Bambassi language

Bambassi (native name: Màwés Aasʼè^[2]) is an Omotic Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia around the towns of Bambasi and Didessa in the area east of Asosa in Benishangul-Gumuz Region.^[3] The parent language group is the East Mao group. Alternative names for the language are Bambeshi, Siggoyo, Amam, Fadiro, Northern Mao, Didessa and Kere.

Bambassi
Mawes Aasse
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	in Benishangul-Gumuz Region, east of Asosa
Native speakers	2,300 (2011)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic Mao Bambassi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	myf
Glottolog	bamb1262
ELP	Mao of Bambeshi

The most current information on the number of Bambassi speakers is not known, as the 2007 census grouped the Mao languages together, despite low lexical similarity. 33,683 mother tongue speakers of Maogna (covering Bambassi, Hozo and Seze) were listed.^[4]

Similarities

Bambassi has a 31% lexical similarity with other Omotic languages.

Phonology

Bambassi has 5 vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/. The vowels have lengthened forms, and Bambassi has contrastive vowel length.^[5]

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		g
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ		kʼ
Affricate			t͡sʼ	(t͡ʃ)
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ		h
	voiced		z
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Approximant			l	j	w
Flap			ɾ

Orthography

Vowels and tones

• a - [a]
• aa - [aː]
• e - [e]
• ee - [eː]
• i - [i]
• ii - [iː]
• o - [o]
• oo - [oː]
• u - [u]
• uu - [uː]
• á - high tone
• a - middle tone
• à - low tone

Consonants

• b - [b]
• c' - [t͡s']
• ch - [t͡ʃ]
• d - [d]
• g - [g]
• h - [h]
• k - [k]
• k' - [k']
• l - [l]
• m - [m]
• n - [n]
• ng - [ŋ]
• p - [p/f/ɸ]
• p' - [p']
• r - [ɾ]
• s - [s]
• sh - [ʃ]
• t - [t]
• t' - [t']
• w - [w]
• y - [j]
• z - [z]

^[6]

Verbs

In the Bambassi language we find three oppositions affecting the structure of verb forms, namely the infinitive and the finite verb forms, the realis and irrealis forms and final and non-final forms.

Starting with the irrealis and realis verb forms, the following table summarizes the most important aspects:

Realis	Irrealis
subject prefixes	subject suffixes
affirmative polarity	negative polarity, future tense
lots of aspectual distinctions	not many aspectual distinctions
nine aspectual categories	clear aspectual distinction only at perfect combined with future tense

^[7]

Numbers

Northern Mao number system is a 10-base-system. Numbers 11-19 are formed from parts of kú:sé "hand" and túget "foot".

1	hiʃkì	6	kja:nsè
2	numbo	7	kúlùmbo
3	te:zè	8	kute:zé
4	meʦ'e	9	kúsméʦ'é
5	k'wíssí	10	kú:sú

^[8]

11	kú:s-g-ét-iʃkì	16	kú:s-g-ét-kja:nsè
12	kú:s-g-ét-numbo	17	kú:s-g-ét-kúlùmbo
13	kú:s-g-ét-te:zè	18	kú:s-g-ét-kúre:zé
14	kú:s-g-ét-meʦ'e	19	kú:s-g-ét-kúsméʦ'è
15	kú:s-g-ét-k'wíssí	20	numbo-ku:se

10	kú:sú	60	kja:nsè-ku:se
20	numbo-ku:se	70	kúlùmbò-ku:se
30	te:zè-ku:se	80	kúre:zé-ku:se
40	meʦ'e-ku:se	90	kúsméʦ'è-ku:se
50	k'wíssí-ku:se	100	kú:s-ku:se

200 numbo-ku:s-an kú:s-án ^[9]

Notes

1. "Màwés Aasʼè". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
2. Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9.
3. Bambassi language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
4. Ethiopia 2007 Census
5. Michael, Ahland (2012). A Grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è) (Thesis). University of Oregon.
6. "Bambassi language and pronunciation". Omniglot. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
7. Ahland, Michael (2023). 42 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè), In: The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. pp. 1005–1029. ISBN 9780198728542.
8. Ahland, Michael (2023). 42 Northern Mao (Màwés Aatsʼè), In: The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages. pp. 1017–1018.
9. Ahland, Michael (2012). A grammar of Northern Mao (Màwés Aas'è). pp. 295–299.

Further reading

• Ahland, Michael. 2009. "Aspects of Northern Mao (Bambassi-Diddesa) phonology."Linguistic Discovery 7: 1-42.
• Alemayehu Dumessa. 2007. Word Formation in Diddessa Mao. Addis Ababa University, MA thesis. Web access
• Wedekind, Charlotte, Klaus Wedekind and Ralph Siebert. 2002. "Third S.L.L.E. survey on languages of the Begi/Asosa area.", SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-056