Soddo (autonymkəstane "Christian"; formerly calledAymälläl in Western sources, after a particular dialect of it) is aGurage language spoken by a quarter million people in southernEthiopia. It is anEthiopian Semitic language of the Northern Gurage subfamily. Its native speakers, theSoddo Gurage people (Kistane), live predominantly in theSoddo district of theGurage Zone.^{[citation needed]}

• [ʔ] is mainly heard when in between vowels, or in syllable-initial position before vowels.
• Sounds /p, pʼ, tsʼ/ can also be heard in borrowed words.
• Sounds /k, ɡ, kʼ/ can also have labialized allophones [kʷ, ɡʷ, kʼʷ].
• /b/ can also be heard as a voiced fricative [β] when in intervocalic position.
• /m/ can be heard as [ɱ] when before /f/, and /n/ as [ŋ] when before /k/.^[2]

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As in most Ethiopian languages, nounqualifiers generally follow the noun.

Thedefinite article is expressed by thesuffix-i, e.g.:goš "boy" >goš-i "the boy";ätit "sister" >ätiti "the sister";bayyočč "children" >bayyočč-i. If the noun ends in-a or-ä, it normally loses thisvowel when-i is suffixed:angačča "cat" >angačč-i "the cat". A noun ending in-i usually stays the same:abi "(the) father, proprietor". A noun ending in-e, -o, -u adds ay before the suffix:ge "house" >geʸi "the house";wälläho "neighbor" >wällähoʸi "the neighbor". If the noun has a qualifier, the article is used with the first element:maläk' ge "big house" >maläk'-i ge "the big house";yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house");yä-mät't'-i məss "the man who came" (lit. "who-came-the man".)

There is no realindefinite article, though indefiniteness can be expressed by preposing the wordattə ork'una, meaning "one".

Nouns have twogenders, masculine and feminine, which affectverb concord.

Nouns which are definite objects (direct orindirect) are both marked with the prefixyä- ornä-: e.g.yä-geʸi ažžo "he saw the house";yä-zämmihʷan abännət "he gave it to his brother" (lit. "to-his-brother he-gave-him").Direct objects may additionally be marked by adding the object suffix pronouns to the verb: e.g.yabiddi täšakkunnət "I asked my father" (lit. "my-father-obj. I-asked-him".)

A possessed noun is marked by the prefixyä-, and the possessor precedes the possessed:yä-šum-i ge "the house of the official" (lit. "of-official-the house"). If the possessed noun has a preposition prefixed to it, thisyä- is omitted:babiddi färäz rather than *bä-yä-abiddi färäz for "on my father's horse".

Possessives can also be formed by simply addingyä- to the standalone pronouns, e.g.:yädähəm t'əb "your clan".

Reflexive pronouns are formed byäras-,gubba-,k'um- plus the possessive suffixes, e.g.ädi äras-əddi mät'afi t'afkunnət "I myself wrote the book".

Proximal:zi "this, these";zini "this one". E.g.:zi məss "this man",zi məšt "this woman",zi säbočč "these men".

Distal:za "that, those, that one, those ones";zani "that one there". E.g.tä-za məss goy mät't'ahi "I came with that man".

• ma "who?" (man before thecopula):man mät't'a? "who came?"
• yäma "whose?"
• mən "what?";yämən "why?"
• yitta,yittat "which?" E.g.yitta bayy mät't'am "which child came?"
• yittani "which one?"

• (yähonä) säb "someone, somebody"
• mannəm (säb) "any(one)" ("no one" with negative verb)
• attəm "any" (="no one, nothing" with negative verb);attəmu "no one" (as pronoun)
• lela (säb) "other"
• yäk'irrä k'äy "other" (lit. "remaining thing")
• attə "a certain"
• ləyyu "different"
• k'una,zam,zəč'ə "same"
• äbälo (f.äbälit) "so-and-so"
• zihom "such"

kulləm = "all" (placed before or after the noun);kulləm-u,bä-mollaw = "whole".yät'oma = "only, alone". "Each, every" is expressed by nounreduplication.

The copula (positive and negative) is irregular in thepresent tense:

Example:zämmidi nähä "you are my brother".

The past tense ("he was", etc.) is expressed by the verbnäbbär conjugated regularly in the perfect; "he was not" etc. is withannäbär. The future tense is expressed by the imperfect ofhono:yəhonu "he will be", etc. The negative future tense is likewise expressed bytihon. The present copula in subordinate clauses is expressed by the subordinate perfect ofhonä, e.g.:däffär yähonä tädi-goy yalfu "he who is courageous will go with me.

"It is he", etc. can be expressed by adding an element-tt between the pronoun and the copula: e.g.kʷa-ttə-n "it is he".

The existential verb "be at", "exist" in the present is:

In the past and future, it is expressed just like the copula, withnäbbärä andhonä. In subordinate clauses the present is expressed with-allä conjugated in the perfect (negative-lellä), e.g.:bämeda yalləmi säbočč araš näm "the people who are in the field are farmers".

The possessive verb "he has" etc. is expressed with the existential verbyino "it is" (agreeing with the object possessed) plus object suffix pronouns (i.e. "it is to him" etc.)

A Soddo verb may have anywhere from one to four consonants, or may be a compound withbalo "say" (e.g.bək'k' balo "appear".) In the former case, they fall into three "conjugations" differing in their vowels and in gemination of the imperfect, illustrated for a three-consonant verb:

• säbbäro, imperfectyəsäbru ("break")
• tikkälo, imperfectyətikkəlu
• č'affäro, imperfectyəč'affəru

Derived stems can be formed in several ways:

• reduplicative: e.g.gäddälo "kill" >gədaddälo. This form has a wide variety of meanings, mostly intensifying the verb in some way.
• passive/reflexive/intransitivetä- prefix: e.g.käffälo "pay" >tä-käffälo "be paid". Areciprocal action can be expressed by this prefix attached to atransitive verb with the vowela after the first radical, or a reduplicative form, e.g.tä-gäddäl-mun ortä-gdaddäl-mun "they killed each other".
• causative or transitive ofintransitive verbsa-: e.g.säkkäro "be drunk" >a-säkkäro "get someone drunk";näddädo "burn (intr.)" >a-näddädo "burn (tr.)".
• causative of transitive orpassive verbsat- (+-i-): e.g.käddäno "cover" >at-kiddäno "cause to cover" or "cause to be covered". Added to the-a- form, it expresses reciprocity andadjutative (helping):atgaddälo "cause to kill one other" or help to kill".
• Some verbs are formed with initialən- ortän-; the only derived stem from these is thea- stem, witha- replacingə- ortä-. E.g.ənkrättäto "be bent" >ankrättäto "bend".

There are two tenses/aspects,perfective (past) andimperfective (non-past); each has distinct forms for main versussubordinate clauses, and positive versus negative. There are also distinctjussive,imperative, andimpersonal forms.

The form with suffixed-m is used in subordinate clauses to connect verbs not otherwise connected, in a way analogous toJapanese-te; it can be translated as "and", as agerund, or as aresultative. The perfect in-m followed bynäbbär forms thepluperfect.

The negative perfect is formed by prefixingal-, with vowel change; for the conjugations mentioned above, the resulting forms areal-säfärä,al-täkkälä, andal-č'afärä.

Examples:ge aräššo "he built a house";banätäw k'ən awänna-m bämida tonnaw "having put butter on the top of his head, he sat outside".

Like the perfect, the subordinate forms can take the suffix-m to express a series of non-past actions. This can be combined withnäbbär to express a habitual past action.

Examples:ahoññ gäbäya nalfu "today we shall go to the market";yəgädəl məss "the man who kills";mas tənäsa-m yibara wawt'a tək'ärsi "she picks up the sleeping mats and begins to remove the dung."

It can be augmented by-ən, with no obvious change in meaning.

Examples:ahoññ yəmät'a timäsəl "it does not seem that he will come today";ädahʷan t-aykäfəl alläfo "he left without paying his debt".

These are negated by the prefixay-:ayəsfär,ayšäkkət,aygalb. The 2nd person forms then change to conform to the others:attəsfär,attəsfer,attəsfärəm,attəsfärma.

E.g.:

yä-wäzälawan-hom yewsəd "let him take according to his work"

yäsäb waga attəlgäd "don't touch someone's property"

ärəf-əm tona "rest and sit down" (sit down quietly)

• Cohen, Marcel,Etudes d'éthiopien méridional. Paris: Geuthner 1931.
• Gideon Goldenberg, "Kəstanəñña: Studies in a Northern Gurage Language of Christians", in:Orientalia Suecana 17 (1968), 61-102 [=Gideon Goldenberg,Studies in Semitic Linguistics, The Magnes Press: Jerusalem 1998ISBN 965-223-992-5].
• Gideon Goldenberg, "L'étude du gouragué et la comparaison chamito-sémitique", in: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Roma -Problemi attuali di Scienza e di Cultura, Quad. N. 191 II (1974), pp. 235–249 [=Studies in Semitic Linguistics, pp. 463–477].
• Gideon Goldenberg,"The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia and Their Classification", in:Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 40 (1977), pp. 461–507. [=Studies in Semitic Linguistics, pp. 286–332].
• Gideon Goldenberg, "Linguistic Interest in Gurage and the Gurage Etymological Dictionary" [Review article of Wolf Leslau (1979)], in:Annali, Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli 47 (1987), pp. 75–98. [=Studies in Semitic Linguistics, pp. 439–462].
• Gideon Goldenberg, "Two points of Kəstane grammar", in: Grover Hudson (ed.),Essays on Gurage language and culture : dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his 90th birthday, November 14, 1996, Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden 1996 (ISBN 3-447-03830-6), pp. 93–99.
• Wolf Leslau,Ethiopians speak : Studies in cultural background, III. Soddo. Near Eastern Studies, 11. Berkeley: University of California Press 1968.
• Wolf Leslau,Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic). 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1979.ISBN 3-447-02041-5.
• Wolf Leslau,Gurage Studies: Collected Articles, Otto Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden 1992.ISBN 3-447-03189-1
• Johannes Mayer,Kurze Wörtersammlung in Englisch, Deutsch, Amharisch, Gallansich, Guraguesch, herausgegeben von Dr. L. Krapf. Basel: Pilgermissions-Buchdruckerei St. Grischona 1878.
• Franz Praetorius, "Ueber den Dialekt von Gurāguē", in:Die amharische Sprache, Halle 1879, pp. 507–523 (second appendix).
• Robert Hetzron,"Main Verb-Markers in Northern Gurage", in:Africa XXXVIII (1968), pp. 156–172.
• yä-Kəstane Gurage əmmät (həzb) tarik. Addis Ababa 1986 (Ethiopian calendar).

• Christian recordings in Soddo inGlobal Recordings website.
• World Atlas of Language Structures information onSoddo

• Languages of Ethiopia
• Outer Ethiopian Semitic languages

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