|
Abstract:
|
Dizin (Dizi ) is an Omotic language spoken in Southwest Ethiopia with three main dialects . This thesis focuses on Central Dizin phonology and morphology , but includes some data from Eastern Dizin and Western Dizin .
Prolonged language contact with Amharic has affected the sound system of Dizin and numerous Amharic words have been borrowed .
Features of the Dizin sound system include glottalized consonants , syllabic nasals , lengthened vowels , three phonemic tone levels and contour tones . Western Dizin has phonemic retroflex consonants . The glottal stop is analyzed as phonemic word initially before nasals , but not phonemic elsewhere .
Dizin is polysynthetic and more agglutinative than fusional . Dizin has a stacked (compound ) case system , a switch reference marker on medial verbs , a complex system of relativizing verbs , and interdependent verbs . Most of the words that modify nouns are understood to be relativized verbs . |