Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology

221 Pages·2020·1.969 MB·English

by  M. Lionel Bender, Grover Hudson (editor)

28 Schriften zur Afrikanistik
Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology contains a concise reconstruction of lexical Research in African Studies
and phonological proto-forms for various stages in the development of Cush-
itic languages, the largest branch within the Afrasian (Afro-Asiatic) phylum.
It is based methodologically on the comparative method of historical linguis- Band 28
tics, using sound correspondences as major device for the identification of
cognates. This almost-finished study was left by the author upon his untimely
death in 2008 and was typographically reworked by the editor.
M. Lionel Bender
Cushitic Lexicon
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M. Lionel Bender (1934-2008) was Professor of Linguistics in the Department e
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of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale/USA. He made
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many important contributions in the areas of Cushitic and Amharic, the Ethio- i
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pian language area in general, and especially classification and reconstruction

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of Nilo-Saharan and Omotic. M
www.peterlang.com
SZAF 28_260089_Voßen_VH_A5HC globalL.indd 1 31.10.19 17:11
Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology
Schriften zur Afrikanistik  
Research in African Studies  
Herausgegeben von Rainer Vossen und Georg Ziegelmeyer 

Band 28 

Zur Qualitätssicherung und Peer  Notes on the quality assurance 
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erscheinenden Arbeiten wird   quality of the work published  
vor der Publikation durch den  in this series is reviewed  
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M. Lionel Bender 
Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology 
Edited by Grover Hudson
Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek 
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation  
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ISSN 1436‐1183 
ISBN 978‐3‐631‐60089‐4 (Print) 
E‐ISBN 978‐3‐653‐07269‐3 (E‐PDF) 
E‐ISBN 978‐3‐631‐71312‐9 (E‐PUB) 
E‐ISBN 978‐3‐631‐71313‐6 (MOBI) 
DOI 10.3726/b16018 
© Peter Lang GmbH 
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften 
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Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................................... 9
Abbreviations ...................................................................................................... 11
1. Preliminaries .................................................................................................. 13
1.1 Afrasian and Cushitic family structure ................................................. 13
Structure of Afrasian ...................................................................... 13
Structure of Cushitic ...................................................................... 14
Cushitic sub-structure and main languages ................................ 15
1.2 Selected Cushitic comparisons: discussion ........................................... 16
Selected Cushitic comparisons ..................................................... 19
Addendum: Weakly distributed forms ........................................ 70
1.3. Revision of structure of Cushitic ............................................................ 89
Shared lexical innovations in Cushitic 120 basic items ............. 90
1.3.1. Discussion ....................................................................................... 91
Revised structure of Cushitic ........................................................ 91
Shared lexical retentions in Cushitic 120 basic items ................ 92
Shared lexical innovations and retentions
in Cushitic 120 basic items ............................................................ 93
1.3.2. Comparison with lexicostatistical results .................................... 93
1.3.3. Unique items ................................................................................... 93
2. Cushitic Phonologies .................................................................................. 95
2.1. Cushitic phonological inventories .......................................................... 95
2.1.1. Beja ................................................................................................... 95
2.1.2. Agew ................................................................................................. 96
2.1.2.1. Bilin .................................................................................. 96
2.1.2.2. Kemant ............................................................................ 97
2.1.2.3. Awngi ............................................................................... 97
2.1.2.4. Proto-Agew ..................................................................... 98
2.1.3. South Cushitic ................................................................................. 99
2.1.3.1. Iraaqw .............................................................................. 99
2.1.3.2. Proto-West Rift ............................................................... 99
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2.1.3.3. Proto-South Cushitic consonants .............................. 100
2.1.3.4. Dahalo ........................................................................... 100
2.1.4. East Cushitic .................................................................................. 101
2.1.4.1. Afar ................................................................................ 101
2.1.4.2. Saho ............................................................................... 101
2.1.4.3. *Afar-Saho .................................................................... 102
2.1.5. Dullay ............................................................................................. 102
2.1.5.1. Ts’amay .......................................................................... 102
2.1.5.2. Harso ............................................................................. 103
2.1.5.3. Gollango ........................................................................ 103
2.1.5.4. Proto-Dullay ................................................................. 104
2.1.6. Somaloid ........................................................................................ 105
2.1.6.1. Somali ............................................................................ 105
2.1.6.2. Rendillé ......................................................................... 105
2.1.6.3. Baiso .............................................................................. 106
2.1.6.4. Boni ................................................................................ 106
2.1.6.5. Proto-Somaloid ............................................................ 107
2.1.7. Arboroid ........................................................................................ 108
2.1.7.1. Arboré ............................................................................ 108
2.1.7.2. Dasenech ....................................................................... 108
2.1.7.3. Elmolo ........................................................................... 109
2.1.7.4. Yaaku ............................................................................. 110
2.1.7.5. Proto-Arboroid ............................................................ 110
2.1.8. Oromo ............................................................................................ 111
2.1.9. Konsoid .......................................................................................... 112
2.1.9.1. Konso ............................................................................. 112
2.1.9.2. Gidolé ............................................................................ 112
2.1.9.3. Bussa .............................................................................. 113
2.1.9.4. Proto-Oromo-Konsoid ................................................ 113
2.1.9.5. Proto-SAOK: Somaloid-Arboroid-Oromo-
Konsoid ......................................................................... 114
2.1.10. Highland East Cushitic ................................................................ 114
2.1.10.1. Burji ............................................................................... 114
2.1.10.2. Sidamo and Gedeo ....................................................... 115
2.1.10.3. Hadiyya and Kembaata ............................................... 115
2.1.10.4. Proto-Highland East Cushitic .................................... 116
2.1.10.5. Proto-Lowland East Cushitic ..................................... 117
2.1.11. Proto-East Cushitic ...................................................................... 117
2.1.12. Proto-Cushitic ............................................................................... 118
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2.2. Overview of Cushitic phonologies ....................................................... 118
2.3. Segmental comparisons across Cushitic languages ........................... 120
2.4. Labials in *Cushitic ................................................................................ 121
Cushitic labial correspondences .............................................................. 122
2.5. Coronal obstruents in *Cushitic ........................................................... 124
2.6. Coronal sonorants in *Cushitic ............................................................ 124
2.7. Palatal consonants in *Cushitic ............................................................ 125
2.8. Velars in *Cushitic .................................................................................. 125
2.9. Post-Velar consonants in *Cushitic ...................................................... 125
Cushitic coronal obstruent correspondences ........................................ 126
Cushitic coronal sonorant correspondences ......................................... 127
Cushitic palatal correspondences ........................................................... 129
Cushitic velar correspondences ............................................................... 130
Cushitic post-velar correspondences ...................................................... 132
2.10. Reconstructable vowels in *Cushitic .................................................... 133
Cushitic vowel correspondences ............................................................. 134
2.11. Overview of *Cushitic segments .......................................................... 138
2.11.1. Revision of phoneme inventory ................................................. 138
2.11.2. Canonical shapes in *Cushitic .................................................... 139
2.12. Difficult items .......................................................................................... 140
2.13. Labials in *East Cushitic ........................................................................ 142
2.14. Coronal obstruents in *East Cushitic .................................................. 143
East Cushitic labial correspondences ..................................................... 144
East Cushitic coronal obstruent correspondences ................................ 146
2.15. Coronal sonorants in *East Cushitic .................................................... 149
East Cushitic coronal sonorant correspondences ................................. 150
2.16. Implosives and retroflexes in *East Cushitic ....................................... 155
2.17. Palatals in *East Cushitic ....................................................................... 155
2.18. Velars and uvulars in *East Cushitic .................................................... 155
East Cushitic implosive and retroflex correspondences ...................... 156
East Cushitic palatal correspondences ................................................... 157
East Cushitic velar and uvular correspondences .................................. 157
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2.19. Post-velars in *East Cushitic ................................................................. 162
East Cushitic post-velar correspondences ............................................. 163
2.20. Reconstructable vowels in *East Cushitic ........................................... 165
East Cushitic vowel correspondences ..................................................... 166
2.21. Overview of *East Cushitic ................................................................... 176
2.22. Canonical shapes in *East Cushitic ...................................................... 177
3. The Phonological Development of Cushitic .................................. 179
3.1. Cushitic phonological correspondences .............................................. 179
Thirteen lexica illustrating Cushitic phoneme correspondences ........ 179
Proto-families phonemic correspondences: first approximation .........180
Proto-families phonemic correspondences: second approximation ........183
3.2. Proto-form wordlists .............................................................................. 185
Cushitic proto-forms ................................................................................ 187
East Cushitic proto-forms ........................................................................ 191
*SAOK proto-forms .................................................................................. 198
Fragments, symbolic and diffused forms ............................................... 198
Binarily distributed forms ........................................................................ 206
Binarily distributed forms from list of weakly distributed forms ........... 210
References ........................................................................................................... 215
8
Preface
This almost-finished study was left by Lionel Bender upon his untimely death
in February 2008. It lacked only final checking, formatting of lists and tables, and
cross-referencing. In doing this, I have perhaps made some decisions which were
not those Lionel would have made, for example concerning choice of phonetic
symbols, and the form of presentation of data.
Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology is characteristic of Lionel’s work in its interest
in lexicostatistics as evidence for genetic classification, attention to completeness
and detail of data, conservative requirements of form-meaning correspondence
in reconstruction, and presentation of criteria and methods. Data made accessible
here will be greatly appreciated and used even by those who disagree with some
of the conclusions.
In the progression of Lionel’s career, this work marks a renewed interest and fo-
cus on Cushitic linguistics, after earlier periods of work on Amharic, the Ethiopian
language area, and especially classification and reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan
and Omotic. He made important contributions in each of these areas, as undoubt-
edly with the present work.
For an obituary and a full list of Lionel’s publications, see Aethiopica 11:
223–234.
Chapter 1, ‘Preliminaries’, begins by proposing the structure of Afrasian (Af-
ro-Asiatic) according to Bender 1997 (Chadic, Egyptian, Omotic, and ‘Macro-
Cushitic’ (Berber, Semitic, Cushitic), and of Cushitic, four groups according to
a previous, preliminary, survey of basic-word comparisons: Beja, Agew, East,
and South. The core of this chapter is the list of 120 basic-word Cushitic com-
parisons, plus another list of 56 less complete comparisons which make no con-
tribution to reconstruction. Each entry includes, where these are reconstructed,
Proto-Cushitic, Proto-East Cushitic, and proto-subgroup words. Recognizable
Afroasiatic cognates beyond Cushitic are included; entries are evaluated, and
items unique to subgroups are mentioned, with discussion concerning e.g. ‘wan-
derwords’, probable sound-symbolic words, and problems.
At the end of chapter 1 the structure of Cushitic is revised, based on numbers
of shared innovations, to five groups: Beja, Agew, Dahalo, South Cushitic, and
East Cushitic consisting of Afar-Saho, Highland East, and ‘Core East’ consisting of
Dullay and the ‘SAOK’ group of Somaloid, Arboroid, and Oromo-Konsoid. There
is also a count of shared Afrasian retentions, which are of interest but unsuitable
for establishing subgroups.
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