Anthropos: Anthropos, 79.1984

Anthropos, 79.1984

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Titel:: Anthropos

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Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

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Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Persistenter Identifier:: 1512370864325

Titel:: Anthropos, 79.1984

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1984

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Titel:: Bd. 79, 1984, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Titel:: Language, Geography, and History: The Case of Ethiopian Semitic

Sonstige Person:: Fellman, Jack

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

256 Berichte und Kommentare Anthropos 79.1984 Language, Geography, and History: The Case of Ethiopian Semitic Jack Fellman A glance at a linguistic map of Semitic Ethiopia reveals an interesting picture. A generally continuous bloc of three Semitic languages runs from Eritrea through the north, central, and southern Ethiopian highlands to the capital Addis Ababa, and includes, from north to south, Tigré, Tigrinya, and Amharic. Further, at each extremity of the Amharic bloc, one finds a relic Semitic language: in the west, Gafat near Debre Markos, recently extinct; and in the east, Argobba, spoken in the general vicinity of Ankober, and clearly obsolescent. Moreover, outside the Amharic bloc, one further finds tiny Semitic islands floating in a vast Cushitic sea of languages: to the east, some 350 miles from Addis Ababa, Harari, spoken only within the walled city of Harar, and clearly obsolescent; just outside of Harar, another patch of the above-mentioned Argobba, recently extinct; and 100 miles southwest of Addis Ababa, in a small region bounded by Lake Zway and the Omo and Awash Rivers, a cluster of some twelve Ethiopian Semitic tongues, plus their dialects and subdialects, usually divided in the literature into three mutually unintelligible groups, Northern, Eastern, and Western Gurage. The historical reasons for this rather strange positioning, patterning, and clustering of languages are not known. Indeed, the history of the Ethiopian Semitic group is shrouded in obscurity, their documentation begin ning only in the modern period. In this, Ethiopia and her languages are not different from other African countries and their tongues. Further, the linguistic relations among the Ethiopian Semitic tongues are also somewhat puzzling. While, taken as a group, they show many family resemblan ces and form a generally homogeneous, compact, and clearly delimited branch of Semitic, each tongue has its own distinctive and independent identity, and - with the excep tion of Argobba, which is clearly a conservative dialect of Amharic - none of the languages are mutually comprehen sible. Tigré is closest to Tigrinya; Gafat to Northern Gurage; Harari to Eastern Gurage. The other languages are sui generis. To correlate the above geographical and linguistic data and to find a satisfactory explanation for them is the purpose of this brief paper. This will be done by postulating certain historical developments. It is hoped that our diachro nic reconstruction will help elucidate the synchronic situa tion outlined above, and that thus the ties between language, geography, and history in the Ethiopian Semitic context will become patent. It is understood in the literature that the Ethiopian Semitic group of languages is not indigenous to Ethiopia. Rather, Semitic was imported, via merchants and colonizers, into northern Ethiopia via Yemen some time in the second millennium B.C. and superimposed on a native Cushitic- speaking (especially Agaw) population. A Semitic-Cushitic symbiosis developed, with the Semitic component dominant linguistically. From this symbiosis ultimately arose Classical Ethiopie (Ge’ez), attested in writing from the beginning of the first millennium. Ge’ez was the official language of the Axumite Empire (third-eighth centuries), and as such was used and/or understood over a rather large section of the north Ethiopian plateau region and adjacent areas. As in similar circumstances elsewhere, spoken Ge’ez ultimately developed local dialect clusters. The northern ones under went Bedawye and northern Agaw influence and produced Tigré, while the southern ones underwent strong Agaw influence and produced Tigrinya. As time went on, these two tongues grew increasingly apart, as the two areas in which they are used are physically (lowland vs. highland), ecologi cally (nomadic vs. agriculturalist), and culturally-religiously (Islamic vs. Christian) different. With the decline of the Axumite Empire, especially pursuant to the rise of Islam, north Ethiopia and her languages sank in importance - although Ge’ez, having died meanwhile in speech, remained for centuries as the official and written language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Still, the thrust of Ethiopian society moved southward, to the central and southerly parts of the highland plateau. Semitic speaking colonizers, soldiers, traders, clergy, royalty, and so on moved south, and ultimately new dialect clusters were formed, again on various Cushitic (and again especially Agaw) substrata. In particular, those Semitic speakers who migrated to the southwest underwent Southern Agaw and Sidamo influence and produced the Gafat-Northern Gurage cluster; those who migrated to the southeast underwent Southern Agaw, Somali, and Galla influence and produced the Harari-Eastern Gurage cluster; those who went into the deepest south underwent Agaw, Galla, and strong Sidamo influence and produced the Western Gurage cluster; while those who stayed closest to the northern areas underwent Agaw and Sidamo influence and produced the Amharic- Argobba cluster. The last cluster was, throughout the centuries following, the dominant one, Amharic being the language of royal court and aristocracy, continually expan ding and influencing other tongues. This common Amharic superstratum coupled with the common Agaw substratum kept Ethiopian Semitic within common family lines. Everywhere the above clusters were generally continu ous in their respective areas - indeed it may well be that all of Semitic Ethiopia formed a continuous dialect area. This too could not but keep the several tongues within common linguistic limits. Of particular interest is that the Gafat- Northern Gurage and the Harari-Eastern Gurage clusters ultimately converged in the south with the Western Gurage cluster. This led to these groups becoming, at least superfi cially, more similar one to another. However, the repeated upheavals in medieval Ethiopia - and especially the sixteenth- century war against the Moslems and the subsequent Galla invasions - completely convulsed the Ethiopian plateau, and, what is of most relevance here, the above dialect continua. In particular, the Gafat-Northern Gurage and the Harari- Eastern Gurage continua were to all intents and purposes destroyed. Gafat became completely isolated from Northern Gurage, and similarly Harari from Eastern Gurage. Thus, the tongues grew increasingly apart. This, besides the disappe arance of their connecting dialect links, led to the languages’ complete mutual unintelligibility. By contrast, the now isolated Northern, Eastern, and Western Gurage cluster began growing even closer, as the three groups were now thrown together as Semitic outposts in a vast Cushitic area.

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