With more than 41.7 million speakers[13] making up 33.8% of the totalEthiopian population,[14] Oromo has the largest number of native speakers in Ethiopia, and ranks as the second most widely spoken language in Ethiopia by total number of speakers (including second-language speakers) followingAmharic.[15] Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by an additional half-million people in parts of northern and easternKenya.[16] It is also spoken by smaller numbers of emigrants in other African countries such asSouth Africa,Libya,Egypt andSudan. Oromo is the most widely spokenCushitic language and among the fivelanguages of Africa with the largest mother-tongue populations.[17]
Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of Ethiopia[4] and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system includingOromia,[14]Harari Region andDire Dawa and Oromia in theAmhara Region. It is a language of primary education in Oromia, Harari, Dire Dawa,Benishangul-Gumuz Region, andAddis Ababa. It is used as an internet language for federal websites along withTigrinya.[18][19] UnderHaile Selassie's government, Oromo wasde facto banned in education, in conversation, and in administrative matters.[20][21][22]
About 85 percent of Oromo speakers live inEthiopia, mainly in theOromia Region. In addition, inSomalia there are also some speakers of the language.[25] InKenya, the Ethnologue also lists 627,000 speakers ofBorana andOrma, two languages closely related to Ethiopian Oromo.[26] Within Ethiopia, Oromo is the language with the largest number of native speakers.
Within Africa, Oromo is the language with the fourth most speakers, after Arabic (if one counts the mutually unintelligible spoken forms of Arabic as a single language, and assumes the same for the varieties of Oromo),Swahili, andHausa.
Besides first language speakers, a number of members of other ethnicities who are in contact with the Oromo speak it as a second language. See, for example, theOmotic-speakingBambassi and theNilo-Saharan-speakingKwama in northwestern Oromia.[27]
The Oromo people use a highly developed oral tradition. In the 19th century, scholars began writing in the Oromo language usingLatin script. In 1842,Johann Ludwig Krapf began translations of theGospels of John and Matthew into Oromo, as well as a first grammar and vocabulary. The first Oromo dictionary and grammar was produced by German scholar Karl Tutschek in 1844.[28] The first printing of a transliteration of Oromo language was in 1846 in a German newspaper in an article on the Oromo in Germany.[29]
AfterAbyssinia's southward expansion underMenelik II, the language's development into a full-fledged writing instrument was interrupted. The few works that had been published, most notablyOnesimos Nesib's andAster Ganno's translations of theBible from the late 19th century, were written in theGe'ez alphabet. Following the1974 Revolution, the government undertook a literacy campaign in several languages, including Oromo, and publishing and radio broadcasts began in the language. All Oromo materials printed in Ethiopia at that time, such as the newspaperBariisaa,Urjii and many others, were written in the traditional Ethiopic script.[citation needed]
Plans to introduce Oromo language instruction in schools, however, were not realized until the government ofMengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown in 1991, except in regions controlled by theOromo Liberation Front (OLF). With the creation of the regionalstate of Oromia under the new system ofethnic federalism in Ethiopia, it became possible to introduce Oromo as themedium of instruction in elementary schools throughout the region, including areas where other ethnic groups live speaking their languages, and as a language of administration within the region. Ever since the OLF left the transitional Ethiopian government in the early 1990s, theOromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO) continued furthering the development of the Oromo community in Ethiopia.[citation needed]
Radio broadcasts were begun in the Oromo language in Somalia in 1960 byRadio Mogadishu.[30] The programme featured music and propaganda. A songBilisummaan Aannaani (Liberation is Milk) became a hit in Ethiopia. To combat wide-reaching Somali influence, the Ethiopian government initiated an Oromo language radio programme of their own.[31]
WithinKenya, there has been radio broadcasting in Oromo (in the Borana dialect) on theVoice of Kenya since at least the 1980s.[32] The Borana Bible in Kenya was printed in 1995 using the Latin alphabet, but not using the same spelling rules as in Ethiopian Qubee. The first comprehensive online Oromo dictionary was developed by the Jimma Times Oromiffa Group (JTOG) in cooperation with SelamSoft.[33]
TheVoice of America broadcasts in Oromo alongside its otherHorn of Africa programmes. In May 2022,Google Translate added Afaan Oromo as translation. Oromo and Qubee are currently utilized by the Ethiopian government's state radios, TV stations and regional government newspaper.
The Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo Script, extracted from Sheikh Bakri Sapalo's manuscripts.
Oromo is written with aLatin alphabet calledQubee which was formally adopted in 1991.[34] Various versions of the Latin-based orthography had been used previously, mostly by Oromos outside of Ethiopia and by the OLF by the late 1970s (Heine 1986).[35] With the adoption of Qubee, it is believed more texts were written in the Oromo language between 1991 and 1997 than in the previous 100 years. In Kenya, theBorana andWaata also use Roman letters but with different systems.
The Sapalo script was an indigenous Oromo script invented by SheikhBakri Sapalo (1895–1980; also known by his birth name, Abubaker Usman Odaa) in the late 1950s, and used underground afterwards. Despite structural and organizational influences fromGe'ez and theArabic script, it is a graphically independent creation designed specifically for Oromo phonology. It is largely anAbugida in nature, but lacks the inherent vowel present in many such systems; in actual use, all consonant characters are obligatorily marked either with vowel signs (producing CV syllables) or with separate marks used to denote geminated consonants or pure/standalone consonants not followed by a vowel (e.g. in word-final environments or as part of consonant clusters).[36][37]
TheArabic script has also been used intermittently in areas with Muslim populations.
Like most other Ethiopian languages, whether Semitic, Cushitic, or Omotic, Oromo has a set ofejective consonants, that is, voiceless stops or affricates that are accompanied byglottalization and an explosive burst of air. Oromo has another glottalized phone that is more unusual, animplosive retroflex stop, "dh" in Oromo orthography, a sound that is like an English "d" produced with the tongue curled back slightly and with the air drawn in so that a glottal stop is heard before the following vowel begins. It is retroflex in most dialects, though it is not strongly implosive and may reduce to a flap between vowels.[38] One source describes it as voiceless[ᶑ̥].[39]
Oromo has the typical Eastern Cushitic set of five short and five long vowels, indicated in the orthography by doubling the five vowel letters. The difference in length is contrastive, for example,hara 'lake',haaraa 'new'.Gemination is also significant in Oromo. That is,consonant length can distinguish words from one another, for example,badaa 'bad',baddaa 'highland'.
In the Qubee alphabet, letters include the digraphs[40]ch, dh, ny, ph, sh. Gemination is not obligatorily marked for digraphs, though some writers indicate it by doubling the first element:qopphaa'uu 'be prepared'. In the charts below, theInternational Phonetic Alphabet symbol for a phoneme is shown in brackets where it differs from the Oromo letter. The phonemes/pvz/ appear in parentheses because they are only found in recently adopted words. There have been minor changes in the orthography since it was first adopted:⟨x⟩ ([tʼ]) was originally rendered⟨th⟩, and there has been some confusion among authors in the use of⟨c⟩ and⟨ch⟩ in representing the phonemes/tʃʼ/ and/tʃ/, with some early works using⟨c⟩ for/tʃ/ and⟨ch⟩ for/tʃʼ/ and even⟨c⟩ for different phonemes depending on where it appears in a word. This article uses⟨c⟩ consistently for/tʃʼ/ and⟨ch⟩ for/tʃ/.
Only the penultimate or final syllable of a root can have a high tone, and if the penultimate is high, the final must also be high;[41] this implies that Oromo has a pitch-accent system (in which the tone need be specified only on one syllable, the others being predictable) rather than a tone system (in which each syllable must have its tone specified),[42] although the rules are complex (each morpheme can contribute its own tone pattern to the word), so that "one can call Oromo a pitch-accent system in terms of the basic lexical representation of pitch, and a tone system in terms of its surface realization."[43] The stressed syllable is perceived as the first syllable of a word with high pitch.[44]
Similar to most otherAfroasiatic languages, Oromo has twogrammatical genders,masculine and feminine, and all nouns belong to either one or the other.Grammatical gender in Oromo enters into the grammar in the following ways:
Verbs (except for the copulabe) agree with their subjects in gender when the subject is third person singular (he orshe).
Third person singularpersonal pronouns (he,she,it, etc., in English) have the gender of the noun they refer to.
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender.
Some possessive adjectives ("my", "your") agree with the nouns they modify in some dialects.
Except in somesouthern dialects, there is nothing in the form of most nouns that indicates their gender. A small number of nouns pairs for people, however, end in-eessa (m.) and-eettii (f.), as do adjectives when they are used as nouns:obboleessa 'brother',obboleettii 'sister',dureessa 'the rich one (m.)',hiyyeettii 'the poor one (f.)'. Grammatical gender normally agrees with natural gender for people and animals; thus nouns such asAbbaa 'father',Ilma 'son', andsangaa 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such ashaadha 'mother' andintala 'girl, daughter' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender.
Names of astronomical bodies are feminine:aduu 'sun',urjii 'star'. The gender of other inanimate nouns varies somewhat among dialects.
Oromo displays singular and pluralnumber, but nouns that refer to multiple entities are not obligatorily plural:nama 'man'namoota 'people',nama shan 'five men'namoota shan 'five people'. Another way of looking at this is to treat the "singular" form as unspecified for number.
When it is important to make the plurality of a referent clear, the plural form of a noun is used. Noun plurals are formed through the addition ofsuffixes. The most common plural suffix is-oota; a final vowel is dropped before the suffix, and in the western dialects, the suffix becomes-ota following asyllable with a long vowel:mana 'house',manoota 'houses',hiriyaa 'friend',hiriyoota 'friends',barsiisaa 'teacher',barsiiso(o)ta 'teachers'. Among the other common plural suffixes are-(w)wan,-een, and-(a)an; the latter two may cause a preceding consonant to be doubled:waggaa 'year',waggaawwan 'years',laga 'river',laggeen 'rivers',ilma 'son',ilmaan 'sons'.
Oromo has no indefinitearticles (corresponding to Englisha,some), but (except in the southern dialects) it indicatesdefiniteness (Englishthe) with suffixes on the noun:-(t)icha for masculine nouns (thech isgeminated though this is not normally indicated in writing) and-(t)ittii for feminine nouns. Vowel endings of nouns are dropped before these suffixes:karaa 'road',karicha 'the road',nama 'man',namicha/namticha 'the man',haroo 'lake',harittii 'the lake'. For animate nouns that can take either gender, the definite suffix may indicate the intended gender:qaalluu 'priest',qaallicha 'the priest (m.)',qallittii 'the priest (f.)'. The definite suffixes appear to be used less often thanthe in English, and they seem not to co-occur with the plural suffixes.
Oromo nouns appear in sevengrammatical cases, each indicated by a suffix, the lengthening of the noun's final vowel, or both. For some of the cases, there is a range of forms possible, some covering more than one case, and the differences in meaning among these alternatives may be quite subtle.
The absolutive case is thecitation form or base form that is used when the noun is the object of a verb, the object of a preposition or postposition, or anominal predicative.
mana 'house',mana binne 'we bought a house'
hamma 'until',dhuma 'end',hamma dhumaatti 'until (the) end'
The nominative is used for nouns that are thesubjects of clauses.
Ibsaa (a name),Ibsaan 'Ibsaa (nom.)',konkolaataa '(a) car',qaba 'he has':
Ibsaan konkolaataa qaba 'Ibsaa has a car'.
Most nouns ending in short vowels with a preceding single consonant drop the final vowel and add-ni to form the nominative. Following certain consonants,assimilation changes either then or that consonant (the details depend on the dialect).
nama 'man',namni 'man (nom.)'
namoota 'men';namootni,namoonni 'men (nom.)' (t +n may assimilate tonn)
If a final short vowel is preceded by two consonants or a geminated consonant,-i is suffixed.
ibsa 'statement',ibsi 'statement (nom.)'
namicha 'the man',namichi 'the man (nom.)' (thech in the definite suffix-icha is actually geminated, though not normally written as such)
If the noun ends in a long vowel,-n is suffixed to this. This pattern applies to infinitives, which end in-uu.
The genitive is used for possession or "belonging"; it corresponds roughly to Englishof or-'s. The genitive is usually formed by lengthening a final short vowel, by adding-ii to a final consonant, and by leaving a final long vowel unchanged. The possessor noun follows the possessed noun in a genitive phrase. Many such phrases with specific technical meanings have been added to the Oromo lexicon in recent years.
obboleetti 'sister',namicha 'the man',obboleetti namichaa 'the man's sister'
The dative is used for nouns that represent the recipient (to) or the benefactor (for) of an event. The dative form of a verbinfinitive (which acts like a noun in Oromo) indicates purpose. The dative takes one of the following forms:
Lengthening of a final short vowel (ambiguously also signifying the genitive)
namicha 'the man',namichaa 'to the man, of the man'
-f following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel;-iif following a consonant
intala 'girl, daughter',intalaaf 'to a girl, daughter'
saree 'dog',sareef 'to a dog'
baruu 'to learn',baruuf 'in order to learn'
bishaan 'water',bishaaniif 'for water'
-dhaa or-dhaaf following a long vowel
saree 'dog';sareedhaa, sareedhaaf 'to a dog'
-tti (with no change to a preceding vowel), especially with verbs of speaking
Caaltuu woman's name,himi 'tell, say (imperative)',Caaltuutti himi 'tell Caaltuu'
The instrumental is used for nouns that represent the instrument ("with"), the means ("by"), the agent ("by"), the reason, or the time of an event. The formation of the instrumental parallels that of the dative to some extent:
-n following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel;-iin following a consonant
harka 'hand',harkaan 'by hand, with a hand'
halkan 'night',halkaniin 'at night'
-tiin following a long vowel or a lengthened short vowel
The locative is used for nouns that represent general locations of events or states, roughlyat. For more specific locations, Oromo uses prepositions or postpositions. Postpositions may also take the locative suffix. The locative also seems to overlap somewhat with the instrumental, sometimes having a temporal function. The locative is formed with the suffix-tti.
The ablative is used to represent the source of an event; it corresponds closely to Englishfrom. The ablative, applied to postpositions and locative adverbs as well as nouns proper, is formed in the following ways:
When the word ends in a short vowel, this vowel is lengthened (as for the genitive).
biyya 'country',biyyaa 'from country'
keessa 'inside, in',keessaa 'from inside'
When the word ends in a long vowel,-dhaa is added (as for one alternative for the dative).
Finfinneedhaa 'from Finfinne'
gabaa 'market',gabaadhaa 'from market'
When the word ends in a consonant,-ii is added (as for the genitive).
Hararii 'from Harar'
Following a noun in the genitive,-tii is added.
mana 'house',buna 'coffee',mana bunaa 'cafe',mana bunaatii 'from cafe'
An alternative to the ablative is the postpositionirraa 'from' whose initial vowel may be dropped in the process:
In most languages, there is a small number of basic distinctions ofperson,number, and oftengender that play a role within the grammar of the language. Oromo and English are such languages. We see these distinctions within the basic set of independent personal pronouns, for example, EnglishI, Oromoani; Englishthey, Oromo 'isaani' and the set ofpossessive adjectives andpronouns, for example, Englishmy, Oromokoo; Englishmine, Oromokan koo. In Oromo, the same distinctions are also reflected in subject–verb agreement: Oromo verbs (with a few exceptions)agree with theirsubjects; that is, the person, number, and (singular third person) gender of the subject of the verb are marked bysuffixes on the verb. Because these suffixes vary greatly with the particular verbtense/aspect/mood, they are normally not considered to be pronouns and are discussed elsewhere in this article under verbconjugation.
In all of these areas of the grammar—independent pronouns, possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns, and subject–verb agreement—Oromo distinguishes seven combinations of person, number, and gender. For first and second persons, there is a two-way distinction between singular ('I', 'you sg.') and plural ('we', 'you pl.'), whereas for third person, there is a two-way distinction in the singular ('he', 'she') and a single form for the plural ('they'). Because Oromo has only two genders, there is no pronoun corresponding to Englishit; the masculine or feminine pronoun is used according to the gender of the noun referred to.
Oromo is a subjectpro-drop language. That is, neutral sentences in which the subject is not emphasized do not require independent subject pronouns:kaleessa dhufne 'we came yesterday'.The Oromo word that translates 'we' does not appear in this sentence, though the person and number are marked on the verbdhufne ('we came') by the suffix-ne. When the subject in such sentences needs to be given prominence for some reason, an independent pronoun can be used: 'nuti kaleessa dhufne' 'we came yesterday'.
The table below gives forms of the personal pronouns in the different cases, as well as the possessive adjectives. For the first person plural and third person singular feminine categories, there is considerable variation across dialects; only some of the possibilities are shown.
The possessive adjectives, treated as separate words here, are sometimes written as noun suffixes. In most dialects there is a distinction between masculine and feminine possessive adjectives for first and second person (the form agreeing with the gender of the modified noun). However, in the western dialects, the masculine forms (those beginning withk-) are used in all cases. Possessive adjectives may take the case endings for the nouns they modify:ganda kootti 'to my village' (-tti: locative case).
Oromo personal pronouns
English
Base
Subject
Dative
Instrumental
Locative
Ablative
Possessive adjectives
I
ana,na
ani,an
naa,naaf,natti
naan
natti
narraa
koo,kiyya [too,tiyya (f.)]
you (sg.)
si
ati
sii,siif,sitti
siin
sitti
sirraa
kee [tee (f.)]
he
isa
inni
isaa,isaa(tii)f,isatti
isaatiin
isatti
isarraa
(i)saa
she
isii,ishii,isee,ishee
isiin, etc.
ishii,ishiif,ishiitti, etc.
ishiin, etc.
ishiitti, etc.
ishiirraa, etc.
(i)sii,(i)shii
we
nu
nuti,nu'i,nuy,nu
nuu,nuuf,nutti
nuun
nutti
nurraa
keenna,keenya [teenna,teenya (f.)]
you (pl.)
isin
isini
isinii, isiniif, isinitti
isiniin
isinitti
isinirraa
keessan(i) [teessan(i) (f.)]
they
isaan
isaani
isaanii,isaaniif,isaanitti
isaaniitiin
isaanitti
isaanirraa
(i)saani
As in languages such asFrench,Russian, andTurkish, the Oromo second person plural is also used as a polite singular form, for reference to people that the speaker wishes to show respect towards. This usage is an example of the so-calledT-V distinction that is made in many languages. In addition, the third person plural may be used for polite reference to a single third person (either 'he' or 'she').
For possessive pronouns ('mine', 'yours', etc.), Oromo adds the possessive adjectives tokan 'of':kan koo 'mine',kan kee 'yours', etc.
Oromo has two ways of expressingreflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself', etc.). One is to use the noun meaning 'self':of(i) orif(i). This noun is inflected for case but, unless it is being emphasized, not for person, number, or gender:isheen of laalti 'she looks at herself' (base form ofof),isheen ofiif makiinaa bitte 'she bought herself a car' (dative ofof).
The other possibility is to use the noun meaning 'head',mataa, with possessive suffixes:mataa koo 'myself',mataa kee 'yourself (s.)', etc.
Oromo has areciprocal pronounwal (English 'each other') that is used likeof/if. That is, it is inflected for case but not person, number, or gender:wal jaalatu 'they like each other' (base form ofwal),kennaa walii bitan 'they bought each other gifts' (dative ofwal).
Like English, Oromo makes a two-way distinction between proximal ('this, these') and distal ('that, those')demonstrative pronouns and adjectives. Some dialects distinguish masculine and feminine for the proximal pronouns; in the western dialects the masculine forms (beginning withk-) are used for both genders. Unlike in English, singular and plural demonstratives are not distinguished, but, as for nouns and personal pronouns in the language, case is distinguished. Only the base and nominative forms are shown in the table below; the other cases are formed from the base form as for nouns, for example,sanatti 'at/on/in that' (locative case).
An Oromo verb consists minimally of astem, representing thelexical meaning of the verb, and asuffix, representingtense oraspect andsubject agreement. For example, indhufne 'we came',dhuf- is the stem ('come') and-ne indicates that the tense is past and that the subject of the verb is first person plural.
As in many otherAfroasiatic languages, Oromo makes a basic two-way distinction in its verb system between the two tensed forms, past (or "perfect") and present (or "imperfect" or "non-past"). Each of these has its own set of tense/agreement suffixes. There is a third conjugation based on the present which has three functions: it is used in place of the present insubordinate clauses, for thejussive ('let me/us/him, etc. V', together with the particlehaa), and for thenegative of the present (together with the particlehin). For example,deemne 'we went',deemna 'we go',akka deemnu 'that we go',haa deemnu 'let's go',hin deemnu 'we don't go'. There is also a separateimperative form:deemi 'go (sg.)!'.
The table below shows the conjugation in the affirmative and negative of the verbbeek- 'know'. The first person singular present and past affirmative forms require the suffix-n to appear on the word preceding the verb or the wordnan before the verb. The negative particlehin, shown as a separate word in the table, is sometimes written as a prefix on the verb.
Oromo verb conjugation
Past
Present
Jussive, Imperative
Main clause
Subordinate clause
Affirmative
Negative
Affirmative
Negative
Affirmative
Negative
Affirmative
Negative
I
-n beeke
hin beekne
-n beeka
hin beeku
-n beeku
hin beekne
haa beeku
hin beekin
you (sg.)
beekte
beekta
hin beektu
beektu
beeki
hin beek(i)in
he
beeke
beeka
hin beeku
beeku
haa beeku
hin beekin
she
beekte
beekti
hin beektu
beektu
haa beektu
we
beekne
beekna
hin beeknu
beeknu
haa beeknu
you (pl.)
beektani
beektu, beektan(i)
hin beektan
beektani
beekaa
hin beek(i)inaa
they
beekani
beeku, beekan(i)
hin beekan
beekani
haa beekanu
hin beekin
For verbs with stems ending in certain consonants and suffixes beginning with consonants (that is,t orn), there are predictable changes to one or the other of the consonants. The dialects vary a lot in the details, but the following changes are common.
Verbs whose stems end in two consonants and whose suffix begins with a consonant must insert a vowel to break up the consonants since the language does not permit sequences of three consonants. There are two ways this can happen: either the voweli is inserted between the stem and the suffix, or the final stem consonants are switched (an example ofmetathesis) and the vowela is inserted between them. For example,arg- 'see',arga 'he sees',argina oragarra (fromagar-na) 'we see';kolf- 'laugh',kolfe 'he laughed',kolfite orkofalte 'you (sg.) laughed'.
Verbs whose stems end in the consonant ' (which may appear ash,w, ory in some words, depending on the dialect) belong to three different conjugation classes; the class is not predictable from the verb stem. It is the forms that precede suffixes beginning with consonants (t andn) that differ from the usual pattern. The third person masculine singular, second person singular, and first person plural present forms are shown for an example verb in each class.
The common verbsfedh- 'want' andgodh- 'do' deviate from the basic conjugation pattern in that long vowels replace the geminated consonants that would result when suffixes beginning witht orn are added:fedha 'he wants',feeta 'you (sg.) want',feena 'we want',feetu 'you (pl.) want',hin feene 'didn't want', etc.
The verbdhuf- 'come' has the irregular imperativeskoottu,koottaa. The verbdeem- 'go' has, alongside regular imperative forms, the irregular imperativesdeemi,deemaa.
An Oromo verb root can be the basis for three derived voices, passive, causative, and autobenefactive, each formed with addition of a suffix to the root, yielding the stem that the inflectional suffixes are added to.
The Oromo passive corresponds closely to the English passive in function. It is formed by adding-am to the verb root. The resulting stem is conjugated regularly. Examples:beek- 'know',beekam- 'be known',beekamani 'they were known';jedh- 'say',jedham- 'be said',jedhama 'it is said'
The Oromo causative of a verb V corresponds to English expressions such as 'cause V', 'make V', 'let V'. With intransitive verbs, it has a transitivizing function. It is formed by adding-s,-sis, or-siis to the verb root, except that roots ending in-l add-ch. Verbs whose roots end in ' drop this consonant and may lengthen the preceding vowel before adding-s. Examples:beek- 'know',beeksis- 'cause to know, inform',beeksifne 'we informed';ka'- 'go up, get up',kaas- 'pick up',kaasi 'pick up (sing.)!';gal- 'enter',galch- 'put in',galchiti 'she puts in';bar- 'learn',barsiis- 'teach',nan barsiisa 'I teach'.
Autobenefactive voice
The Oromoautobenefactive (or "middle" or "reflexive-middle") voice of a verb V corresponds roughly to English expressions such as 'V for oneself' or 'V on one's own', though the precise meaning may be somewhat unpredictable for many verbs. It is formed by adding-adh to the verb root. The conjugation of a middle verb is irregular in the third person singular masculine of the present and past (-dh in the stem changes to-t) and in the singular imperative (the suffix is-u rather than-i). Examples:bit- 'buy',bitadh- 'buy for oneself',bitate 'he bought (something) for himself',bitadhu 'buy for yourself (sing.)!';qab- 'have',qabadh- 'seize, hold (for oneself)',qabanna 'we hold'. Some autobenefactives are derived from nouns rather than verbs, for example,hojjadh- 'work' from the nounhojii 'work'.
The voice suffixes can be combined in various ways. Two causative suffixes are possible:ka'- 'go up',kaas- 'pick up',kaasis- 'cause to pick up'. The causative may be followed by the passive or the autobenefactive; in this case thes of the causative is replaced byf:deebi'- 'return (intransitive)',deebis- 'return (transitive), answer',deebifam- 'be returned, be answered',deebifadh- 'get back for oneself'.
Another derived verbalaspect is thefrequentative or "intensive," formed by copying the first consonant and vowel of the verb root and geminating the second occurrence of the initial consonant. The resulting stem indicates the repetition or intensive performance of the action of the verb. Examples:bul- 'spend the night',bubbul- 'spend several nights',cab- 'break',caccab- 'break to pieces, break completely';dhiib- 'push, apply pressure',dhiddhiib- 'massage'.
The infinitive is formed from a verb stem with the addition of the suffix-uu. Verbs whose stems end in-dh (in particular all autobenefactive verbs) change this toch before the suffix. Examples:dhug- 'drink',dhuguu 'to drink';ga'- 'reach',ga'uu 'to reach';jedh- 'say',jechu 'to say'. The verbfedh- is exceptional; its infinitive isfedhuu rather than the expectedfechuu. The infinitive behaves like a noun; that is, it can take any of the case suffixes. Examples:ga'uu 'to reach',ga'uuf 'in order to reach' (dative case);dhug- 'drink',dhugam- 'be drunk',dhugamuu to be drunk',dhugamuudhaan 'by being drunk' (instrumental case).
^Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2024)."Oromo".Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty Seventh ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved22 February 2024.
^Hodson, Arnold W.; Walker, Craven H. (July 1924). "Grammar of the Galla or Oromo Language".African Affairs (Review).XXIII (XCII):328–329.doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a100016.
^Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D."Oromo, West-Central [gaz]".Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-fifth edition. Dallas: SIL International. Retrieved12 October 2022.
^Bulcha, Merkuria (1997). "The Politics of Linguistic Homogenization in Ethiopia and the Conflict over the Status of Afaan Oromoo".African Affairs.96 (384):325–352.doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007852.JSTOR723182.
^Blair, Thomas Lucien Vincent (1965).Africa: A Market Profile. New York: Praeger. p. 126.
^Lata, Leenco (1999).The Ethiopian State at the Crossroads: Decolonization and Democratization or Disintegration?. Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press. pp. 174–176.Leenco Lata,The Ethiopian State at the Crossroads p.
^Stroomer, p. 4 harvp error: no target: CITEREFStroomer (help)
^Hayward, R. J.; Hassan, Mohammed (1981). "The Oromo Orthography of Shaykh Bakri Saṗalō".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.44 (3):550–566.doi:10.1017/S0041977X00144209.JSTOR616613.S2CID162289324.
Bramly, A. Jennings (1909).English-Oromo-Amharic Vocabulary. Typescript in Khartoum University Library.
Foot, Edwin C. (1968) [1913].An Oromo-English, English-Oromo Dictionary. Cambridge University Press (repr. Farnborough, Gregg).ISBN0-576-11622-X.
Gragg, Gene B. et al. (ed., 1982)Oromo Dictionary. Monograph (Michigan State University. Committee on Northeast African Studies) no. 12. East Lansing, Mich. : African Studies Center, Michigan State Univ.
