Hadiyya language explained

Hadiyya
States:Ethiopia
Region:Hadiya Zone of Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region
Ref:[1]
Date:2007 census
Familycolor:Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:Cushitic
Fam3:Highland East Cushitic
Dia1:Hadiyya
Dia2:Soro
Dia3:Leemo
Iso3:hdy
Glotto:hadi1240
Glottorefname:Hadiyya
Notice:IPA

Hadiyya (speakers call it Hadiyyisa, others sometimes call it Hadiyigna, Adiya, Adea, Adiye, Hadia, Hadiya, Hadya) is the language of the Hadiya people of Ethiopia. Over 1.2 million speakers of Hadiyya, making it one of the ten major languages in Ethiopia. It is a Highland East Cushitic language of the Afroasiatic family. Most speakers live in the Hadiya Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR).[2] The language has four recognized dialects—Leemo, Badawacho, Shashogo, and Sooro. These are mutually intelligible, with slight regional variations.

The closely related Libido language, located just to the north in the Mareko district of Gurage Zone, is very similar lexically, but has significant morphological differences. Historically oral, Hadiyya is now written using a Latin-based orthography, developed for educational and administrative use. Hadiyya has a set of complex consonant phonemes consisting of a glottal stop and a sonorant: pronounced as //ʔr/, /ʔj/, /ʔw/, /ʔl//.

In their book (English version 1999), Braukämper and Mishago compiled a reasonably sized collection of the presently vanishing art of traditional songs of Hadiyya. The lyrics adhere to the strict rule of Hadiyya traditional poetry where rhythmical rhyming occurs at the beginning of the verse.[3]

The New Testament of the Christian Bible has been translated into Hadiyya, published by the Bible Society of Ethiopia in 1993. It was originally produced using the traditional Ethiopic syllabary. A later printing used the Latin alphabet.

Phonology

Consonants

LabialDental/
Alveolar
PalatalVelarGlottal
Plosive/
Affricate
pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Fricativepronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ink/
Nasalpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ʔm/pronounced as /ʔn/
Rhoticpronounced as /ink/
Approximantpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ʔl/

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Closei iːu uː
Mide eːo oː
Opena aː

Orthography

The Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa) language alphabet [5]
Letter Name
(IPA)
Example(s)[6]
A a [a] mato (one), Waa’aa (God)
B b [ba] baxo (work), lobakata (much, many)
C c [tʃ’a] maceesee (hear me), cawoomoo (I’ll be silent)
CH ch [tʃa] manchoo (man), heechaa (life)
D d [da] daddaraanchoo (merchant), danaamoo (good, beautiful)
E e [e] neesee (us), eranee (well, good)
F f [fa] hoffanee (small), fatakimaa or fatahimaa (to release)
G g [ga] gatisima (to save, to secure), gaga (self)
H h [ha] hasee (find it), halichoo (donkey)
I i [i] iihanee (mine), hinkid (how)
J j [dʒa] joraa (bad), jagara (small residence usually next to a bigger one)
K k [ka] ka (‘you’ for male), kuk (this)
L l [la] lelee (play), laroo (cows)
M m [ma] ma’ccee (ear), maree (go)
N n [na] nafaraa (meadow in front area), neesee (us)
NY ny [ɲa] adapted for loan words such as "sanyo" (monday) of Amharic
O o [o] meenticcoo (woman or the woman), woroon (below)
P p [pa] adapted for loan words such as "politics" from English, and "police" from Amharic/English. However, monolingual Hadiya actually change the sound to [ba] in their speech
PH ph [p’a] aphisee (hit it), ccoophaaroo’o (food – minsed meat/greens in butter & spices)
Q q [k’a] qoxaraa (strong), ha’qaa (wood)
R r [ra] hurbaata (food), woro’nee (in)
S s [sa] lasagee (later), so’oo (barley)
SH sh [ʃa] shokkiissoohanee (hot, burning), bashillaa (far)
T t [ta] diinatee (money or cattle), matayanoo (being busy)
TS ts [s’a] adapted for loan words such as ‘tsom’ (fasting) of Amharic
U u [u] Uulla (earth or one’s plot/plat), hundam (all of it)
V v[va] adapted for loan words such as ‘university’ of English
W w [wa] weeraa (cedar tree), wo’oo (water)
X x [t’a] wiximaa (seeding), iix (he)
Y y [ya] iiyyimaa (carrying), malayyee (strength, force)
Z z [za] zara (race or ethnic group)
ZH zh [ʒa] adapted for loan words such as ‘gezhii’ (governor) of Amharic
’ (no allograph) [ʔa] ki’aakka’a (rising), liira’imito’oo (they rejoiced)

Numerlas - t'íga[7]

!N!Number
1máto
2lámo
3sáso
4soóro
5ʔónto
6lóho
7lamára
8sadeénto
9hónso
10tómmo
When combining numerals, in Hadiyya from the numbers 11-99, you attach the base of the decade with the unit, using a structure that translates as “[decade] + [unit]”. For example:

21: Tommá máto ("20 and 1")

35: Sómmo ʔónto ("30 and 5")

48: Soóre sadeénto ("40 and 8")

!N!Numbers
10tommoó
20tommá
30sómmo
40soóre
50ʔónta
60lóhonta
70lamárta
80sadeénta
90hónsájje
100ʃíha
After 100, the speakers of Hadiyya combine the numeral of 100 with the decades and the units of the numerals before.

142: ʃíha sóore lámo ("100 and 40 and 2")

References

Notes and References

  1. http://www.csa.gov.et/index.php?option=com_rubberdoc&view=doc&id=264&format=raw&Itemid=521 Ethiopia 2007 Census
  2. Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2018. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-first edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.
  3. Braukämper, Ulrich and Tilahun Mishago. 1999. Praise and Teasing: Narrative Songs of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia. Frankfurt: Frobenius Institute. Page 116 has a good map of Hadiyya dialects and locations.
  4. Book: Garkebo, Tadesse Sibamo . Documentation and Description of Hadiyya (A Highland East Cushitic Language of Ethiopia) . Addis Ababa University . 2014.
  5. Shimelis. Mazengia. Some Observations on Hadiyyisa Orthography . Binyam Sisay. Mendisu. Janne Bondi. Johannessen. Janne Bondi Johannessen. Oslo Studies in Language . 8 . 1, "Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Challenges and Capacity Building Efforts" . 2016 . 201–218 . 1890-9639.
  6. Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa) Language Orthography – Alphabet and Writing. Retrieved February 12, 2022, from https://hadiyajourney.com/hadiyya-hadiyyisa-language-orthography-alphabet-and-writing/
  7. Book: Garkebo, Tadesse Sibamo . Documentation and Description of Hadiyya . 2014 . Addis Ababa University . 2014 . 141-142 . english.