linguistics, multilingualism and communication

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1. COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE PRESENTATION ON A THESIS ENTITLED AWNGI MORPHOLOGY: INFLECTION OF NOUNS AND VERBS By ZEMED TSEGAYE ADVISORS MAIN ADVISOR, TSEHAY ABZA (PhD) CO-ADVISOR, DESALEGN HILE (PhD) FEBRUARY 08/2023 HAWASSA , ETHIOPIA

2. Presentation outlines This presentation has three main topics. √ Introduction √ Research methodology Background of the study √ Research approach Statement of the problem √ R esearch design Objectives of the study √ Data collection tool Research questions √ Sampling technique Significance of the study √ Source of data Scope of the study √ Data analyzing method √ Result and discussion √ Summary

3. Background of the study Language is essential for human expression and communication. It allows people to convey thoughts and feelings to others. Linguistics is the systematic study of language. Linguistics is the scientific study of language, analyzing its rules and structures. It involves various levels of analysis, including morphology. Morphology, a branch of linguistics, focuses on word formation and structure. Morphology focuses on word formation and internal structure. 1

4. Key points about the Awi zone, ethnic group and their language The Awi zone is located in the southwestern part of the Amhara region, bordering West Gojjam , North Gondar, the Oromia region, and Benishangul Gumuz . The total population of the Awi zone is 1,328,104, with most residents being Orthodox Christians with a minority of Muslims and some Protestant followers. The Awi ethnic group, known as Awija , resides in awi zone the north central Gojjam . Ethiopia has a rich linguistic diversity with about 85 languages spoken. These languages are classified into four main language groups: Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic, and Nilo-Saharan. 2

5. 3 Cont. In Ethiopia, there are approximately 40 Cushitic languages, including North Cushitic, Central Cushitic (Agaw), Highland East Cushitic, and Lowland East Cushitic. Among these, Agaw is the general name given to the four Cushitic-speaking groups of people. This language family includes Awngi, Bilin, Xamtanga , Kemant , and other minor languages like those of the Falasha and Ethiopian Jewish communities. Awngi is a language belonging to the Agaw or central Cushitic languages. It speaks in the Awi Zone, parts of the Metekel Zone, and various areas in the North-Gondar Zone.

6. Statement of the problem Awngi has received little attention in linguistic research. Previous studies have explored aspects such as phonology, verbal complement, word formation, and idiophones. However, no studies have provided explicit data on inflectional changes in Awngi nouns and verbs using morphemes and allomorphs. This study aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of the inflectional data attached to Awngi nouns and verbs. We can better understand Awngi's linguistic theory and overall functioning by analyzing the functions of these morphemes within the language's grammatical structure. This study addressed the following basic questions. 4

7. 5 Research question The study is expected to answer the following questions. What are the inflectional morphemes in nouns of Awngi? What are the inflectional morphemes in verbs of Awngi? What are the functions of morphemes that indicate nouns and verbal inflections? Objectives of the study Main objective of the study The main objective of this study is to explore the inflectional morphology of the Awngi language. Specific objectives of the study Showing the inflectional morphemes of Awngi nouns, Showing the inflectional morphemes of Awngi verbs, Identifying the functions of the morphemes attached to nouns and verbs of Awngi.

8. significance of study This research is believed to have the following contribution or significance. This study will shed light on the knowledge of the inflectional morphology of the Awngi language It will show the Awngi language learners how to identify nouns and verb inflection easily. Besides, it increases awareness of morphological processes among the learners. It will also provide some benefits for the preparation of textbooks, literacy materials, etc. for the learners of the language. It may also be used as a reference material for future researchers who want to research the Awngi language. Scope of study This linguistic work focused on the inflection and derivation of the Awngi language. It is limited to the inflectional morphology of two major word categories: nouns and verbs of the Awngi language. 6

9. Research Methodology 7 Research methodology is the foundation of a research study. It involves research approach, design, data collection, sampling, and analysis. Research approach Quantitative and qualitative approaches are commonly used in research. The research selected for this study was the qualitative approach. qualitative approach focuses on understanding the context and meaning of the data collected. Research design The research employed had been a descriptive design. This approach allows for a deeper exploration of the research topic and provides rich insights into the subject matter.

10. 8 Data collection tool and Source of data In this study, two main methods were employed for data collection: primary and secondary methods. The primary method used to collect data from the informants using elicitation. Through this method, the researcher and informants identified suffixes, roots/stems, and reduplicated forms. secondary data were gathered from various relevant documents using the documentation method. Sampling technique In this study purposive sampling techniques were used to select bilingual informants who speak Awngi as their language mother tongue and Amharic as a second language. The selection criteria focused on informants who could provide relevant and necessary information and had a relatively good understanding of the subject.

11. Source of data In this study, data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Therefore, The researcher had collected data from primary sources using elicitation.. the researcher had collected data from primary sources using elicitation. Data analyzing method In this study, after collected the data, the first step in the data analysis: transcribe the data phonetically using international phonetic alphabet (IPA) symbols and gloss in English. The second step involved undertaking the literal translation . Finally , it will be analyzed using the qualitative data analysis method. 9

12. Result and Discussion 10 The study explored noun and verb inflection of Awngi. Noun inflection Based on the data Awngi nouns show inflection for gender, number, definiteness, and case. Gender distinction in Awngi noun Gender is of two types: Natural gender gender distinctions for animate things, animate and inanimate nouns Inanimate nouns that name objects have a masculine gender, and the feminine gender expresses small animals and celestial bodies, have their basic form in the feminine gender. Awngi Animate nouns use Suppletive forms to distinguish between masculine and feminine genders in animate nouns with sex differences for humans and domesticated animals.

13. Grammatical gender Masculine nouns end in /- i / or zero morpheme, while feminine nouns end in /-a/. In addition, gender can be expressed kinships and Adjectives Kinship terms in Awngi exhibit masculine and feminine distinctions through specific words and affixes, indicating relationships within the family. Adjectives in Awngi indicate gender through markers attached to them, showing agreement with the gender of the noun they describe. Number Categories in Awngi Nouns Awngi distinguishes between singular and plural numbers in nouns. Plurality in Awngi nouns is indicated by the plural marker /-ka/ attached to the noun stem. Some nouns in Awngi pluralize by dropping their final vowels, such as ' dxori /a' becomng ' dxor ' for 'donkeys ’. 11

14. Cont. Adjectives modifying plural nouns in Awngi also take the plural marker suffix "-ka". Nouns go through morphological change from one to many forms by using pronouns. For example: First person singular "an" → plural " ɨnnoʤi " by altering the initial vowel, geminating the final consonant, and adding the suffix /- oʤi /. Second person singular " ɨnt " → plural " ɨntoʤi " by adding the suffix /- oʤi /. Third person singular "ŋi" → plural " ŋaʤi " through vowel modification due to vowel harmony or assimilation. / i /+/o/ /a/. Mass Nouns are used to pluralize nouns that are uncountable and do not take plural. 12

15. 13 Cont. Collective nouns represent group of people or things as a single entity. Collective words such as " lka " (few), " gi " (all), and " ɨlliku " (others) can modify nouns to indicate groups of collected items. in addition, Plurality can be expressed through quantifiers, reduplication, and internal modification in Awngi language. Definiteness in Awngi Nouns Refers to identifying specific entities within a class of entities. Definite is marked using suffixes like high tone /-ka/, /- sa /, or a zero morpheme in Awngi. The definite marker /- sa / is used in interrogative sentences to indicate definiteness. Indefinite expressed by zero morphemes, showing that speakers and listeners did not know the thing before.

16. 14 Case Overview in Awngi Language Nouns in Awngi are inflected for various cases including nominative, accusative, dative, ablative, genitive, Locative , Comitative case Nominative Case Not morphologically marked, indicated by noun position at the beginning of a sentence. Accusative Case Marks the direct object of a sentence. Uses suffixal morphemes like /-e/, /-o/, and /- wa / markers for/∅/ masculine marker, after delete masculine/- i /, feminine singular nouns and all plural nouns respectively. Dative Case The Dative case in indicates the recipient of an action. marked by the suffix /s/ attached to the indirect object.

17. 15 Ablative case Shows the source or direction of an act or occurrence. The preposition /-des/ (from) can be attached to nouns to indicate the source. Genitive Case Uses suffixal morphemes like /-u/, /-t,- ti / , /- ku , kw/, and /- su / possessed singular masculine, singular feminine, plural noun and plural pronouns respectively. Source genitives are marked by /-w/ for masculine and /-t/ for feminine. Purposive Genitives: The suffix /-s/ marks purposive genitives in the language . Possessive Genitives: Marked by the suffix /-w/. Comitative case Used to show that the subject is doing something together with another person or object. This case expresses by the suffix /-li/.

18. Locative Case Includes directional, directional-comitative, and purposive forms for spatial relationships. Directional is expressed by the suffix /-so/. Static or fixed location is shown by the suffix /-da/ suffixed to a word referring to a noun. Directional-comitative shows direction and accompaniment, expressed by suffixes /- sula /. 16

19. Verb Inflection Verb inflection in Awngi involves verb changes to indicate person, number, gender tense, aspect, and mood. Person, gender, and number Markers for person, gender, and number are closely related and difficult to separate. Awngi verb has Two numbers: singular and plural Three persons: first, second, and third Two genders masculine and feminine third person singular only. the form can be marked 1Sg, 1Pl, 2Sg, 2Pl, 3Mas, and 3fam, and 3Pl. The personal pronoun that can, but not need, be associated with conjugated verbs. Person Singular indicator Plural indicator 1 st person -tu -n 2 nd person -ti -na 3 rd person Masculine -u/ -un/ Feminine -t 17

20. Perfective indefinite: past actions that still have an impact in the present or actions in the past that the speaker is unsure about. /-a/ for 1Sg, and 3Mas /-na/, for 1Pl /-ta/ for 2Sg, and 3Fem /-taka/ for 2Pl /-ka/ for 3Pl. imperfective indefinite: ( indicates ongoing or habitual action in the past without specifying a definite endpoint or completion). /-e/ for 1Sg, and 3Mas /-ne/, for 1Pl /- te / for 2Sg, and 3Fem /-tana/ for 2Pl /-ana/ for 3Pl. Perfective definite: used to convey an action that occurred in the past.  /- x w a / all person and gender except 2 and 3Pl. /-a/ for 2 and 3Pl: imperfective definite: action in the future that the speaker views as guaranteed or certain to happen. This aspect marker is only /-a/ Aspect Aspects in Awngi include perfective and imperfective aspects, with markers indicating completed or ongoing actions . 18

21. Tense Tense in Awngi denotes the time of action, with forms for past, present, and future actions. The time of action or state described by verb, establishing temporal relationship b/n events. the past tense form is formed by combining the past tense form with subject + time (past) +verb (past form/perfective definite and indefinite aspect). The past continuous/progressive past refers to actions or ongoing events that were happening in the past at a specific point in time. the continuous marker suffixes are /- tagi , for the 1Sg, 2Sg 3Fem, /-magi/ for 2Pl and 3Mas, /- nagi / for 1Pl, and /- gi / for3Pl 19

22. Cont. The present tense is locates actions from a period to the present moment. marked by indefinite aspect suffixes. The present continuous tense used to ongoing action/events in the present movement. similar to the past continuous tense, this tense adds continuous marker suffixes such as /- tagi /, /-magi/, /- nagi /, and /- gi /. the verb form /-ja/ indicate the affirmative in present continuous tenses, ‘x’ is used to indicate the verb 'to be' in all persons and genders. The future tense is typically formed by adding future time expression to present tense verb. 20

23. 21 Mood The mood in Awngi reflects the speaker's attitude towards what is being said and it includes gerundive, imperative, jussive, conditional, and interrogative moods. Gerundive mood : expresses the necessity or fitness of an action. In Awngi, the gerundive mood is marked by adding markers such as /-ta/, feminine/-na/, and /-ma/ before the perfective indefinite aspect. /-ta/ for 1Sg, 2Sg, and 3Fem /-na/ for 1Pl /-ma/ for 2Pl , 3Ma s, and 3Pl Imperative mood: used to for commands for second person singular and plural. singular is marked with /Ø/, plural imperative expressed using /-an/.

24. Jussive mood: indirect commands or requests for the first and third-person singular and plural. marked by a suffixed morpheme /-s/. Use an epenthetic vowel /-a/ to separate the occurrence of two consonants. Conditional mood: hypothetical situations based on conditions. the suffix /- ngi / marks conditional. Interrogative mood : forms questions using specific markers or question words. The interrogative is formed using two methods: 1. The suffix /-ma/ is added to the end of a verb to indicate a question. 2. Wh - question words are used at the final position of a sentence to form an interrogative. 22

25. 23 Negation: the process of denying or negating a statement in linguistics. Negation in tense: expressed using morpheme like /-la/, /-ga/, /-ja/ and /- ti /. The suffix /-la/and /ja/ are utilized in the present, future and past continuous tenses to negate action. /- ti / negative present continuous tense /-ga/negative compliment for the present continuous tense following progressive suffix. Negation in mood: Negative imperative mood formed by adding suffix /-e/ to the verb for both singular and plural subject. Negative conditional expresses prohibition by adding the morpheme /- ti /. The marker /-es/ used to indicate a negative imperfect protest form in the conditional mood. Negative imperative formed by adding the suffix /-e/ to the verb for both singular and plural person. The formation of negative imperative sentence is essential in conveying commands or requests with a negation.

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