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Accentual Patterns in Verbal Forms in the Isaaq Dialect of Somali

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

Lilias E. Aemsteong in her article ‘The phonetic structure of Somali’ has shown that there is a correlation in this dialect of Somali between tone patterns and grammatical gender in certain types of Nouns. Moreover, at many points in her article she implies by her tone markings that there is also a correlation between other grammatical categories and tone patterns. She states, for example, that ‘plurals of both masculine and feminine nouns are pronounced with the mid-level tones in all syllables … exceptions are the feminine words … ending in in the singular …‘.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1956

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References

page 103 note 1 Armstrong, Lilias E., ‘The phonetic structure of Somali’, MSOS, 37, 3, 1934, 116–61.Google Scholar

page 103 note 2 This dialect is spoken by the Isàaq or Ishàaq (sometimes spelt Ishak, or Ishaq) tribal family, inhabiting the central part of the British Protectorate of Somaliland. For further information and bibliographical data concerning the Isàaq and all the other tribes and tribal families referred to in this article, see Hunt, J.A., A general survey of Somaliland Protectorate, 1944–50, London: Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1951Google Scholar, and Lewis, I.M., Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho, London: International African Institute, 1955.Google Scholar

page 103 note 3 Armstrong, 140–3.

page 103 note 4 Armstrong, 143.

page 103 note 5 Armstrong, 143–5.

page 103 note 6 Warsama, S. and Abraham, R.C., The principles of Somali, second edition, London, 1951Google Scholar (cyclostyled).

page 103 note 7 Armstrong on p. 147 states that ‘stress and pitch are closely connected’ in Somali.

page 103 note 8 Klingenheben, A.,‘Ist das Somali eine Tonsprache ?’, Zeitschrift für Phonetik, 3, 5–6, 1949, 289303.Google Scholar

page 103 note 9 Jones, Daniel, The phoneme: its nature and use, Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1950, §§ 580–2.Google Scholar

page 104 note 1 For the spelling of the Somali examples see § 7.

page 105 note 1 cf. the sections ‘Language and speech’ and ‘Levels of abstraction’ in Westphal, E.O.J., The sentence in Venda (Ph D. thesis, University of London, 1955).Google Scholar

page 107 note 1 In a text where accentual marks are used only occasionally, AU3 could be represented by– (the Macron).

page 107 note 2 In M. H. I. Galaal's Hikmad Soomaali, edited, with grammatical introduction and notes, by myself (in the series ‘Annotated African Texts’, O.U.P.), now in the press, these diacritics are used as tone marks only. Note, however, that owing to the relationship between tone and stress the tone marks in that book represent by implication the Accentual Units described here.

page 107 note 3 In the case of monosyllabic forms.

page 107 note 4 In the case of polysyllabic forms.

page 108 note 1 For the purposes of our present description a syllable is considered as long when it has a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by W or y and a consonant within the same word, e.g. ‘big’, ɖàwr ‘look’ Considerable difficulty arises in the case of those polysyllabic forms of the Imperative Singular, 1st Conjugation, which end in –OW or –aw (see Bell, C.R.V., The Somali language, London: Longmans, 1953, § 120).Google Scholar In these forms the final syllable can either be short or long and the choice ia optional. It may be noted, however, that all these forms, with the exception of bilaw ‘begin’ and ‘cool down’, occur more frequently with a long final syllable and have, consequently, the Accentual Pattern 6.

page 108 note 2 Bell, C.R.V., The Somali language, London: Longmans, 1953Google Scholar, abbreviated to Bell throughout this article.

page 108 note 3 BSOAS, XVII, 3, 1955, 567–80.

page 109 note 1 See n. 1, p. 108; all the syllables not specified as long are regarded as short.

page 109 note 2 Note that the Imperative Singular of the verb ‘to insult’ has a long syllable, though it does not comply with the definition given in n. 1, p. 108.

page 109 note 3 In this Table, when the Conjugation is not specified, the accentual rule given extends to all the three Conjugations (1st, 2nd and 3rd); similarly, when the Person of a verbal form is not specified, the rule applies to all the Persons of the given paradigm.

page 109 note 4 Readers are referred to § 18 for information about the grammatical terms marked with the sign †.

page 110 note 1 In 19, 23, 25, and 28 (α) and (β) are optional variants.

page 111 note 1 The Impersonal Pronoun La is spelt with a capital letter in order to distinguish it from the Preposition la.

page 111 note 2

page 111 note 3 or

page 111 note 4

page 111 note 5 ; note that the final h of ah is not pronounced before a pause.

page 111 note 6 A member of a low caste employed in various menial tasks by other Somalis. According to an old custom a could be called upon to entertain his patrons.

page 112 note 1 tagtá_ba

page 112 note 2 An optional alternative for.

page 112 note 3 geeràar is a kind of alliterative poem sung or recited. For further information about the types of Somali poetry (gábay, hées, jíifto, , etc.) see Kirk, J.W.C., A grammar of the Somali language, with examples in prose and verse, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, 170–83;Google ScholarMaino, M., La lingua somala, strumento d'insegnamento professionals, Alessandria, 1953, 4453;Google ScholarLaurence, Margaret, A tree for poverty, Nairobi: The Eagle Press for the Somaliland Protectorate, 1954, 516.Google Scholar

page 112 note 4 One of the most famous Somali bards. His poems are known by heart by many Somalis and quotations from his poems have acquired the status of proverbs. He died at an advanced age soon after the Second World War. Many of his poems have been recorded in Mr. M. H. I. Galaal's unpublished collection. For some further information see Margaret Laurence, A tree for poverty, 37–8.

page 112 note 5 A well-known Somali bard of the ‘Iidagále tribe who lived in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.

page 112 note 6

page 113 note 1 dalòolkàa = dalòolka + bàa; see Bell, § 36, ‘Contractions with baa‘.

page 113 note 2 Note that the Accentual Patterns do not play any rôe in distinguishing Statements from Questions, e.g. ‘He is in’ and ‘Is he in ?’.

page 113 note 3 The Object Pronoun Ku ‘you (Sing.)’ is spelt with a capital letter to distinguish it from the Preposition ku (cf. Bell, § 42).

page 113 note 4 A contemporary Somali poet. The quotation given here is taken from a gábay especially composed by the poet for a play about the advantages of education, performed by Somali schoolboys in several towns of the Protectorate a few years ago. The words quoted were spoken by one of the characters of the play, an old man expressing his joy on the return of his son. In my spelling the poet's name would be written

page 114 note 1 A well-known leader of the section of the Dulbaháte tribe. He lived in the nineteenth century and his name is associated with many battles.

page 114 note 2

page 114 note 3

page 114 note 4 A contemporary poet, of the tribe.

page 114 note 5 adàa = adi (‘you’ Sing.) + bàa; see n. 1, p. 113.

page 114 note 6

page 114 note 7

page 114 note 8 An optional alternative for

page 114 note 9 An optional alternative for dégayeen

page 114 note 10 An optional alternative for shubayeen

page 114 note 11 For information about this outstanding historical figure see Enrico Cerulli's article 'Muhammad B. 'Abd Allāh Hassān in the Encyclopædia of Islam, and Jardine, D.J., The Mad Mullah of Somaliland, London, 1923.Google Scholar He is considered by the Somalis as one of their best poets; see Margaret Laurence, A tree for poverty, p. 36.

page 115 note 1 kufáa is a contraction of the form kufaa (Present General, Extensive Paradigm) and the Conjunction e, and is an optional alternative to The problem of contractions of verbal forms with Conjunctions and the Indicator baa is not dealt with in this article.

page 115 note 2 A well-known bard who died a few years after the Second World War. He belonged to the 'Ali Géri section of the Ðulbáhante tribe.

page 115 note 3 The Infinitive is often used where the Future Tense (with the Auxiliary verbal forms doonaa, doontaa, etc.) or the Present Continuous might be expected; cf. Czermak, W., ‘Zum Gebrauch des Infinitivs als “Futurum” im Somali’, Donum natalicium Schrijnen, Nijmegen-Utrecht, 1929, 182–9.Google Scholar

page 115 note 4 See n. 3, p. 115.

page 115 note 5 This poem is included in M. H. I. Galaal's Hikmad Soomaali.

page 115 note 6 See n. 3, p. 115.

page 115 note 7 See n. 3, p. 115.

page 115 note 8 This poem is also included in M. H. I. Galaal's Hikmad Soomaali.

page 116 note 1 talaá_ha

page 116 note 2 talaá_ha

page 116 note 3 Karán is the season approximately between 15 July and 24 August; see Hunt, J.A., A general survey of Somalilavd Protectorate, 19441950, 10.Google Scholar

page 116 note 4 The forms of the Negative Present Continuous, Variable Paradigm are extremely rare in this dialect; some speakers consider them incorrect except in poetry.

page 117 note 1 nim_aan

page 117 note 2 Or maad or maydin.

page 117 note 3

page 118 note 1 See n. 4, p. 109.

page 119 note 1 kanàa = kan + bàa; see n. 1, p. 113.

page 119 note 2 maqashàa = maqashó + bàa; see n. 1, p. 113.

page 119 note 3 See n. 1, p. 119.

page 119 note 4 iyádàa = iyáda + bàa; see n. 1, p. 113.

page 119 note 5 hoola_bádnid.

page 119 note 6

page 119 note 7

page 120 note 1

page 120 note 2 A well-known Somali sage, contemporary with . Many proverbs and wise sayings are attributed to him. He belonged to the tribe

page 120 note 3

page 120 note 4 The four Irregular Verbs which have, in some of their paradigms, the Semitic-like prefixes (Bell, §§ 33 and 62) are referred to in this article by their 3rd Pers. Sing. Masc. Past General, i.e. by the following forms: ‘he came’, ‘he said’, ‘he knew’, ‘he stayed’. Note that the verb has no Positive Imperative; káalay (plur. kaalaa) ‘come’ belongs to a different root.

page 121 note 1 This poem is included in M. H. I. Galaal's Hikmad Soomaali.

page 121 note 2 See n. 4, p. 120.

page 121 note 3 Also known as a Somali sage and lawyer who lived in the nineteenth century and belonged to the tribe.

page 121 note 4 The forms of the Present, Extensive Paradigm of this verb are: Sing.: 1st Pers. lèeahay 2nd Pers. lèedahay, 3rd Pers. Masc. 3rd Pers. Fem. lèedahay; Plur.: 1st Pers. lèenahay, 2nd Pers. 3rd Pers.

page 122 note 1 A well-known Somali poet, contemporary with He belonged to the tribe.

page 122 note 2 = + bàa; see n. 1, p. 113.

page 123 note 1 i.e. the Tenses composed of an Infinitive followed by an Auxiliary Verb, e.g. wuu imán doonaa ‘he will come’, garán màayó ‘I don't know’.

page 123 note 2 cf. Reinisch, L., Die Somali-Sprache, Wien, I, 1900, ‘Texte’, 248, lines 1314.Google Scholar

page 123 note 3 It is now also evident from the material presented by Moreno, M.M. in his Il Somalo della Somalia—grammatica e testi del Benadir, Darod e Dighil, Roma: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1955Google Scholar, that all the Continuous Tenses (Aspetto Progressivo) could be considered as contracted Compound Tenses in which the Auxiliary Verb would be *hay (2nd Conjugation). As Dr. Moreno's book appeared when this article was already completed, it is regretted that no fuller references are made here to this important work.

page 124 note 1 Invented by Father Jones, A.M.; for the description of this instrument see his article A simple Tonometer ' in Zeitschrift für Phonetik, VIII, 5/6, 1955, 397402.Google Scholar

page 127 note 1 In Note 14/27B to Hikmad Soomaali I referred to this paradigm as the ‘Restricted Continuous Form’.

page 127 note 2 i.e. forms in which all the vowels are ‘fronted’ (palatalized); for information concerning the ‘Front Forms’ see pp. 572–4 of my article referred to in n. 3, p. 108.

page 128 note 1 While the Variable Paradigm of the Negative Present Continuous has the same (variable) endings as the Subjunctive Continuous.

page 129 note 1 1 In Note 11/5A to Hikmad Soomaali I referred to this paradigm as the ‘ IInd Paradigm of the Past Tense (v4)’.