Concerning a vocalic alternation in North Omotic verb paradigms

Abstract

Examination of the verb paradigms of Omotic can easily engender a sense of bewilderment; there is such a variation from language to language, even when, in other respects, the languages concerned appear to be quite closely related. Coming to Omotic from a language group such as Eaśt Cushitic, the contrast is especially striking. For example, when investigating any little known East Cushitic language (and there are a few left!), one starts out with a strong expectation of finding in the verbal system certain morphological elements and patterns (e.g., t ‘2nd person, 3rd feminine singular’; n ‘1st person plural’ a palatal vowel signalling ‘perfect’; a guttural verb signalling ‘imperfect’; a rounded vowel signalling a ‘subordinate function’ or ‘non-indicative mood’; etc.), and one is never entirely disappointed; the well known formatives, along with the anticipated patterns of distribution, crop up with an almost monotonous regularity. Similar predictabilities are not obviously the case when we look at Omotic. With virtually every new language investigated, new and unfamiliar features emerge. I have remarked on this before (Hayward, 1984: 324), but I am not alone in having done so; Andrzej Zaborski has also emphasized the high degree of innovation seen in the Omotic verb (Zaborski, 1986: 528). But I think the essence of the problem is not that there are no identifiable cognate formatives so much as that we have been unable to understand their historical significance, andso supply them with meaningful labels.