Neologism construction in Amharic by compounding various parts of speech
Journal Title: Studies in African Languages and Cultures - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 51
Abstract
The Amharic language is the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world, used by around 25 million speakers. Even though the Amharic language is successfully used in many domains, it still needs appropriate neologisms to give name to notions typical for Western European culture which increasingly influences not only the language but also the culture of Ethiopia. Even though loanwords from European languages were ubiquitous in Amharic for many decades, in recent years the lexicon of the extinct Geʿez lan-guage is partially used to coin a number of neologisms by means of metaphors or different juxtaposed parts of speech. In the beginning, the compounds in the form of the Amharic and Geʿez construct state (status constructus) are discussed; this is followed by an analysis of adjective-noun compounds, constructions with the nouns derived from verbs and verb and noun compounds. In the next part of the article the com-pounds with Geʿez prefixes are considered. The analysis of hybridised compounds and loan translations is the final point of the paper.
Authors and Affiliations
Michał Kozicki
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP261969
- DOI -
- Views 75
- Downloads 0
Roger Blench and Stuart McGill (eds.), Advances in Minority Language Research in Nigeria, vol. I, African Languages Monographs, Kay Williamson Educational Foundation, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2012, 372 pp.
A review of a book " Advances in Minority Language Research in Nigeria, vol. I, African Languages Monographs" by Roger Blench and Stuart McGill (eds.).
Angelika Mietzner and Ulrike Claudi (eds.), Directionality in Grammar and Discourse: Case Studies from Africa, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2012, pp. 232.
A review of a book "Directionality in Grammar and Discourse: Case Studies from Africa" by Angelika Mietzner and Ulrike Claudi (eds.).
The Mobutu Regime: Leveraging State Weakness
This paper focuses on regime survival in Zaire/Congo. The author will analyse the events in Zaire during Joseph Mobutu’s reign from 1960 to 1997 through the lens of regime and linkage theories. It is no secret that Presi...
Marriages in Ethiopia
Le mariage semble être un élément commun à tous les milieux culturels dans le monde. Cependant, dans chacun de ces milieux, le mariage est perçu différemment. On dit souvent que l’Éthiopie est – ou l’était au moins jusqu...
The Complementizer say in Nigerian Pidgin English – Traces of Language-internal Processes or Areal Features?
The paper presents the use of the complementizer say in various types of sentence structures of Nigerian Pidgin English. The data comes from the contemporary language in its written form and is based mostly on transcript...