| Baiso | |
|---|---|
| Giddicho, Alkali | |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | in region of Lake Abaya |
| Ethnicity | Bayso people (5,500 (2007 census)[1]), Haro people (L2) |
Native speakers | 4,600 (2007 census)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bsw |
| Glottolog | bais1246 |
| ELP | Bayso |
Baiso or Bayso is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Ethiopia, in the region around Lake Abaya.[1] It is an unwritten language.[1]
Grammar
The Baiso language has four number systems: singulative, singular, paucal, and plural. [2] While the singular is not marked, the other number systems are marked by different suffixes that are added to the noun stems.[2]
Noun Morphology
Nouns in the Baiso language are inflected for number.[2]
In order to inflect a noun for number, suffixes need to be added to the noun in question. The suffixes differ depending on whether it is singulative, paucal, or plural.[2]
To make a noun singulative, one adds the suffixes -titi or -ti to the noun stem. [2] However, this alone does not indicate definiteness or indefiniteness. Heleeltiti, for instance, means both the woman and a woman. By additionally adding a specific demonstrative pronoun or koo, one can clearly indicate (in-)definiteness: heleeltiti hasse emette (the woman came.) or heleeltiti koo emette (a woman came).[2]
The plural is formed in a more complex way. Even though most commonly the plural is indicated by suffixes, other possibilities are reduplication, internal modification and vowel deletion.[2]
Phonology
The following sounds are used in the Baiso language:[3][2]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | (p) | t | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | ||||
| implosive | ɗ | ||||||
| Sibilant | voiceless | s | t͡ʃ | ||||
| voiced | (z) | d͡ʒ | |||||
| ejective | sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | |||||
| Fricative | f | ʃ | h | ||||
| Nasal | plain | m | n | ɲ | |||
| implosive | mˀ | nˀ | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i, iː | u, uː | |
| Mid | e, eː | o, oː | |
| Open | a, aː |
References
- 1 2 3 4 Baiso at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lemmi Kebebew Gnarie. 2018. Grammatical Description and Documentation of Bayso. (Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University; 283pp.)
- ↑ Fleming, Harold C. (1964). "Baiso and Rendille: Somali Outliers". Rassegna di Studi Etiopici. 20: 35–96. JSTOR 41299528.
Further reading
- Brenzinger, Matthias. 1999. The "islanders" of Lake Abaya and Lake Ch'amo: Harro, Ganjule, Gats'ame and Bayso. SIL Electronic Survey Reports. 36pp.
- Corbett, Greville G. and Hayward, Richard J. 1987. Gender and number in Bayso. Lingua 73. 1-28.
- Epple, Susanne. 2016. The Bayso people of Gidiccho Island, Southern Ethiopia: An ethnographic sketch. Ms. 62pp.
- Hayward, Richard J. 1978, 1979. Bayso Revisited: some preliminary linguistic observations. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 41, 42. 539–570, 103–132.
- Lemmi Kebebew Gnarie. 2018. Grammatical Description and Documentation of Bayso. (Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University; 283pp.)