Afar language

From Free net encyclopedia

{{language |name=Afar |nativename=Afaraf |familycolor=Afro-Asiatic |region=Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti |speakers=1.4-1.5 million |fam2=Cushitic |fam3=East Cushitic |fam4=Lowland East Cushitic |fam5=Saho-Afar |iso1=aa|iso2=aar|iso3=aar}}

Afar is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. It is believed to have 1.5 million speakers, the Afari. The basic word order in Afar, like in other East Cushitic languages, is Subject Object Verb. Its speakers have a literacy rate of between one and three per cent. Its closest relative is the Saho language.

1 Language sample
2 See also
3 Bibliography
4 External links

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Language sample

Addunya takkeemik dumal elle, Qangara deqsittam ten. A Qangara Yalla lih ten, a Qangara kee Yalla inkiimiiy inki Yalla. Ta Qangara dumal elle akah sugte'nnah Yalla lih tan. Valli ta Qangarat kullim gineeh, ginnimteemik a Qangara maleh ginnimtem matan. Ta Qangara waar raceenak teneeh, ta waar sahdah ifu yekke. Ta ifi dite ifsaah, dite kaa mabayissa. Valli farmoyta ruubeeh, woo num Yucanna deqsitak yen. Usuk isih woo ifuk manannay, sahda usuk baahe farmo akah taamine'nnah, ta ifih xaagu keenih warisuh yemeete.

The rough English translation of this text is:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear withness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

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Bibliography

Bliese, Loren F. (1976) 'Afar', in Bender, Lionel M. (ed.) The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. Michigan: African Studies Center, Michigan State University, 133–164.
Bliese, Loren F. (1981) A generative grammar of Afar (Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics vol. 65). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics / Arlington, Texas: University of Texas at Arlington.
Colby, J.G. (1970) 'Notes on the northern dialect of the 'Afar language', Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 8, 1, 1–8.
Morin, Didier (1997) Poésie traditionnelle des Afars (Langues et cultures africaines, 21 / SELAF vol. 363). Paris/Louvain: Peeters.
Voigt, Rainer M. (1975) 'Bibliographie des Saho-Afar', Africana Marburgensia, vol. 8, 53–63.

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