Azeb Amha

The Omotic language family

[Extract] Australia is a fascinating linguistic area. At the time of the European invasion, which began in 1788, there were around 250 distinct languages. Many more than half of them are no longer actively spoken or remembered. No more than a dozen could be said to be in a healthy state, being fully learned by children. From about 120,000 until about 7,000 BP, Australia and New Guinea were one land mass. Archaeologists tell us that the first settlers arrived at least 40,000 years and probably 50,000 years ago. There would have been an initial expansion of people - during which tribes and languages split - until they filled all habitable parts of the land mass. At the end of this period of expansion (which is likely to have taken just a few thousand years), a family tree diagram would have appropriately modelled the relationships between languages.Linguistic typology identifies both how languages vary and what they all have in common. This Handbook provides a state-of-the art survey of the aims and methods of linguistic typology, and the conclusions we can draw from them. Part I covers phonological typology, morphological typology, sociolinguistic typology and the relationships between typology, historical linguistics and grammaticalization. It also addresses typological features of mixed languages, creole languages, sign languages and secret languages. Part II features contributions on the typology of morphological processes, noun categorization devices, negation, frustrative modality, logophoricity, switch reference and motion events. Finally, Part III focuses on typological profiles of the mainland South Asia area, Australia, Quechuan and Aymaran, Eskimo-Aleut, Iroquoian, the Kampa subgroup of Arawak, Omotic, Semitic, Dravidian, the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian and the Awuyu-Ndumut family (in West Papua). Uniting the expertise of a stellar selection of scholars, this Handbook highlights linguistic typology as a major discipline within the field of linguistics.Linguistic typology identifies both how languages vary and what they all have in common. This Handbook provides a state-of-the art survey of the aims and methods of linguistic typology, and the conclusions we can draw from them. Part I covers phonological typology, morphological typology, sociolinguistic typology and the relationships between typology, historical linguistics and grammaticalization. It also addresses typological features of mixed languages, creole languages, sign languages and secret languages. Part II features contributions on the typology of morphological processes, noun categorization devices, negation, frustrative modality, logophoricity, switch reference and motion events. Finally, Part III focuses on typological profiles of the mainland South Asia area, Australia, Quechuan and Aymaran, Eskimo-Aleut, Iroquoian, the Kampa subgroup of Arawak, Omotic, Semitic, Dravidian, the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian and the Awuyu-Ndumut family (in West Papua). Uniting the expertise of a stellar selection of scholars, this Handbook highlights linguistic typology as a major discipline within the field of linguistics.Grammatical means for the linguistic categorization of noun referents are found in just about every language of the world. Noun categorization devices range from large sets of numeral classifiers of Southeast Asia to highly grammaticalized closed sets of noun classes and genders in African and Indo-European languages. Further devices include noun classifiers, classifiers in possessive constructions, verbal classifiers and two less known types: locative and deictic classifiers. Classifiers share semantic features of animacy, humanness, shape and function. One language can combine several types of noun categorization devices. In ‘multiple classifier’ languages, the same morphemes occur in several grammatical contexts. Historically, categorization devices of one type can develop from another.