Aari (also rendered ''Ari'', ''Ara'', ''Aro'', ''Aarai'') is an
Omotic
The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region and southeastern Sudan in Blue Nile State. The Geʽez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. T ...
language spoken by the
Aari people
Aari or Ari are a tribal Omotic languages, Omotic people indigenous to Omo valley, Omo Valley of Ethiopia. According to 2007 census there are 289,835 ethnic Aari in Ethiopia, which makes up around 0.29% of the country's total population. Nearly al ...
in the
South Omo Zone of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
.
The language consists of 9
dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
s: Bako, Biyo (Biya), Laydo, Seyki, Shangama, Sido, Wubahamer, Zeddo.
History
The Aari people suffered considerable pressures to assimilate after the conquest of the
Omo River region by the
Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire, historically known as Abyssinia or simply Ethiopia, was a sovereign state that encompassed the present-day territories of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It existed from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak a ...
in the late 1800s, which resulted in the widespread adoption of the
Amharic
Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...
language there. Nevertheless, the Aari language survived; today, many Aari are also fluent in Amharic.
Current status
Aari had a population of 285,000 first language speakers in 2007, of whom 129,350 were
monolingual
Monoglottism ( Greek μόνος ''monos'', "alone, solitary", + γλῶττα , "tongue, language") or, more commonly, monolingualism or unilingualism, is the condition of being able to speak only a single language, as opposed to multilingualism. ...
. 13,300 second language users were also recorded in 2007.
The ethnic population was 289,835 as of 2007.
Aari is used at home and at local markets. The size of the Aari tribe is growing, and thus the Aari language has seen an increase in language use and development in recent years. The language is learned by all of the Aari people and some members of neighboring tribes as well. Many Aari speakers also use
Amharic
Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...
, the official language of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
.
Although it is widely spoken by Aari people,
literacy
Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
in the language is low. An
orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis.
Most national ...
has been developed and rolled out in local schools; today, all schools in the two
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
where it is spoken teach Aari writing and literature as a subject. An Aari-English-Amharic dictionary has also been published. A translation of the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
into Aari was published in 1997.
Dialects
There are nine dialects of the Aari language, each dialect being associated with a former chiefdom. While these dialects are
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
with one another, some also have distinct features.
The following are dialects of Aari. Alternate names are given in parentheses.
*Bako (Baco)
*Biyo (Bio)
*
Gayil (Galila)
*Laydo
*Seyki
*Shangama
*Sido
*Wubahamer (Ubamer)
*Zeddo
Phonology
* Stop sounds /p b/ can have allophones as fricatives
� β
* /Ê‹/ can also be heard as labio-velar
Aari has two tones, high and low.
Grammar
Aari is a
subject-object-verb language (SOV), meaning that the English sentence "the cow (subject) ate (verb) the grass (object)" would translate back from Aari as "cow (subject) grass (object) ate (verb)."
Verbs
In Aari, the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
-''sis'' can be applied to the
stem
Stem or STEM most commonly refers to:
* Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant
* Stem group
* Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Stem or STEM can also refer to:
Language and writing
* Word stem, part of a word respon ...
of most verbs with a causative meaning. Doing so will increase the verb's
valency. When applied to an
intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...
, it will make the verb
transitive. For example, the intransitive verb stem ''daqal-'' "become bad" with the marker -''sis'' becomes ''daqalsis-'', is transitive and has the causative meaning "make bad". The transitive verb ''kam-'' "pick up" with -''sis'' becomes ''kamsis-'', is trivalent and has the meaning "cause to pick up".
Example verb conjugation
Verb stem ''buruk'', meaning "boil."
The causative stem of ''buruk-'' is ''burukš-'', making this verb irregular.
"To boil" is ''burukinti.'' This consists of the stem ''buruk'' with the
infinitive
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
(also called the verbal noun suffix) ''-inti.''
The causative third-person singular perfect (
past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
) of ''burukinti'' is ''búrukse'' ("it boiled").
The
present tense is ''búrukše'', "he boils
omething"
A sentence can be formed with the verb ''buruk'' by adding a
noun
In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
as an
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an a ...
(something being boiled). ''Búrukše...'' means "he boiled...", so "he boiled water" would be ''noqá búrukše''.
Note that in Aari the object comes before the verb; ''búrukše noqá'' is not correct.
Orthography
Aari uses a
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
and an
Ethiopic script, but below 10% of Aari speakers can read. Schooling is not well developed in this region of the world, so Aari is mostly spoken rather than written down and most speakers have no use for the language's two writing systems. However, despite this, there are schools in numerous villages and there are efforts to promote education and literacy. At present, 8% of second language users are literate in Aari.
The
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
was translated into Aari in 1997. Additionally, some other books have been translated into Aari to help promote literacy; Genesis Exodus, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Esther, Ruth, Psalms, Leviticus, Joshua and Judges have all been translated into Aari, but at present only Genesis has been published. Some external organizations are working with Aari churches to write a complete Aari Bible and increase the literacy rate.
Vocabulary
*''laqimiu?'' - how are you?
*''laqimi'' - reply to ''laqimiu''
*''noqá'' - water (Sido dialect: ''loqa'')
*''waakÃ'' - cattle
*''zémma'' - morning
*''gurdá'' - fence
*''sónqa'' - kiss
*''tóoni'' - waste
*''wókka'' - axe
* ''endefsi'' - brother
* ''enani'' - sister
* ''abiya'' - father
* ''emiya'' - mother
* ''hanna'' - you
* ''etsimi'' - food
* ''fecha'' - land
* ''kiee'' - husband
* ''ekina'' - cabbage
* ''hami'' - farm land
* ''wollaqa'' - one
* ''qastan'' - two
* ''makkan'' - three
* ''noo'' - fire
* ''háy'' - sun
* ''arpén'' - moon
* ''zomÃ'' (or ''maqás'') - blood
* ''adÃm'' - tongue
* ''atsÃ'' - tooth
* ''muda'' - all
* ''muuda'' - sorrow
Bibliography
*
*
References
External links
The Aari people(
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
report)
*
World Atlas of Language Structures information o
AariAari basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseListen to a sample of Aari from Global Recordings NetworkNew Testament in Aari
{{authority control
Languages of Ethiopia
Aroid languages
Subject–object–verb languages