Time in Ethiopia:

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Afaan Oromo/Chapter 02 - Word Order

Unknown | Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Greeting Conversation
About this sound Play all
Girma: Tariku, akkam bulte? About this sound play
Tariku: Akkam bulte? Fayyaa dha? About this sound play
Girma: Fayyaa, galata Waaqaa. Akkam jirta? About this sound play
Tariku: Nagaa, galata Waaqaa. Eessa deemta? About this sound play
Girma: Amma gara mana barumsaan deema. About this sound play
Tariku: Har'a galgala maal goota? About this sound play
Girma: Edana qo'achuun qaba. About this sound play
Tariku: Tole. Wal agarra. About this sound play

Basic Sentence Structure
Afaan Oromo follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) format. But because it is a declined language (nouns change depending on their role in the sentence), word order can be flexible, though verbs always come after their subjects and objects. Typically, indirect objects follow direct objects. Oromo has both prepositions and postpositions, though postpositions are more common.
Examples:
“I threw the ball to you” → “I ball to you threw” → “Ani kubbaa siif nan ha'e
“She came from America” → “She America from came” → “Isheen Ameerikaa irraa dhufte

Modifiers
Adjectives come after the nouns they modify. Adverbs that modify adjectives go before the adjective. Adverbs that modify verbs, adverbial clauses, and relative clauses tend to go at the begging of the sentence before the subject.
Examples:
“your blue pen is in my room” → “pen blue your room my in is” → “biirii dooqee kee kutaa koo keessa jira
“I don't know where it is” → “Where that it is I don't know” → “Eessa akka ta'e ani hin beeku
“How far is the post office” → “How post office is far?” → “Hagam manni postaa fagaata?
“What are you doing tonight?” → “Tonight what will you do?” → “Edana maal gotta?


Chapter Vocabulary
Akkam bulte?” / “Akkam bultani?”
“Good morning” [lit. “How did you spend the night?”]
Fayyaa dha?”
“Are you well?”
Galata Waaqa
“Thank God”
nagaa
fine
Akkam jirta?” / “Akkam jirtu?”
“How are you?”
Eessa deemta?”
“Where are you going?”
amma
now
godhuu
to do, make
Maal goota?”
“What are you doing?”
hojii
work
hojjachuu
to work
Maal hojjatta?”
“What are you working on?”
gara
to, toward
mana barumsaa
school
har'a
today
har'a galgala, edana
tonight
qo'achuu
to study
Qo'achuun qaba
“I have to study”
hojii manaa
homework
Wal agarra
“See you”

 Source: Wikibooks


No comments: