan 'Ibsaa (nom.)', konkolaataa '(a) car', qaba 'he has':
- Ibsaan konkolaataa qaba 'Ibsaa has a car'.
- Most nouns ending in short vowels with a preceding single consonant drop the final vowel and add -ni to form the nominative. Following certain consonants, assimilationchanges either the n or that consonant (the details depend on the dialect).
- nama 'man', namni 'man (nom.)'
- namoota 'men'; namootni, namoonni 'men (nom.)' (t + n may assimilate to nn)
- If a final short vowel is preceded by two consonants or a geminated consonant, -i is suffixed.
- ibsa 'statement', ibsi 'statement (nom.)'
- namicha 'the man', namichi 'the man (nom.)' (the ch in the definite suffix -icha is actually geminated, though not normally written as such)
- If the noun ends in a long vowel, -n is suffixed to this. This pattern applies to infinitives, which end in -uu.
- maqaa 'name', maqaan 'name (nom.)'
- nyachuu 'to eat, eating', nyachuun 'to eat, eating (nom.)'
- If the noun ends in n, the nominative is identical to the base form.
- afaan 'mouth, language (base form or nom.)'
- Some feminine nouns ending in a short vowel add -ti. Again assimilation occurs in some cases.
- haadha 'mother', haati (dh + t assimilates to t)
- lafa 'earth', lafti
- Genitive
- The genitive is used for possession or "belonging"; it corresponds roughly to English of or -'s. The genitive is usually formed by lengthening a final short vowel, by adding -ii to a final consonant, and by leaving a final long vowel unchanged. The possessor noun follows the possessed noun in a genitive phrase. Many such phrases with specific technical meanings have been added to the Oromo lexicon in recent years.
- obboleetti 'sister', namicha 'the man', obboleetti namichaa 'the man's sister'
- hojii 'job', Caaltuu, woman's name, hojii Caaltuu, 'Caaltuu's job'
- barumsa 'field of study', afaan 'mouth, language', barumsa afaanii 'linguistics'
- In place of the genitive it is also possible to use the relative marker kan (m.) / tan (f.) preceding the possessor.
- obboleetti kan namicha 'the man's sister'
- Dative
- The dative is used for nouns that represent the recipient (to) or the benefactor (for) of an event. The dative form of a verb infinitive (which acts like a noun in Oromo) indicates purpose. The dative takes one of the following forms:
- Lengthening of a final short vowel (ambiguously also signifying the genitive)
- namicha 'the man', namichaa 'to the man, of the man'
- -f following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel; -iif following a consonant
- intala 'girl, daughter', intalaaf 'to a girl, daughter'
- saree 'dog', sareef 'to a dog'
- baruu 'to learn', baruuf 'in order to learn'
- bishaan 'water', bishaaniif 'for water'
- -dhaa or -dhaaf following a long vowel
- saree 'dog'; sareedhaa, sareedhaaf 'to a dog'
- -tti (with no change to a preceding vowel), especially with verbs of speaking
- Caaltuu woman's name, himi 'tell, say (imperative)', Caaltuutti himi 'tell Caaltuu'
- Instrumental
- The instrumental is used for nouns that represent the instrument ("with"), the means ("by"), the agent ("by"), the reason, or the time of an event. The formation of the instrumental parallels that of the dative to some extent:
- -n following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel; -iin following a consonant
- harka 'hand', harkaan 'by hand, with a hand'
- halkan 'night', halkaniin 'at night'
- -tiin following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel
- Afaan Oromo 'Oromo (language)', Afaan Oromootiin 'in Oromo'
- -dhaan following a long vowel
- yeroo 'time', yeroodhaan 'on time'
- bawuu 'to come out, coming out', bawuudhaan 'by coming out'
- Locative
- The locative is used for nouns that represent general locations of events or states, roughly at. For more specific locations, Oromo uses prepositions or postpositions. Postpositions may also take the locative suffix. The locative also seems to overlap somewhat with the instrumental, sometimes having a temporal function. The locative is formed with the suffix -tti.
- Arsiitti 'in Arsii'
- harka 'hand', harkatti 'in hand'
- guyyaa 'day', guyyaatti 'per day'
- jala, jalatti 'under'
- Ablative
- The ablative is used to represent the source of an event; it corresponds closely to English from. The ablative, applied to postpositions and locative adverbs as well as nouns proper, is formed in the following ways:
- When the word ends in a short vowel, this vowel is lengthened (as for the genitive).
- biyya 'country', biyyaa 'from country'
- keessa 'inside, in', keessaa 'from inside'
- When the word ends in a long vowel, -dhaa is added (as for one alternative for the dative).
- Finfinneedhaa 'from Finfinne'
- gabaa 'market', gabaadhaa 'from market'
- When the word ends in a consonant, -ii is added (as for the genitive).
- Hararii 'from Harar'
- Following a noun in the genitive, -tii is added.
- mana 'house', buna 'coffee', mana bunaa 'cafe', mana bunaatii 'from cafe'
- An alternative to the ablative is the postposition irraa 'from' whose initial vowel may be dropped in the process:
- gabaa 'market', gabaa irraa, gabaarraa 'from market'
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
In most languages, there is a small number of basic distinctions of
In all of these areas of the grammar—independent pronouns, possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns, and subject–verb agreement—Oromo distinguishes seven combinations of person, number, and gender. For first and second persons, there is a two-way distinction between singular ('I', 'you sg.') and plural ('we', 'you pl.'), whereas for third person, there is a two-way distinction in the singular ('he', 'she') and a single form for the plural ('they'). Because Oromo has only two genders, there is no pronoun corresponding to English it; the masculine or feminine pronoun is used according to the gender of the noun referred to.
Oromo is a subject pro-drop language. That is, neutral sentences in which the subject is not emphasized do not require independent subject pronouns: kaleessa dhufne 'we came yesterday'. The Oromo word that translates 'we' does not appear in this sentence, though the person and number are marked on the verb dhufne ('we came') by the suffix -ne. When the subject in such sentences needs to be given prominence for some reason, an independent pronoun can be used: 'nuti kaleessa dhufne' 'we came yesterday'.
The table below gives forms of the personal pronouns in the different cases, as well as the possessive adjectives. For the first person plural and third person singular feminine categories, there is considerable variation across dialects; only some of the possibilities are shown.
The possessive adjectives, treated as separate words here, are sometimes written as noun suffixes. In most dialects there is a distinction between masculine and feminine possessive adjectives for first and second person (the form agreeing with the gender of the modified noun). However, in the western dialects, the masculine forms (those beginning with k-) are used in all cases. Possessive adjectives may take the case endings for the nouns they modify: ganda kootti 'to my village' (-tti: locative case).
English | Base | Subject | Dative | Instrumental | Locative | Ablative | Possessive adjectives |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I | ana, na | ani, an | naa, naaf, natti | naan | natti | narraa | koo, kiyya [too, tiyya (f.)] |
you (sg.) | si | ati | sii, siif, sitti | siin | sitti | sirraa | kee [tee (f.)] |
he | isa | inni | isaa, isaa(tii)f, isatti | isaatiin | isatti | isarraa | (i)saa |
she | isii, ishii, isee, ishee | isiin, etc. | ishii, ishiif, ishiitti, etc. | ishiin, etc. | ishiitti, etc. | ishiirraa, etc. | (i)sii, (i)shii |
we | nu | nuti, nu'i, nuy, nu | nuu, nuuf, nutti | nuun | nutti | nurraa | keenna, keenya [teenna, teenya (f.)] |
you (pl.) | isin | isini | isinii, isiniif, isinitti | isiniin | isinitti | isinirraa | keessan(i) [teessan(i) (f.)] |
they | isaan | isaani | isaanii, isaaniif, isaanitti | isaaniitiin | isaanitti | isaanirraa | (i)saani |
As in languages such as
For possessive pronouns ('mine', 'yours', etc.), Oromo adds the possessive adjectives to kan 'of': kan koo 'mine', kan kee 'yours', etc.
Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
Oromo has two ways of expressing reflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself', etc.). One is to use the noun meaning 'self': of(i) or if(i). This noun is inflected for case but, unless it is being emphasized, not for person, number, or gender: isheen of laalti 'she looks at herself' (base form of of), isheen ofiif makiinaa bitte 'she bought herself a car' (dative of of).
The other possibility is to use the noun meaning 'head', mataa, with possessive suffixes: mataa koo 'myself', mataa kee 'yourself (s.)', etc.
Oromo has a
Demonstrative pronouns
Like English, Oromo makes a two-way distinction between proximal ('this, these') and distal ('that, those')
Case | Proximal ('this, these') |
Distal ('that, those') |
---|---|---|
Base | kana [tana (f.)] |
san |
Nominative | kuni [tuni (f.)] |
suni |
Verbs
An Oromo verb consists minimally of a
agreement. For example, in dhufne 'we came', dhuf- is the stem ('come') and -ne indicates that the tense is past and that the subject of the verb is first person plural.As in many other
Conjugation
The table below shows the conjugation in the affirmative and negative of the verb beek- 'know'. The first person singular present and past affirmative forms require the suffix -n to appear on the word preceding the verb or the word nan before the verb. The negative particle hin, shown as a separate word in the table, is sometimes written as a prefix on the verb.
Past | Present | Jussive, Imperative | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main clause | Subordinate clause | |||||||
Affirmative | Negative | Affirmative | Negative | Affirmative | Negative | Affirmative | Negative | |
I | -n beeke | hin beekne | -n beeka | hin beeku | -n beeku | hin beekne | haa beeku | hin beekin |
you (sg.) | beekte | beekta | hin beektu | beektu | beeki | hin beek(i)in | ||
he | beeke | beeka | hin beeku | beeku | haa beeku | hin beekin | ||
she | beekte | beekti | hin beektu | beektu | haa beektu | |||
we | beekne | beekna | hin beeknu | beeknu | haa beeknu | |||
you (pl.) | beektani | beektu, beektan(i) | hin beektan | beektani | beekaa | hin beek(i)inaa | ||
they | beekani | beeku, beekan(i) | hin beekan | beekani | haa beekanu | hin beekin |
For verbs with stems ending in certain consonants and suffixes beginning with consonants (that is, t or n), there are predictable changes to one or the other of the consonants. The dialects vary a lot in the details, but the following changes are common.
b- + -t → bd | qabda 'you (sg.) have' |
g- + -t → gd | dhugda 'you (sg.) drink' |
r- + -n → rr | barra 'we learn' |
l- + -n → ll | galla 'we enter' |
q- + -t → qx | dhaqxa 'you (sg.) go' |
s- + -t → ft | baas- 'take out', baafta 'you (sg.) take out' |
s- + -n → fn | baas- 'take out', baafna 'we take out' |
t-/d-/dh-/x- + -n → nn | biti 'buy', binna 'we buy'; nyaadhaa 'eat', nyaanna 'we eat' |
d- + -t → dd | fid- 'bring', fidda 'you (sg.) bring' |
dh- + -t → tt | taphadh- 'play', taphatta 'you (sg.) play' |
x- + -t → xx | fix- 'finish', fixxa 'you (sg.) finish' |
Verbs whose stems end in two consonants and whose suffix begins with a consonant must insert a vowel to break up the consonants since the language does not permit sequences of three consonants. There are two ways this can happen: either the vowel i is inserted between the stem and the suffix, or the final stem consonants are switched (an example of metathesis) and the vowel a is inserted between them. For example, arg- 'see', arga 'he sees', argina or agarra (from agar-na) 'we see'; kolf- 'laugh', kolfe 'he laughed', kolfite or kofalte 'you (sg.) laughed'.
Verbs whose stems end in the consonant ' (which may appear as h, w, or y in some words, depending on the dialect) belong to three different conjugation classes; the class is not predictable from the verb stem. It is the forms that precede suffixes beginning with consonants (t and n) that differ from the usual pattern. The third person masculine singular, second person singular, and first person plural present forms are shown for an example verb in each class.
- du'- 'die': du'a 'he dies', duuta 'you (sg.) die', duuna 'we die'
- beela'-, 'be hungry': beela'a 'he is hungry', beelofta 'you (sg.) are hungry', beelofna 'we are hungry'
- dhaga'- 'hear': dhaga'a 'he hears', dhageessa 'you (sg.) hear', dhageenya 'we hear' (the suffix consonants change)
The common verbs fedh- 'want' and godh- 'do' deviate from the basic conjugation pattern in that long vowels replace the geminated consonants that would result when suffixes beginning with t or n are added: fedha 'he wants', feeta 'you (sg.) want', feena 'we want', feetu 'you (pl.) want', hin feene 'didn't want', etc.
The verb dhuf- 'come' has the irregular imperatives koottu, koottaa. The verb deem- 'go' has, alongside regular imperative forms, the irregular imperatives deemi, deemaa.
Derivation
An Oromo verb root can be the basis for three derived voices, passive, causative, and autobenefactive, each formed with addition of a suffix to the root, yielding the stem that the inflectional suffixes are added to.
- Passive voice
- The Oromo passive corresponds closely to the English passive in function. It is formed by adding -am to the verb root. The resulting stem is conjugated regularly. Examples: beek- 'know', beekam- 'be known', beekamani 'they were known'; jedh- 'say', jedham- 'be said', jedhama 'it is said'
- Causative voice
- The Oromo causative of a verb V corresponds to English expressions such as 'cause V', 'make V', 'let V'. With intransitive verbs, it has a transitivizing function. It is formed by adding -s, -sis, or -siis to the verb root, except that roots ending in -l add -ch. Verbs whose roots end in ' drop this consonant and may lengthen the preceding vowel before adding -s. Examples: beek- 'know', beeksis- 'cause to know, inform', beeksifne 'we informed'; ka'- 'go up, get up', kaas- 'pick up', kaasi 'pick up (sing.)!'; gal- 'enter', galch- 'put in', galchiti 'she puts in'; bar- 'learn', barsiis- 'teach', nan barsiisa 'I teach'.
- Autobenefactive voice
- The Oromo autobenefactive (or "middle" or "reflexive-middle") voice of a verb V corresponds roughly to English expressions such as 'V for oneself' or 'V on one's own', though the precise meaning may be somewhat unpredictable for many verbs. It is formed by adding -adh to the verb root. The conjugation of a middle verb is irregular in the third person singular masculine of the present and past (-dh in the stem changes to -t) and in the singular imperative (the suffix is -u rather than -i). Examples: bit- 'buy', bitadh- 'buy for oneself', bitate 'he bought (something) for himself', bitadhu 'buy for yourself (sing.)!'; qab- 'have', qabadh- 'seize, hold (for oneself)', qabanna 'we hold'. Some autobenefactives are derived from nouns rather than verbs, for example, hojjadh- 'work' from the noun hojii 'work'.
The voice suffixes can be combined in various ways. Two causative suffixes are possible: ka'- 'go up', kaas- 'pick up', kaasis- 'cause to pick up'. The causative may be followed by the passive or the autobenefactive; in this case the s of the causative is replaced by f: deebi'- 'return (intransitive)', deebis- 'return (transitive), answer', deebifam- 'be returned, be answered', deebifadh- 'get back for oneself'.
Another derived verbal
The infinitive is formed from a verb stem with the addition of the suffix -uu. Verbs whose stems end in -dh (in particular all autobenefactive verbs) change this to ch before the suffix. Examples: dhug- 'drink', dhuguu 'to drink'; ga'- 'reach', ga'uu 'to reach'; jedh- 'say', jechu 'to say'. The verb fedh- is exceptional; its infinitive is fedhuu rather than the expected fechuu. The infinitive behaves like a noun; that is, it can take any of the case suffixes. Examples: ga'uu 'to reach', ga'uuf 'in order to reach' (dative case); dhug- 'drink', dhugam- 'be drunk', dhugamuu to be drunk', dhugamuudhaan 'by being drunk' (instrumental case).
References
- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2024). "Oromo". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty Seventh ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2024). "Oromo". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
- ^ a b c Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2024). "Borana–Arsi–Guji Oromo". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty Seventh ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2024). "West Central Oromo". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty Seventh ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
- ^ a b Shaban, Abdurahman (2020-03-04). "One to Five: Ethiopia Gets Four New Federal Working Languages". Africa News. Archived from the original on 2020-12-15. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
- ISBN 978-0-7486-2759-2.
- ^ "Oromo". Dictionary Reference.
- ^ "Oromo". TheFreeDictionary.com.
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- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. "Oromo, West-Central [gaz]". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-fifth edition. Dallas: SIL International. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
- JSTOR 723182.
- ^ "Oromo (Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Oromoo)". Language Centre Resources. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
- ^ "Oromo Language". MustGo. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
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- ^ a b "Ethiopia". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 6 June 2022.
- ^ "Amharic". Ethnologue.
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- ^ "ቤት | FMOH". moh.gov.et. Archived from the original on 2021-02-05. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
- ^ Davey, Melissa (2016-02-13). "Oromo Children's Books Keep Once-Banned Ethiopian Language Alive". The Guardian. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ^ "Oromo" (PDF) (Brochure). National African Language Resource Center (NALRC).
- ^ "Ethiopians: Amhara and Oromo". International Institute of Minnesota.
- ^ Blench, Roger (2006-11-14). "The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
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- ^ Smidt, Wolbert G. C. (2015). "A Remarkable Chapter of German Research History: The Protestant Mission and the Oromo in the Nineteenth Century" (PDF). In Smidt, Wolbert G. C.; Thubauville, Sophia (eds.). Cultural Research in Northeastern Africa: German Histories and Stories. Frankfurt: Frobenius-Institut. p. 63.
- ^ Blair, Thomas Lucien Vincent (1965). Africa: A Market Profile. New York: Praeger. p. 126.
- ^ Lata, Leenco (1999). The Ethiopian State at the Crossroads: Decolonization and Democratization or Disintegration?. Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press. pp. 174–176.Leenco Lata, The Ethiopian State at the Crossroads p.
- ^ Stroomer, p. 4
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Bibliography
Grammar
- Ali, Mohamed; Zaborski, A. (1990). Handbook of the Oromo Language. Wroclaw, Poland: Polska Akademia Nauk. ISBN 83-04-03316-X.
- Baye Yimam (1986). The phrase structures of Ethiopian Oromo. London: University of London. p. 347.
- Griefenow-Mewis, Catherine; Tamene Bitima (1994). Lehrbuch des Oromo. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-927620-05-X.
- Griefenow-Mewis, Catherine (2001). A Grammatical Sketch of Written Oromo. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-039-5.
- Heine, Bernd (1981). The Waata Dialect of Oromo: Grammatical Sketch and Vocabulary. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. ISBN 3-496-00174-7.
- Hodson, Arnold Weinholt(1922). An Elementary and Practical Grammar of the Galla or Oromo Language. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
- Lloret, Maria-Rosa (1997). Phonologies of Asia and Africa. Alan S. Kaye. ISBN 978-1-57506-019-4.
- Nordfeldt, Martin (1947). A Galla Grammar. Uppsala/Lund: Lundequistska Bokhandeln. p. 232.
- Launhardt, Johannes (1973). Guide to learning the Oromo (Galla) language. Addis Ababa: Cooperative Language Institute. p. 363.
- Owens, Jonathan (1985). A Grammar of Harar Oromo. Hamburg: Buske. ISBN 3-87118-717-8.
- Praetorius, Franz (1973) [1872]. Zur Grammatik der Gallasprache. Hildesheim; New York: G. Olms. ISBN 3-487-06556-8.
- Roba, Taha M. (2004). Modern Afaan Oromo grammar: qaanqee galma Afaan Oromo. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4184-7480-0.
- Stroomer, Harry (1987). A Comparative Study of Three Southern Oromo Dialects in Kenya. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. ISBN 3-87118-846-8.
Dictionaries
- Bramly, A. Jennings (1909). English-Oromo-Amharic Vocabulary. Typescript in Khartoum University Library.
- Foot, Edwin C. (1968) [1913]. An Oromo-English, English-Oromo Dictionary. Cambridge University Press (repr. Farnborough, Gregg). ISBN 0-576-11622-X.
- Gragg, Gene B. et al. (ed., 1982) Oromo Dictionary. Monograph (Michigan State University. Committee on Northeast African Studies) no. 12. East Lansing, Mich. : African Studies Center, Michigan State Univ.
- Mayer, Johannes (1878). Kurze Wörter-Sammlung in Englisch, Deutsch, Amharisch, Oromonisch, Guragesch, hrsg. von L. Krapf. Basel: Pilgermissions-Buchsdruckerei St. Chrischona.
- Bitima, Tamene (2000). A Dictionary of Oromo Technical Terms: Oromo – English. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-062-X.
- Stroomer, Harry (2001). A Concise Vocabulary of Orma Oromo (Kenya): Orma-English, English-Orma. Köln: Rudiger Köppe.
- Gamta, Tilahun (1989). Oromo-English Dictionary. Addis Ababa: University Printing Press.
External links
- Online Oromo – Qubee Dictionary
- Voice of America news broadcast in Oromo.
- Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) website contains many articles written in Oromo and audio.
- PanAfriL10n page on Oromo
- HornMorpho Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine: software for morphological analysis and generation of Oromo (and Amharic and Tigrinya) words
- 500 Word Oromo Dictionary
- Oromo – Daily News
- Google Translate adds 24 languages, includes Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya
- "Proposal for Encoding the Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo Script" (PDF). Unicode.