Afaan Oromo/Chapter 05

Chapter 5: Nouns, Part I

Talking about Family
Daawit: Maatiin kee eessa jiratu? Caalaa: Maatiin koo Amerika jiratu. Daawit: Maatiin kee maal hojjetu? Caalaa: Haatti fi abbaan koo barsiisoota dha. Daawit: Obboleettiin kee hoo? ''Caalaa: Isheen barreessituu dha. Maatiin kee eessa jiru?'' ''Daawit: Maatiin koo Adaamaa jiratu. Obboleessii kiya Finfinnee jirata lama fi obboleettii tokko hadama jirattun.'' Caalaa: Maatiin kee maal hojjetu? ''Daawit: Abbaan koo doktarii dha. Haatti koo haadha mana dha.'' Caalaa: Obboleessi fi obboleettin kee hoo? ''Daawit: Obboleessi koo angafaa abukaattoo fi obboleessi koo quxisuun maandisa dha. Obboleettiin koo barattuu fi keessummeessitu dha.'' Caalaa: Umuriin obboleettii kee meeqa? Daawit: Waggaa kudha sagal.

[For translation see here]

Gender of Nouns
Nouns in Oromo are treated as either male or female, though there are typically no gender markers in the words themselves. Gender can be shown through a demonstrative pronoun, a definite article, a gender-specific adjective, or the verb form (if the noun is a subject). The notable exceptions are those nouns derived from verbs, where the masculine noun adds an -aa suffix and the feminine noun adds a -tuu suffix to the verb root.

Examples:

For people, neutral nouns may be distinguished by dhiira for males and dubartii for females. For example, daldalaa dhiira is “businessman” and daldalaa dubartii is “businesswoman”.

Animals may be distinguished by use of korma for males and dhaltuu for females. It is important not to use korma or dhaltuu when referring to people.

Examples: farda korma &mdash stallion      farda dhaltuu &mdash; mare leenca korma &mdash lion      leenca dhaltuu &mdash; lioness

“Korma moo dhaltuu dha?” – “Is it (an animal) male or female?”

Plural Nouns
The plural forms are not used as often in Oromo as they are in English. Typically, the plural form is used to specify that one is talking about more than one object where no other indicators are given. For example, in conversation the plural is rarely used when the noun is modified by a number. One would say “muka lama” for “two trees”, keeping muka in the singular, instead of “mukkeen lama”, where mukkeen is the plural of muka. When a plural noun in modified by an adjective, only the adjective shows plurality (discussed in next chapter). In written Oromo, plural forms tend to be more common, and may occur with numbers, adjectives, and other indicators. Tilahun Gamta (2004) explains: Until the early 1970's, Afaan Oromo had remained mostly a spoken language. As such, it seems that using the plural forms had not been common because in conversation, when people talk face to face, there was no need for formality. In conversation, saying, "Maqaa ijollee isaa beektaa?" (Do you know the name of his children?) is in fact more natural than saying, "Maqaalee ijoollee isaa beektaa?" (Do you know the names of his children?). Of course, even in conversation, in some situations a speaker has to use a plural form. After returning home late at night, a head of a family who has two or more horses would not ask his son, "Farda galchiteettaa?" (Have you brought in a horse?). In this context, he has to use the plural form and say, "Fardeen galchiteettaa?" (Have you brought in the horses?). [bold added]

When the plural form is used, there are several forms it may take. Typically, the final vowel is dropped and the correct suffix attached: -oota, -toota, -lee, -een, -yyii, -wwan, -ootii, or -olii. Unfortunately, the correct suffix cannot be predicted from the noun, meaning plural forms must be learned individually. Plural forms also vary across dialects, and multiple forms may be correct for some words. The most common suffix is -oota.

Examples:

For nouns that may take either a masculine or feminine form, the feminine form is used as the stem to which the plural suffix is attached. For example, the plural of “student” is barattoota.

Many nouns have irregular plural forms (e.g., “another” is biraa while “others” is biro). For a list of some common nouns and their plurals, see the grammar appendix.

Definiteness
Where English uses “the” to indicate definiteness (a specific something of shared knowledge), Oromo drops the final vowel and uses the suffix -(t)icha for masculine nouns and -(t)ittii for feminine nouns. Making a noun definite is less common in Oromo than in English, and is used only for objects known to both the speaker and the listener. A noun can be either definite or pluralized, but not both. A definite noun is therefore ambiguous in number, and context determines if it is singular or plural. Definite nouns are not modified by demonstrative pronouns or possessive pronouns. If modified by an adjective, the definite marker is attached to the adjective (discussed in the next chapter).

Examples:

Indefiniteness is marked in English by “a(n)” or “some”, while Oromo tends to use the noun alone without modification. The word tokko (“one”) is used to indicate “a certain” something, and tokko-tokko can be used to mean “some”.

Examples: “Kitaaban barbaada” &mdash; “I want a book (any book)” “Kitaaba tokkon barbaada” &mdash; “I want a (certain) book” “Kitaaba tokko-tokkon barbaada” &mdash; “I want some books”

Nominative Case
Oromo is a declined language. That is, the form of a noun (declension) changes depending on its role (case) in the sentence. The main cases are nominative (for subjects), accusative (direct objects), genitive (“of” indirect objects), dative (“for”, “to”, “in order to” indirect objects), instrumental (“with”, “by” indirect objects), locative (“at” indirect objects), and ablative (“from” indirect objects). Nouns in Oromo are listed as direct objects (accusative case) in dictionaries.

To change a noun from the accusative (acc.) to the nominative (nom.), certain patterns are used.  Nouns in the acc. that end in a single consonant and short vowel will drop the final vowel and add -ni as a suffix. So that the dictionary form of “person (acc.)” is nama, while “person (nom.)” is namni. If the acc. form ends in a double consonant and short vowel, the vowel is replaced by -i. For example, “honey (acc.)” is damma, while “honey (nom.)” is dammi. This applies to all masculine definite nouns, where the -icha suffix in the acc. becomes -ichi in the nom. If the acc. form ends in a long vowel, -n in is suffixed to form the nom. For example, “name (acc.)” is maqaa and “name (nom.)” is maqaan. This applies to all feminine definite nouns, where the -ittii suffix in the acc. becomes -ittiin in the nom.

Femine nouns that end in a short vowel will replace the short vowel with a -ti suffix. “Mother” in the acc. is haadha and in the nom. is haatti, and “earth” is lafa (acc.) and lafti (nom.). If the dictionary form ends in a consonant, the acc. and the nom. are the same. For example “Jon eats” is simply “Jon ni nyaata”.

For multiple subjects, all are in the nominative form. “My brother and sister live in America” will then be “Obboleessi fi obboleettiin koo Amerika jiratu”.

More examples: