Arbore is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Arbore people in southern Ethiopia in a few settlements of Hamer woreda near Lake Chew Bahir.Klaus Wedekind, "Sociolinguistic Survey Report of the Languages of the Gawwada, Tsamay and Diraasha Areas with Excursions to Birayle (Ongota) and Arbore (Irbore) Part II" SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-066. Includes a word-list of Arbore with 320 entries.
Classification That the Arbore language belongs within a "Macro-Somali" (now called Omo-Tana) group was first recognized by Sasse (1974). Other members of this group are Daasanach, Bayso, Rendille, Boni and the various Somali dialects. Omo-Tana itself is a major division of Lowland East Cushitic. Arbore's nearest relatives (jointly classified as Western Omo-Tana) are Daasanach and especially the probably extinct Kenyan language of the Elmolo fishermen of Lake Turkana. The sub-grouping is justified in terms of uniquely shared lexicon and certain common grammatical innovations, amongst which the generalizations of the absolute forms of the 1st person singular and 2nd person singular personal pronouns to subject function, thereby replacing the earlier Proto-Lowland East Cushitic forms, e.g. 2nd personal pronouns, e.g., 2nd person singular *ati/u 'thou': *ki/u 'thee', but Arbore ke 'thou' and 'thee'.
Phonology The phonology of Arbore was described by Hayward (1984). He lists the following phonemes:
Consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive Voiceless Voiced Ejective Implosive Fricative Liquid Lateral Trill Glide
All consonant phonemes except /h, ʃ, ŋ, p, ʔ/ can be geminated.
Vowels Front Back Close Close-mid Open
Syllable structure In Arbore, no word begins or ends with more than one consonantal segment. Moreover, no word contains a sequence of more than two consonantal segments internally.
Changes of sounds in certain phonological and morphological environments There are instances in which sounds differ from their usual pronunciation. The differences follow certain patterns and these patterns are:
Degemination: when a consonantal segment or word-boundary follows a geminate, the geminate will be degeminated. Regressive assimilation of stops: non-glottal, oral stops are fully assimilated by following oral or nasal stops. This rule does not appear to be obligatory. Glottal reduction I : preceding a non-identical consonant, glottalized stops are reduced to glottal stops. In the case of the letter b, this rule is only obligatory when there is a preceding m. Glottal reduction II: when preceded by a non-syllabic sonorant, d and b are reduced to a glottal stop in the end of a word. Sibilant gliding I: the voiceless sibilants are weakened to a palatal glide if they follow a consonantal segment. This rule is optional in the case of s. Sibilant gliding II: č weakens to a palatal glide in the end of a word. Lateralization: non-glottalized, non-sibilant, oral coronal stops (ie. t, d) are totally assimilated if followed by a lateral. Oralization: the laryngeal h is fully assimilated by any preceding non-laryngeal single non-syllabic segment within a word H-elision: when preceded by another laryngeal, h is elided Coronal assimilation of m: optionally m undergoes assimilation to the place of articulation of a following t or l Glide deletion: y or w are left out when preceded by a and followed by a palatal vowel L-syllabicization: when preceded by i and followed by a consonant y optionally undergoes syllabicization to i Final devoicing: word-finally voiced obstruents undergo devoicing and utterance-finally stops are generally unreleased Lateral spirantization: the lateral l is articulated like a fricative before a sibilant Alveolopalatalization: s acquires an alveolopalatal articulation after a liquid, rule is optional with r but fully obligatory in the case of l Post-lateral glottal reduction: d is reduced to a glottal stop if it is followed by l. This pattern is optional. Post-laryngeal epenthesis: a epenthetic copy of a single vowel immediately preceding a laryngeal is inserted between the latter and any following non-glottalized obstruent or nasal Post-laryngeal metathesis: the second vowel mora of a long vowel and an immediately following laryngeal are transposed when the latter is followed by an obstruent or nasal. This is an optional but usual pattern. Pre-h contraction: a long vowel contracts by one mora before h word-finally Translaryngeal vowel harmony I : a low vowel (a) is raised and fronted [e] when it is separated from a preceding vowel e only by a laryngeal Translaryngeal vowel harmony II: a mid-front vowel is backed and rounded when it is separated from a following o only by a laryngeal Translaryngeal vowel harmony III: a mid-front vowel is raised to i when it is separated from a following i only by a laryngeal; sporadically the same process seems to affect the low vowel a Murmur: an intervocalic h is uttered with murmur (breathy phonation) Laryngeal feature spreading: when vowels both precede and follow h or ? they acquire murmur or glottalization/creaky voice respectively Transglottal glide copying: when a glottal stop follows a glide, and the sequence is intervocalic, a replica of the glide is inserted after the glottal stop Progressive lateral assimilation: following l an n is assimilated fully I-epenthesis: an epethentic [i] is inserted at the juncture of a cluster of dissimilar consonants with another (third) consonant or word boundary Archisegmental nasal realization I: the archisegmental nasal will acquire the place of articulation features of any following non-liquid non-syllabic Archisegmental nasal realization II: the archisegmental nasal assimilates totally to a following liquid Lateral spirantization: the lateral phoneme l acquires a fricative articulation before s Alveolopalatalization: s acquires an alveolpalatal articulation after a liquid, rule is optional after r Crasis: processes that occur across a certain type of word boundary: first words ends in a vowel, second word begins with a glottal stop Glottal stop deletion: initial glottal stop optional deletes following a word ending in a vowel High tone spreading: when two vowels fuse or diphthongize, if either of them carries a High tone, this spreads throughout both moras of the resulting long vowel or diphthong Vowel fusion: when identical vowels occur either side of a word boundary, and there is no intervening glottal stop, they fuse as one long vowel Vowel assimilation: when two non-identical vowels occur either side of a word boundary
Grammar Arbore well exemplifies a number of typical Lowland East Cushitic features such as: a three-term number system (basic unit: singulative: plural) in nouns, within which "polarity" figures, i.e., gender alternations across the various number forms of a lexeme; a morphosyntax thoroughly deployed in distinguishing topic and contrastive focus; great morphophonological complexity in its verbal derivation and inflection. Of historical interest is the language's preservation of at least a dozen verbs of the archaic "Prefix Conjugation", often attributed to Proto-Afroasiatic itself.
Morphology
Pluralizing nouns There are several patterns for the way the plural of nouns can be formed. Which pattern is used depends on morphological, lexical and phonological categories. For consonant-final, masculine nouns, -mé is suffixed. Half of these forms are sr forms ending in -n, - č or -t. However, simple ur forms and feminine forms also possible in this pattern. To masculine, consonant-final nouns, -a?ame is added as a suffix in the plural. Additionally, there is a fairly large group of mostly feminine nouns with an h-tone in the end, to which -n is suffixed in the plural. To other feminine nouns with a final consonant, -ó as added a suffix. Plural nouns with a final vowel have -má as a suffix to indicate the plural. There are further patterns of the pluralization of nouns, but these other patterns are only minor.
Adjectives Adjectives in Arbore have either a predicative or an attributive function and their form depends on this function. In the predicative function, adjectives only have one form which does not change depending on the gender of the subject noun. In the attributive function they act as a modifier in a noun phrase. In this case, the adjective has two forms: in the non-plural form, -a is added as a suffix, and in the plural form, -o is suffixed. Adjectives also have forms with reduplicated stems, which can be substituted for the single-stem forms when the noun is semantically plural. Otherwise, these adjectives work the same way as single-stem adjectives.
Pronouns There are simple forms and suffixed forms of independent subject pronouns, which are summarized in the table below. The simple forms are used in sentences with either one other focussed constituent or in neutral sentences without a focussed constituent. The -he form cannot take the function of an object. The -t form can replace the simple form and can function as subject and object in sentences without focussed constituents. All other forms can stand as nominal predicates.
Simple form-he form-t form-s(s)e form-ta formø/-he/-t + -lo form1syéY[éhe]y[éhe]lo2skéK[éhe]k[éhe]lo1p?onó?onos(s)e?onolo2p?ín?inse?inloAbs. nom.3ms?us(s)ú ús(s)u?us(s)út ?ús(s)ut?us(s)uta?us(s)u[l:]o3fs?es(s)ét ?és(s)et?es(s)eta?es(s)u[l:]o3p?os(s)ót ?ós(s)ot?os(s)ota?os(s)u[l:]o
Inflection of verbs based on tense There are different patterns of verb conjugation. These can be divided into two classes: the prefix conjugations and the suffix conjugations.
There are two patterns of prefix conjugation, which is rarer than the suffix conjugation, only applying to 12 verbs in total.
Pattern 1: the stem of the verb has two different alternants; one having a stem-vocalism in l, and the other having a stem-vocalism in e. The first alternant occurs in all 1s and all affirmative imperative forms. The second one occurs in all other verb forms. Pattern 2: this pattern has two alternants as well. The first one has a stem-vocalism in a mid-vowel (e or o) and occurs in all negative jussive and imperative forms and the 3p jussive affirmative verb forms. The second one has a stem-vocalism in a and occurs in all other verb forms.
There are the following patterns of suffix conjugation:
Subject marker alternants: 2s, 2p, 3fs suffixed subject markers have two alternants each: -t, and -ø. -ø is used for causative 1 extended stem verbs and -t- is used elsewhere. Stem-alternants – causative 1: this pattern involves a threefold alternation in the form of radical extension. There is -i- used for 1p members of perfect affirmative, imperfect affirmative, imperfect negative and jussive affirmative. Additionally, there is -s-, which is used for 1s, 3ms, and 3p members of perfect affirmative, pluperfect affirmative, imperfect affirmative, imperfect negative, and jussive affirmative; all members of the perfect negative, jussive negative and imperative negative, the plural affirmative imperative. Lastly, -is- is used for all other verb forms. Stem alternants – Middle 1 and Middle 2: this pattern exhibits a threefold alternation in the form of radical extension. Due to parallels in shape and distribution, it is treated in sets. The first alternant exhibits a final d and occurs in1s members of perfect affirmative, pluperfect affirmative, imperfect affirmative, imperfect negative and jussive affirmative paradigms, and plural imperative affirmative. The second alternant occurs in 3ms and 3p members of perfect affirmative, pluperfect affirmative and jussive affirmative paradigms; all members of the perfect and jussive negative paradigms except 1s, and in singular and plural imperative negative. This alternant exhibits a final t. The last alternant ends in an -a and is used in all other verb forms.