Linguistic Analysis of Moribund Lexicons of Bale Oromoo Speech Community, Ethiopia

Abstract

Linguistic theories generally regard human languages as consisting of two parts: a lexicon, essentially a catalogue of a language's words (its word stock); and a grammar, a system of rules which allow for the combination of those words into meaningful sentences. In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The article attempts to identify some moribund lexicons of Bale Oromoo speech community. First, these lexicons are gathered through an interview and elicitation from some informants selected from the Zone as a sample. These language items are translated into relatively equivalent Afaan Oromoo language. In order to create the wider communication, the lexicons are again translated into English language. And the lexicons are then analyzed linguistically (phonemic transcription, glossing and syllabification). For instance, in the lexicon of Afaan Oromoo ‘quluuwwaan’ /k’ulu:wa:n/ ‘traditional coffee cups’ the bound morpheme /-wwaan/ is number indicator in the target language (plural marker in particular). Moreover, the lexicons are used in a sentence to make the meaning clearer. Further explanations are made by putting these lexicons in the context in which they are potentially used. Finally, the recommendations are forwarded.