Spatial expressions in Gumer Gurage

Abstract

The aim of this article was to investigate spatial expressions in the Gurage variety of Gumer. The methodology used was qualitative following the structuralism approach to linguistic description. The linguistic data were obtained from six key informants selected using purposive sampling in the Gumer district. As the researcher speaks Gumer Gurage, data verification and validation were made through the introspective method. The data were transcribed phonemically and glossed following the Leipzig morpheme-by-morpheme approach, and then translated into English. It was found that Gumer expresses spatial concepts with demonstratives, lexical items, particles, and verbs. Demonstratives make a three-way distinction: proximal zɨ(h) “this”, medial hɨ(h) “that”, and distal ha(h) “that”. A different demonstrative za(h) is often used as a discourse spatial deictic. Pronominal suffixes added to the demonstratives make distinctions, which otherwise are impossible, in number and gender. The morpheme {-m-} and subject-agreement pronouns suffixed to the proximal zɨ “this” and the medial hɨ “that” express presentative. Morpheme {-k} suffixed to the demonstrative pronouns shows manner and specifies a particular place. Some spatial concepts including directions: left and right; locations: north, south, east, and west; and climatic zones, such as əgrəma “lowland” and gɨbtədɨr “semi-arid” are expressed by lexical items and particles. There are a few words expressing direction and location with semantic extensions of body parts. Spatial concepts are also expressed by dynamic motion and presentative verbs. Syntactically, it was found that vertical motion verbs tend to co-occur with other vertical motion verbs rather than combining vertical with horizontal motion verbs or vice versa.

Keywords:

• deictic
• Gurage
• locative
• particles
• movement-verb

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Spatial expressions in the Gumer Gurage can be suitable for readers and researchers from Cultural Studies as it shows how people from different cultures conceptualize the notion of space. As people communicate about entities in space and time, the topic can be relevant for communication study. It is certainly relevant for applied linguists in language teaching. Scholars from semantics and pragmatics can find it interesting as the study expresses pragmatic concepts such as deictics and semantic issues such as motion verbs, particles, etc. Scholars who work on typology will find it important to compare how people from different cultures and languages conceptualize and communicate spatial and temporal concepts.

1. Introduction

Gurage refers to the South Ethio-Semitic speaking people in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS). It also refers to their language with several varieties. Gurage has 15 language varieties that differ in intelligibility (Gutt, 1980; Menuta, 2015). The language varieties have been internally classified as North, East, and West Gurage. North Gurage consists of Kistane and Gogot also called Dobbi. East Gurage subsumes Silte, Wolane, and Zay. West Gurage includes Mesqan as a separate group, Peripheral West Gurage varieties: Inor, Endegegn, Ener, and Geto, and Central West Gurage varieties: Chaha, Ezha, Gumer, Gura, and Muher (Leslau, 1969). Silte has been administratively separated from the Gurage Zone since 2001 and has become a separate Zone. The people also claimed Silte identity and their language to be Silte language; hence, is no more Gurage language from a political perspective.

Gumer variety of Gurage is spoken in the Gumer district of the Gurage Zone. It has been considered a closely related dialect of Chaha; hence, was less studied (Völlmin, 2017, p. 1). The recent studies on the language are Menuta (2016) that discusses time in Gumer Gurage; Völlmin (2017), which provides a descriptive account of Gumer phonology and morphology; and Menuta (2023) which deals with quantity expressions in Gumer variety of Gurage. None of these previous studies deal with spatial expressions in the language, and the present study attempts to fill this research gap. The investigation will help us understand how the Gumer Gurage people conceptualize the concept of space, which varies among languages and cultures. This can add to our knowledge of the language and culture and can be used for typological comparative purposes.

The main objective of the study is to describe spatial expressions of Gumer Gurage. It specifically deals with spatial deictic, locative cases, nouns and particles showing directions, dynamic verbs of movement, and verbs of presence.

The methodology followed is descriptive structuralism. Linguistic data is collected from six key informants, three males, and three females, from Arekit and Injefo villages of the Gumer district and checked and validated introspectively, as the writer is a native speaker of Gumer. The informants and the study sites were selected purposively to represent gender and areal variation within Gumer, respectively. The data is transcribed phonemically and glossed following the Leipzig morpheme-by-morpheme glossing approach, and then transliterated into English. When a phonetic form is emphasized, the linguistic form is enclosed with square brackets [].

Spatial expressions can be related to different categories including nouns, particles, verbs, and deixis. Deixis refers to the linguistic expressions that indicate participants in a conversation, situation, context, time, and location of a speech event (Levinson, 1983, 2004; Lyons, 1977). The use of deixis requires a particular viewpoint, that is, the deictic center also called the origo (Bühler, 1934; Lyons, 1977). The origo enables someone to spatially conceptualize the speech event. It is often defined in terms of the speaker’s location during communication.

Five categories of deixis are distinguished cross-linguistically. These are personal deixis (I, you), spatial deixis (here, there, this, that), temporal deixis (now, then, today), discourse deixis (the former, the latter, that), and social deixis such as the French tu and vous, and in Gumer Gurage ahu “you (pol.m)” and ahma (you (pol.f)’. In this article, the spatial deixis, together with other spatial expressions, is the point of the discussion.

The most common spatial deictic include demonstratives (this, these, that, those) and place adverbs (here, there). Spatial expression is also associated with some motion verbs, verbs of presence, and other words that point places with a reference to the speaker-hearer.

Languages may vary as to the ranges of the distance they may distinguish. Some languages distinguish only the proximal and the distal relative to the speaker, and others make three-way distinctions: proximal, medial, and distal. Some languages can indicate space with four to five ranges of difference such as close, mid, far, very far, and invisible to the speaker. Halabissa, a Highland East Cushitic Language of Ethiopia, for instance, makes four ways distinctions which also differ in number: kani “this” and plural kuruti “these” - very close to the speaker and almost the speaker pointing onto the entity; kuni “this” and the plural kuru “these” - close to the speaker but a bit far; hikkuni “that” and the plural hikkuru “those” -far from the speaker; hikkani “that” and the plural kikkop’uru “those over there”- very far from the speaker (Gertrud, 2007; Menuta, 2012). Another work relevant to the present study is Asaye (2020) which is an abstract of the dissertation entitled “The semantics and pragmatics of Amharic spatial expressions”. The author describes spatial expressions pertinent to Gojjam variety of Amharic. The finding shows that the semantics of site (path) is shown with adpositions and “‘locatedness with the manner of positioning are encoded in verb roots’” (Asaye, 2020, p. 315). The author groups verbs of motion into five: “‘(1) verbs designating motion per se, (2) verbs of path, (3) figure-conflated verbs, (4) manner-conflated verbs, and (5) cause-conflated verbs’”, and he concludes that “‘Most Amharic verbs of motion are either path or manner conflated’” (Asaye, 2020, p. 315).

Spatial expression in Gumer Gurage is not well studied so far. However, there are a few works that one way or another address the topic. Menuta (2006) describes the pronouns of Ezha including demonstrative pronouns. Hetzron (1977) identifies a two-way distance distinction of demonstratives: proximal zə(h) and distal za(h) in Gunnän Gurage languages of which Gumer is one. Völlmin (2017, p. 213) distinguishes four demonstratives in Gumer, namely, zɨ(x) “proximal”, xɨ(x) “medial”, za(x) “distal-1” and xa “distal-2”, both referring to far from speaker-hearer. Meyer (2010) provides a description of Muher demonstratives in his article “The uses of Muher demonstratives for reference and discourse”. He identifies three-ways distance distinction in Muher: zi, hi, and zah indicating proximal, medial, and distal, respectively (Meyer, 2010, p. 165). My study conforms with Völlmin (2017) and Meyer (2010) regarding Gumer demonstratives showing three-ways distance except that Völlmin’s (2017) za(x) “distal-1” is a discourse deictics expressing entity that speaker-hearer know, and is referring to it back and that the entity or person referred to is away from speaker-hearer spatially and/or psychologically. Note that Völlmin (2017) “x”- voiceless, velar fricative is “h” a voiceless, glottal fricative in my study. Meyer also provides the morphology of the demonstratives including their derivations, and anaphoric and discourse references.

2. Presentation of results

2.1. Demonstratives

In Gumer, demonstratives indicate three-ways distance distinction: proximal zɨ(h) “this”, close to the speaker, medial hɨ(h) “that”, a bit far but visible to the speaker, and distal ha(h) “that”, far from the speaker. Another demonstrative za(h) is used as a discourse deictic. The short forms without h are often used in fast speech whereas the longer forms with h are used in focused speech and derivatives. The examples in (1) show the three-ways distinction of the demonstratives:

(1)a. zɨ jə-m^wan ərʧ-u

this GEN-who son-COP¹

“whose son is this?”

b. hɨ jə-m^wan ərʧ-u

that(MED) GEN-who son-cop

“whose son is that (MED)?”

c. hajə-m^wan ərʧ-u

that(DIS) GEN-who son-COP

“Whose son is that (DIS)?”

d. za ərʧ ag^wɨʤ-i-m

that(DISC) boy arrest-3sg-Pst²

“The boy (referred) is arrested.”

We can summarize the Gummer demonstrative showing distance as follows:

PROXIMAL DISTAL DISCOURSE

zɨ(h) hɨ(h) za(h)

The demonstratives do not distinguish singular and plural and masculine and feminine. Both number and gender are, therefore, expressed with a noun head that is modified by the demonstratives as in (2):

(2)a. zɨ(h)gǝrǝd jǝ-m^wan-ija

this girl GEN-who-3SG.F

“Whose girl is this?”

b. zɨ(h)ərʧjǝ-m^wan-u

this son GEN-who-3SG.M

“Whose son is this?”

c. zɨ(h)gɨredjǝ-m^wan-lǝma

this girls GEN-who-3PL.F

“Whose girls are these?”

d. zɨ(h)deng^ja jǝ-m^wan-lo

this sons GEN-who-3PL.M

“Whose sons are these?”

In (2a) and (2b), the demonstratives and the nouns modified by the demonstratives are singular. The two sentences differ by the lexical items gǝrǝd “girl” and ərʧ “son”. In (2c) and (2d), gɨred girls’ and deng^ja “sons”/“boys” contrast in gender, and they are plural forms of gǝrǝd and ərʧ,respectively. The number of the head nouns remains the same whether we substitute the demonstrative zɨ(h) “this” with hɨ(h) “that”(med), or ha “that”(dis). However, the demonstratives can distinguish gender and number with pronominal suffixes, which particularize the reference, added to the demonstratives as in (3):

(3) Proximal Medial Distal

3SG.M zɨh-ǝta hɨh-ǝta ha-ta

this-3SG.M ‘this one’ that-3SG.M ‘that one’ that-3SG.M ‘that one’

3SG.F zɨh-ǝhjta hɨh-ǝh ha-h^jta

this-3SG.F ‘this one’ that-3SG.F ‘that one’ that-3SG.F ‘that one’

3PL.M zɨh-ǝhɨno hɨh-ǝhno ha-hno

this-3PL.M ‘these ones’ that-3PL.M ‘those ones’ that-3PL.M ‘those ones’

3PL.F zɨh-ǝhɨnǝma hɨh-ǝhnǝma ha-hnǝma

this-3PL.F ‘these ones’ this-3PL.F ‘those ones’ this-3PL.F ‘those ones’

Gurage languages do not make gender distinctions in nouns except for humans (Menuta, 2002). Similarly, demonstratives make gender distinctions only for human nouns. Animate non-human and inanimate nouns are expressed with masculine forms of demonstratives as in (4):

(4) a. zɨh-ǝtajǝ-darsamobet-u

this-3SG.M GEN-Darsamo house-def.m.

“This one is Darsamo-s house.”

b. *zɨh-ǝh^jta jǝ-darsamo*bet-ɨnja

*this-3SG.F GEN-Darsamo house-3SG.F.

c. zɨh-ǝta jǝ-darsamoǝrʧ-u

this-3SG.M GEN-Darsamo son-DEF.M.

“This one is Darsamo’s son.”

d. zɨh-ǝh^jta jǝ-darsamogǝrǝd-ɨnja

this-3SG.F GEN-Darsamo daughter-3SG.F

“This one (F) is the daughter of Darsamo.”

The expression in (4b) is not acceptable because the deictic expression zɨhǝh^jta is used for feminine reference, but bet “house” is not feminine in Gurage languages. All inanimate nouns and all animals are grammatically considered masculine in most Gurage language varieties including Gumer. The feminine marker -ɨnja attached to the inanimate noun bet is not acceptable for the same reason. Thus, demonstratives, such as zɨhǝta “this one” and zɨhǝhino “these ones” - proximal; hɨhǝta “that one” and hɨhǝhno “those ones”- medial; hata “that one” and hahno “those ones” - distal, all are used to refer to masculine nouns that are animals and objects, and men excluding women.

With the addition of a locative marker -e, zɨh “this”, hɨh “that (med)” and hah “that (dis)” play the role of place adverbs, hence zɨh-e “here”, hɨh-e “there” and hah-e [haj] “over there” as in (5):

(5) a. sǝnda-hutzɨh-e nǝrǝ

knife-def this-loc present

“The knife is here.”

b. sǝnda-huthɨh-e nǝrǝ

knife-def that(MED)-loc present

“The knife is there.”

c. sǝnda-huthah-e [haj] nǝrǝ

knife-def that (DIS)-LOC present

“The knife is over there.”

The addition of a morpheme {-njǝ} to the place adverb forms of the demonstratives shows the location “towards”. This morpheme is used productively with nouns for the same purpose. The examples in (6) demonstrate this:

(6) a. zɨh-e-njǝneh- ǝ

this-loc-towards come-3sg.m.

“Come towards here.”

(cf. zɨhe nehǝ “come here.”)

b. hɨh-e-njǝ wǝr-ǝ-m

there-loc-towards go-3sg.m-pst

“He went towards there.”

(cf. hɨhe wǝrǝm “he went there.)”

The addition of tǝ- and bǝ- to the place adverb forms of the spatial deixis show source and static location, respectively, as in (7):

(7)a. tǝ-zɨh-e sɨra-wi-m

S—this-loc buy-3sg.m-pst

“It was bought from here.”

b. tǝ-hɨh-e aʧǝnǝ-wi-m

S -that -loc bring-3sg.m-pst

“It was brought from there.”

c. bǝ-zɨh-e sɨra-wi-m

at-this-loc buy-3sg.m-pst

“It was bought at this place.”

d. bǝ-hɨh-e sɨra-wi-m

at-that-loc buy-3sg.m-pst ’

“It was bought at that place.”

The spatial deictic expressions zɨ(h) “this” and hɨ(h) “that”(med) add ‘presentative morpheme -m-, and agreement pronominal affixes to emphatically express locations of something or someone as in (8). The optional h of zɨ(h) “this” and hɨ(h) “that”(med) is deleted before the addition of -m- and agreement pronominal affixes. The distal form is not used in the presentative sense since semantically a speaker can present something closer to him or her.

Table

(8)	Proximal	Medial
3sg.m	zɨ-m-u this-prv-3sg.m ‘Here it/he is’.	hɨ-m-u that- prv −3sg.m ‘There he/it is.’
3sg.f	zɨ-m-n-ja this- prv -acc-3sg.f ‘Here she is.’	hɨ-m-n-ja that- prv -acc-3sg.f ‘There she is.’
3pl.m	zɨ-m-l-o this- prv -acc-3pl.m ‘Here they (m) are.’	hɨ-m-l-o that- prv -acc-3pl.m ‘There they (m) are.’
3pl.f	zɨ-m-l-ema this- prv -acc-3pl.f ‘Here they(f) are.’	hɨ-m-l-ema that- prv −3pl.f ‘There they(f) are.’

Note that the agreement object marker is basically {-n-}, but it alternates with {-l-} in 3pl (cf. Menuta & Meyer, 2015; Petros, 1996 for such sonorant alternations), and is absent altogether in 3sg.m.

The demonstratives add a morpheme {-ka-}to express how something is done by locating it. We shall represent {-ka-} with loc though it expresses manner, and indicates a particular place at the same time as in (9):

(9) a. zɨ-ka-w

this-loc-3sg.m

“It is this way.”/“It is here.”

b. hɨ-ka-w

that- loc -3sg.m

“It is that way.”/“It is over there.”

c. zɨ-kaǝg^wɨdɨ-n

this- loc tie-3sg.m

“Tie it this way.”

d. hɨ-kaǝg^wɨdɨ-n

that- loc tie-3sg.m

“Tie it that way.”

The demonstrative may be reduced to only one consonant z “this” and h “that”(med). These demonstratives combined with ahir “extent” are used to express degree, such as h-ahir ‘to that extent and z-ahir “to this extent.”

2.2. Spatial expressions of direction and location

In Gumer Gurage, directions such as left, right, and locations north, south, east, and west are expressed by lexical items. Left and south, and right and north are expressed by lexemes g^wɨra and kǝnǝ, respectively. The directions East and West are expressed with semantic extensions of body parts angǝt “neck” and ǝgɨr “leg”, respectively. These are shown with arrows below:

Table

The meaning of each is understood contextually as shown in (10a, b, and c):

(10)a. jǝ-darsamogǝn gura g^wǝmarǝ-w

gen-Darsamo country south Gumer-cop

“Darsamo’s country (living area) is South Gumer.”

b. darsamo gura ǝʤ-u

darsamo left hand-cop

“Darsamo is left handed.”

c. angǝt aʒorɨm j-aʒ-p^we ǝgɨr j-ar-p^we f^wǝt’ǝr-jo-m

neck rounding gen-see-with leg gen-go-with created-3pl-pst

“Leg is designed to walk with, and the neck to move the head round so that one can look at what is going.”

d. ʧǝha tǝ-gwǝmarǝbat ǝgɨr angǝt ʧǝha jɨwri bana

Chaha conj-Gumer together west east Chaha called was

“Chaha and Gumer together were called West-East Chaha.”

In (10a), g^wɨra is used as “south” but in (10b) as “left”. Similarly, in (10c) angət and əgɨr are used to refer to body parts, but in (10d) ǝgɨr and angǝt are used as locations “west” and “east”, respectively.

2.3. Spatial expressions associated with climatic zones

The climate in Gurage is divided into three zones: highland, semi-arid and arid. There is no desert in the Gurage zone. The three climatic zones are expressed with the spatial expressions shown in (11):

(11)ansawahighland

gɨbtǝdɨrsemi-arid

ǝgrǝmaarid (lowland)

The word ansawa is a simple lexical item, but the other two words are complex. The word gɨbtǝdɨr is a compound of gɨbt “half” and ǝdɨr “live”/“spend a night”. It means ‘living in a climate that is mid-level between cold (highland) and semi-arid (lowland). The other term ǝgrǝma is derived from the body part ǝgɨr “leg” and a bound morpheme -ǝma that productively derives nouns. As a leg is the lower part of the body, metaphorically ǝgrǝma refers to the “lowland”.

2.4. Particles

Several particles are used to express location and directions in space. Most of the particles are semantic extensions of the body parts. In (12) are some examples of body parts with extended meanings functioning as particles and indicating locations:

Table

(12)	Body part	Gloss	Extension	Example
	amf	‘mouth’	‘top’	jǝ-oʃǝr- amf (gen-pot-mouth ‘top of a pot’)
	fwǝr	‘back’	‘on’	bǝ-sat’in f^wǝr (loc-box on ‘on the box’)
	dǝn	‘belly’	‘inside’	bǝ-sat’in dǝn (loc-box inside ‘inside the box’)
	ǝgɨr-	‘leg’	‘down’	ǝgɨr- e wɨj-ǝ-m (leg-loc went down-3sg.m-pst ‘He went down.’)
	k’jɨn	‘buttock’	‘under’/ ‘bottom’	bǝ-ʃat k’jɨn nǝrǝ (loc-granary buttock exist‘It is at the bottom of the granary.’ ‘It is at the bottom of the granary.’
	ank’jǝ	‘waist’	‘behind’	bǝ-bet ank’j-e awra-n (loc-house behind-loc put-3sg.m ‘Put it behind the house.’)
	mǝjǝ	‘rib’	‘near’	bǝ-sat’in mǝj-e (loc-box near-loc ‘near the box’)
	wǝhǝt	‘cheeks’	‘side’	kǝnǝ wǝhǝt (right cheek ‘right side’)
	jɨft	‘face’	‘front’	jɨft-e ʧon-a-m (face-loc sat-3sg.m-pst ‘He sat in the front.’

Reduplication of some of the body parts is semantically extended to express spatial concepts as shown in (13):

(13)a. jɨft ɨft

face-face “in front of”

b. dǝn-dǝn

belly-belly “through”

c. məjə məjə

rib rib“at the side of a hill”

There are a few words expressing location that are basic or not derived from body parts. Such words include m^wǝrǝ “edge”/“side”, kurit “top”, gɨbt “half”, etc. The examples in (14) show their contextual use:

(14)a. b-ema m^wǝrǝ ʧon-a-m

loc- road side sit-3sg.m-pst

He sat at the side (edge) of a road.’³

b. bə-betk’urit anf^w nərə

loc-house top bird exist

“There is a bird at the top of the house.”

c. gɨbt ema sǝn-a-m

half way reach-3sg.m-pst

“He reached (arrived) a mid way.”

2.5. Spatial expressions and verbs

In this section, two types of verbs associated with spatial expressions, namely, dynamic motion verbs and verbs of presence are discussed. Dynamic motion verbs express that an entity expressed by a predicate verb has moved in a certain direction, path, and manner at a given space. Verbs of presence express the presence of an entity in a given location, and include verbs such as the Amharic verb allə or Gurage nərə “there is” and, the pat forms in Amharic nəbər or Gurage banə “there was”.

2.5.1. Dynamic motion verbs

Dynamic motion verbs in Gumer Gurage combine path and motion. Lists of the most common motion verbs in the language are provided in (15):

(15)wɨj- “go into”/“immerse”

wǝt’t’a-“go out”

gǝppa-“enter into”

kǝna-“went up”

wǝnd-“go down”

wǝt’ǝk-“fall”

tǝrǝs-“rise up”

wǝr- “go”

ʧǝn-“come”

bǝnnǝr-“fly”

zǝkkǝr- “jump”

not’-“run”

ʒanəg- “start walking”/“leave”

ʒor-“go round”

k’^wəm-“stop”/’stand’

ɨnk’ǝrk’ɨr-“move”

g^jǝk^jət-“see off someone”

g^jǝppǝt-“ride a horse/gallop”

ǝkkəs- “wait”

tǝrəsa-“stand up”

nəsa-“pick up”

ʧəwəna-[ʧona-]“sat down”

awəna-“put down”

sǝnt’-“insert into”,

ʃab-“pull”

gǝfa“push”

zǝmǝd“stretch”

ʒǝppǝr“return”

gǝtǝr-“make something lie down or sleep”

tǝgǝdǝr-“sleep”

k’^jǝk’^jǝr-“stretch hands or legs”

g^jǝk^jǝr-“straighten”

kǝpa-“fold”

zɨraka-“lay something on a flat space”

The words in (16) are different though they express motion. First, formally they are reduplicated forms; functionally they express continuous movement, and structurally they have to co-occur with the verb bər- “say” or bar- “said” to be a meaningful predicate.

(16)wɨr-wɨr “go around”

tǝff -tǝff“move here and there” (cf. tǝf-tǝf “get hungry”)

fur fur“grow”/“move”

Consider the examples with bər “say” and bar- “said” in (17):

(17)a. wɨr-wɨr bər

go-go say

“go around!”

b. wɨr-wɨr bər

go-go say-3sg-pst

“he went around.”

c. tǝff -tǝffbar-əʧ-m

move-move say-3sg.f-pst

“she moved here and there.”

d. tɨk-ahəfur fur bar-ə-m?

child-2sg.poss grow say-3sg.m-pst

“Has your child grown up?”

e. ʧɨrə-hutfur fur bar-ə-m

worm-def move say-3sg.m-pst

“The worm moved here and there.”

There are also a few simple or not reduplicated verbs that are combined with bar- to show motion in space as in the examples in (17f-h). They, however, show the moment of action in space, unlike the reduplicated forms in (17 a-e).

f.ʃɨk^w bar-ə-m

sit say-3sg.m-pst

“He sat down for a short time.”

g.k’ɨt’ bar-ə-m

straight say-3sg.m-pst

“It became straight.”

h. ʒu bar-ə-m

run say-3sg.m-pst

“He/it ran speedily.”

2.5.2. Verbs of presence

In the Gumer variety of Gurage, the “presence” of something or someone is expressed with the verb nǝr- “present” or “exist”. The verb stem has subject agreement pronominal suffixes. The examples in (18) show the verb with such affixes, here glossed with their meaning of “presence” as nǝr-h^w “I am here.”

Table

(18)	1sg.	nǝr-h^w	‘I am present/here.’
	1pl	nǝr-nǝ [nǝnnǝ]	‘We are present/here.’
	2sg.m.	nǝr-hǝ	‘You(M) are present/here.’
	2sg.f	nǝr-h^j	‘You (f) are present/here.’
	2pl.m	nǝr-hu	‘You (pl) are present/here.’
	2pl.f	nǝr-hɨma	‘You(pl.f) are present/here.’
	3sg.m.	nǝr-ǝ-	‘It/he is present/here.’
	3sg.f	nǝr-ǝʧ	‘She is present/here.’
	3pl.m.	nǝr-ǝbo	‘They(PL.M) are present/here.’
	3pl.f.	nǝr-ǝma	‘They (pl.f) are present/here.’

All the expressions in (18) can also be glossed with “exist”. Note that in the 1pl r of the verb nǝr- completely assimilates to the suffix-initial consonant n of -nə “2pl”; hence, surface as [nǝnnǝ] “we are present” or “we exist”.

A verb of presence in the past is expressed with ban- as shown in the examples in (19):

Table

(19)	1sg.	ban-ǝh^w	‘I was present/there.’
	1pl	ban-ǝnǝ	‘We were present/there.’
	2sg.m.	ban-ǝhǝ	‘You were present/there’.
	2sg.f	ban-ǝh^j	‘You (f) were present/there.’
	2pl.m	ban-ǝhu	‘You (pl.M) were present/there.’
	2pl.f	ban-ǝhɨma	‘You (pl.f.) were present/there.’
	3sg.m.	ban-ǝ	‘It/he was present’/there.
	3sg.f	ban-ǝʧ	‘She was present/there.’
	3pl.m.	ban-ǝbo	‘They(PL.M) were present/there’.
	3pl.f.	ban-ǝma	‘They (pl.f) were present/there.’

Note: that similar to the verb nǝr- which can be glossed as ‘present’ or ‘exist’, ban- can also be glossed as ‘was/were present’ or ‘existed’.

2.5.3. Syntax of motion verbs

In this sub-section, I discussed the way motion verbs expressing horizontal and vertical motion may co-occur or not in a syntagmatic relationship. There is a tendency for vertical motion verbs to construct with another vertical motion verb rather than with horizontal motion verbs. The examples in (20) are verbs of vertical motion that express an entity moving up and down:

(20)a. kasa bə-ʧ’ə f^wər kǝn-a-m wǝnd-ǝ-m

Kasa loc-tree on climb-3sg.m-CON down-3sg.m-pst

“Kasa climbed up and down a tree”.

b. *kasa bə-ʧ’ə f^wər kǝn-a-m wǝr-ǝ-m

Kasa loc-tree on climb-3sg.m-CON go-3sg.m-pst

*“Kasa climbed a tree and left”.

c. kasa wǝndǝbǝn wɨj-ǝ-m wǝt’-a-m

kasa hill go.down-3sg.m-CON go.up-3sg.m-pst

“Kasa went down and up the hill”.

d. *kasa wǝndǝbǝn wɨj-ǝ-m wǝr-a-m

kasa hill go.down-3sg.m-CON go-3sg.m-pst

*“Kasa went down and left”.

In (20a) and (20c), the sentences are acceptable because the combined words express vertical relationships, however, in (20b) and (20d), the sentences are ill-formed because the combination of terms expressing vertical and horizontal movement does not make sense; hence, is not semantically acceptable.

Horizontal motion verbs also prefer to be combined with other horizontal motion verbs (21a) and (21c) instead of horizontal-vertical arrangements as shown in (21b) and (21d):

(21)a. ʃabɨ-m wər

pull-con go

“go pulling!”

b. *ʃabɨ-m nɨsa

pull-con pick

*“pick up pulling”

c. af^wǝkǝk-ə-m wǝr-ǝ-m

crawling-3sg.m-CON go-3sg.m-pst

“It/he went crawling”

d. *af^wəkək-ə-m tǝrəs-a-m

crawling-3sg.m-CON stand.up-3sg.m- pst

*“It/he stood up crawling”

In (21a) and (c) the motion verbs ʃab “pull” and af^wǝkǝk “crawling” are horizontal direction words, and can be used with wər “go” which itself is a horizontal concept in Gurage. In (21b), ʃab “pull” is a horizontal motion verb, but nɨsa “pick up” is a vertical motion verb; thus, the combination of the two is not accepted. The same is true in (21d) in which af^wǝkǝk “crawling” is horizontal, but tǝrəs- “stand up” is vertical, hence, the combination makes it semantically unacceptable.

3. Summary and conclusion

Spatial concepts in the Gumer variety of Gurage are expressed by different means including demonstratives, lexical items, particles, motion verbs, and verbs of presence. Demonstrative pronouns make a three-way distinction in distance relative to the speaker and entity or person indicated: proximal zɨ(h) “this”, medial hɨ(h) “that”, and distal ha(h) “that”. Furthermore, a demonstrative za(h) is used as a discourse deictic. Pronominal suffixes are added to the demonstrative pronouns to make number and gender distinctions. A “presentative” morpheme {-m-} and subject-agreement pronouns suffixed to the proximal zɨ “this” and the medial hɨ “that” express the emphatic location of something or someone. The morpheme {-ka} suffixed to the demonstrative pronouns specifies a particular place expressed with the demonstratives, and at the same time can show the manner something is done. Some spatial concepts are expressed with lexical items. This includes directions, such as left and right; locations such as south, north, west, and east. The concept of left and south is expressed with one lexical item g^wɨra; similarly, the concept of right and north is expressed with kǝnǝ. East and west are expressed by semantic extension of body parts angǝt “neck” and ǝgɨr “leg”, respectively. Other lexical items that express location are m^wǝrǝ “edge”, kurit “top”, gɨbt “half”, fɨnt “half”, and mara “straight line”. The climatic zone, which is divided into three in Gurage, is expressed with ansawa “highland”, gɨbtǝdɨr “semi-arid”, and ǝgrǝma “arid (lowland)”. About nine particles are used to express location in space. Nearly all the particles are semantic extensions of body parts. Reduplicated forms of some of the particles, which themselves are derived from the body part, such as jɨft ɨft [face-face “in front of”] express locations. The spatial concept is also expressed with verbs: dynamic motion verbs and the verb of presence. Syntactically, it is found that vertical motion verbs do not co-occur with horizontal motion verbs and vice versa. Further comparative study of spatial expressions among all Gurage varieties in particular and Ethiopian languages, in general, can contribute to the cross-linguistic categorization of spatial expressions.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fekede Menuta

Fekede Menuta published several related works on Gurage languages. Menuta’s (2023) study titled quantity expression in the Gumer Variety of Gurage discusses the number and classifier systems in the South Ethiosemitic language Gurage. Menuta (2021), Ensete in Gurage: Nomenclature, use and meaning extension deals with how the Ensete culture contributed to lexical development and metaphorical extensions. Menuta (2022), Verbal Extension and Valence in Gumer Gurage describes how the extension of affixes in the derivation of verbs interacts with an argument of the verb and the number of valences. Menuta (2019), Language Use in Multilingual Ethiopia explores language policy and practice among languages, including Gurage, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regional State. He provides language used in education, media, administration, and the challenges faced in implementing the multilingual language policy.

Notes

1. ACC = Accusative, COP = Copula, CON = Converb, CONJ = Conjunction, DEF = Definite, DIS = Distal, DISC = Discourse, F = Feminine, GEN = Genitive, IN = Instrument, LOC = Locative, M = Masculine, MED = Medial, PL = Plural, POL = Polite, POSS = Possessive, PRV = Presentative, PST = Past, S = Source, SG = Singular.

2. The morpheme {−m} shows past tense (Menuta, 2016, p. 56; Rose, 2007, pp. 413–414; Tsehay, 2019, p. 237)), mainverb (Tsehay, 2019, p. 236; Völlmin, 2017, p. 121), converb (Rose, 2007, p. 416; Völlmin, 2007, p. 85) and focus (Tsehay, 2019, p. 252); detail examples of each is available in (Menuta, 2022, p.95).

3. m^wǝrǝ refers to a performance in m^wǝrǝ wǝr-ǝʧɨ-m (edge go-3sg.f-pst = “she went at the edge”. Culturally, women in Gurage walk with the tips of their toes, and at the sides of a communal gathering place, while elder men gather and make a circle for a performance of mourning ceremony.