Different Marking, Same System: Similarities in the Copular Constructions of Oromo, Geez and Amharic

Abstract

In Oromo, copular constructions appear only as a juxtaposition of the subject and the predicate, or they show up with -ɗa (in predicative and equative clauses) and –ti (in possessive and locative clauses). The presence/absence of –ɗa and –ti depends on the length of final vowel of the predicate: they appear when final vowel is long, and disappear when the predicate ends in short vowels/consonants. In Geez, pronouns and prepositional copulas are used. The distribution of the pronoun and prepositional copulas is similar to that of Oromo in that the former are used in predicative/equative clauses while the latter in locative/possessive clauses. The use of the copulas in Geez is also optional like in Oromo. In Amharic, similarly, the copulas näw and allä are used in predicational/equative and locative/possessive clauses. However, in Amharic, the copular elements are not optional. Rather, there is nominative vs. accusative case alternation in the predicate/identity clauses. In this paper, I argue that the optional use of copular elements in Oromo and Geez as well as the case alternation in Amharic are exhibitions of a similar system: distinguishing between more permanent and less permanent/temporary predications, which could be a retained property from their Afroasiatic origin. This has wider implication that case alternation and variation in copular elements could be various strategies employed by languages for same purpose. Yet more extensive research on languages from different families is required.

Key words: [copula, predicate, stage level and individual level predicates]