Afaan Oromo/Chapter 06

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Abba gadaa

Chapter 6: Adjectives

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Gurguraa: Maal isin gargaaru adde? play
Maamilaa: Jakkeettiin barbaade. Tokko kan naaf ta'u jira? play
Gurguraa: Lakkoofsa meeqa barbaadda? play
Maamilaa: Soddoma. play
Gurguraa: Bifa akkamii jaalatta? play
Maamilaa: Gurraachan jaalladha. play
Gurguraa: Isa kana ilaali. play
Maamilaa: Sirritti natti ta'e. Gaatiin saa meeqa? play
Gurguraa: Inni qarshii dhibba lama fi shantama. play
Maamilaa: Inni dooqeen kun hoo? play
Gurguraa: Wal qixxee dha. play
Maamilaa: Inni diimaan sun meeqa? play
Gurguraa: Inni sun qarshi dhibba lama qofa dha. Inni garu baayee isinitti guddata. play
Maamilaa: Tole, isa kanan fudhadha. play

[For translation see here]

Gender of Adjectives

Oromo adjectives can be male, female, or neutral. Masculine adjectives are used with masculine nouns, feminine adjectives modify feminine nouns, and neutral adjectives can be used with any noun. All non-neutral adjectives can be made masculine or feminine by attaching the appropriate suffix. Masculine suffixes for adjectives are: -aa, -aawaa, -acha, and -eessa. Feminine suffixes are: -oo, -tuu, -ooftuu, and -eettii. Standard morphology rules apply when attaching suffixes.

Examples:
English meaning	Masculine	Feminine
adorable	jaallatamaa	jaallatamtuu
beautiful	bareedaa	bareedduu
fast	si'aawaa	si'ooftuu
sweet	mi'aawaa	mi'ooftuu
fat	furdaa	furdoo
small	xinnaa, xiqqaa	xinnoo, xiqqoo
messy	boosacha	booseettii
black	gurraacha	gurraattii
poor	hiyyeessa	hiyyeettii
skinny	godeessa	godeettii

Neutral adjectives (e.g., adii – “white”) use the same form for both masculine and feminine nouns.

Plural of Adjectives

When adjectives are used to modify a noun, typically the noun remains in the singular and number is shown by the adjective only. Plural adjectives are formed by repeating the first syllable.

Examples:
English	Singular	Plural
white	adii	adaadii
beautiful	bareedduu	babareedduu
dry	gogaa	gogogaa

Some masculine adjectives will change their ending to -oo when pluralized. Some of these do not repeat the first syllable as a plural marker.

Examples:
English	Singular	Plural
knowledgeable	beekaa	beekoo
strong	cimaa	ciccimmoo
large	guddaa	guguddoo
high	olaanaa	olaanoo

In written Oromo, the noun may be pluralized as well as the adjective, so that “nama sosoressa lama” and “namoota sosoressa lama” are correct ways to say “two rich people”. In conversational Oromo, the first method, keeping the noun in the singular, is more common.

The same method of repeating the first syllable is used in verbs for repeated actions. For instance, ciruu is “to chop”, while cicciruu is “to chop finely”.

Adjectives with Pronouns

To express an adjective with a pronoun, as in “the black one”, one can simply use the correct pronoun in front of the adjective, as in “isa gurraacha”. The pronoun used will depend on its role in the sentence, so that “The black one looks nice” would be “Inni gurraachi gaarii fakkaata”, while “I want the black one” would be “Isa gurraacha nan barbaada”.

Demonstrative pronouns are used to express “this”, “that”, “these”, and “those”, and are shown in the table below. Some dialects use feminine demonstrative pronouns for feminine nouns. The Wellega dialect uses the masculine form only for demonstrative pronouns.

Demonstrative Pronouns
	This	That	These	Those
Nominative	kun(i) [f. tun(i)]	sun(i)	kunniin [f. tunniin]	sunniin
Accusative	kana [f. tana]	sana	kanneen [f. tanneen]	sanneen

Demonstrative pronouns can be combined with pronouns and adjectives to express ideas such as “this one” or “that big one”.

	Accusative (direct object)	Nominative (subject)
the red one	isa diimaa	inni diimaan
the red ones	isaani diimaa	isaan diimaan
the (many) red ones	isaani didiimaa	isaan didiimaan
this one	isa kana	inni kun(i)
this red one	isa diimaa kana	inni diimaan kun(i)
these ones	isaani kanneen	isaan kunniin
these red ones	isaani diimaa kanneen	isaan diimaan kunniin
that one	isa sana	inni sun(i)
that red one	isa diimaa sana	inni diimaan sun(i)
those ones	isaani sanneen	isaan sunniin
those red ones	isaani diimaa sanneen	isaan diimaan sunniin

Case and Definiteness Expressed by Adjectives

Adjectives show the same case as the noun they modify. Adjectives modifying a subject noun will undergo the same suffix patterns as described in Chapter 5.

Examples:
“How much is that red one” — “Inni diimaan sun meeqa?”
“The 2nd horse went” — “Fardichi lamaffaan deeme” or “Fardi lamaffichi deeme”

For definite nouns, either the noun or the adjective may take the definite suffix, but not both (as in the example above). This suffix will also show case.

Examples:
“The rich man came” — “Namni sooressichi dhufe” or “Namachi sooressi dhufe”
“The rich man's brother came” — “Obboleessi kan nama sooressicha dhufe” or “Obboleessi kan namicha sooressa dhufe”

A noun modified by more than one adjective will have only the first adjective showing case and definiteness. The other adjectives will appear in their dictionary (accusative) form.

Example:
“The big black spear is missing” — “Eeboon guddichi gurraacha bade.”

Participles

Participles, as known as verbal adjectives, modify nouns based on actions. In English, examples include “the sleeping lion” (sleeping being a present participle), and “the fallen leaves” (fallen being a past participle).

Present Participles

Oromo has no direct equivalent to the English present participle. “The sleeping lion lay under a tree” would be more literally translated from Oromo as “The lion lay under a tree while sleeping” or “Sleeping, the lion lay under a tree”. This construction is formed by adding an -aa suffix to the root of the dependent verb while the main verb is in its natural tense. The present participle is used like an adjective and comes after the noun it modifies, but it does not show case, gender, or number. The given example would thus be translated as “Leenci rafaa muka jala ciise” (“The lion, sleeping, lay under a tree”). In the Wellega dialect, present participles of -chuu verbs end in -chaa, while eastern dialects use -taa.

More examples:
“Inni nyaachaa (nyaataa) deema” — “He goes while eating” or “Eating, he goes”
“Dubbachuun makiinaa oofaa gaarii miti” — “Talking while driving a car is not good”

Past Participles

The past participle can be constructed in Oromo by using kan plus the simple past verb form (simple past discussed in Chapter 7). Thus, “the married couple went to Asela” would be “namoonni lamni kan fudhani gara Assella deemani”. For related actions (e.g., “the couple, having married, went to Asela”), see Chapter 15 for use of the gerundive. The past participle can be used to form adjectives from verbs. For example, “to be angry” is aaruu, while “angry (adj.)” is expressed by kan aare (see Chapter 12 for more on using verbs to express emotion).

More examples:
Verb	Adjective (past participle)
baratuu – to learn	kan barate – educated, learned
fuudhuu – to marry	kan fudhe – married
wal'aanuu – to treat	kan wal'aane – treated
ta'uu – to become	kan ta'e – existing
leenji'uu – to train, develop	kan leenji'e – trained, developed, civilized
galma'uu – to register	kan galma'e – registered

To express past participles in the negative, the verb is in the simple past negative (e.g., “uneducated” is kan hin baranne).

Chapter Vocabulary

obbo	Mr., sir
adde	Ms., ma'am
lakkoofsa	size, number
bifa	appearance, style
gargaaruu	to help
ilaaluu	to see
yaaluu	to try
safaruu	to weigh, measure
safarachuu	to try on
fudhachuu	to take, receive
naaf	for me
natti	on me
wal qixxee	equal, same amount
qofa	only
asi, addana	here
achi	there
tokkollee	any, none
hunda, cufa, cufti, mara	all, every
tokko tokko	some
tokkoon tokkoon	each
lachuu, lamaanuu	both
biraa	other, another
guddaa, guddoo	big
xiqqaa, xiqqoo, xinnaa, xinnoo	small
bal'aa	wide
dhiphaa, dhiphoo	narrow, tight
dheera	long
gabaabaa, gabaabduu	short
gurraacha, gurraattii	black
adii	white
dooqee	blue
diimaa	red
booraa, keelloo	yellow
magariisa	green
dhiilgee	purple
birtukaanii	orange
daammii	brown
gaarii	good
gadhee	bad
bareedaa, bareedduu, miidhagaa, miidhagduu	beautiful
fokkisaa, fokkistuu	ugly
barbaachisaa	necessary
baay'ee	very
hedduu, baay'ee	a lot
muraasa, maddee, bicuu	a little, few

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