Preface
The Oromo language (also known as Afaan Oromoo and Oromiffa) is a Cushitic language spoken by about 50 million people in Ethiopia. This Wikibook is intended to provide an introduction to Oromo grammar and lexicon.
In an effort to aid in self-study, audio files have been embedded so that the reader may develop an ear for the spoken language and practice pronunciation.
Few resources are available, either in book form or online, for learning Oromo. It is my hope that this collection of lessons will prove valuable to those exploring the language, especially for Peace Corps volunteers, VSO volunteers, and other English speakers living in Oromia. I have tried to ensure that all Oromo words herein are correctly spelled and translated, all sentences grammatically correct, and all grammar points accurately explained. However, seeing that these lessons were compiled by a student of the language rather than a native speaker, I expect the errors to be many. I am indebted to my tutor, Fekadu Kano, for providing many translations, edits, and the sound bites for the text.
Contents
- Cardinal and ordinal numbers, fractions
- Basic sentence structure, placement of modifiers
- Subject, direct object, possessive, and interrogative pronouns
- Verb conjugation, verb groups, morphology, affirmative and negative
- Gender, number, definiteness, nominative case
- Gender, number, with pronouns, case and definiteness, participles
- In the affirmative and negative
- Adverbs of manner, time, place, and degree; telling time
- Imperative, jussive tense; other forms of requests; responding
- Prepositions, postpositions, conjunctions, directions
- Comparatives, preferences, superlatives, expressing opinions
- Chapter 12: Compound Tenses
- Continuous, perfect, sequential actions
- Chapter 13: Agency
- Causitive, reflexive, passive voice
- Chapter 14: Nouns, Part II
- Cases and suffixes, verbal nouns (gerunds)
- Chapter 15: Time Clauses
- Sequential actions, gerundive, simultaneous actions, time words
- Chapter 16: Subordinate Clauses
- Adverbial, relative, subjunctive, if-then statements, conditional
- Grammar Appendix
- Irregular verbs, noun case suffixes table, summary of verb forms (present, past, gerundive, jussive, subjunctive, subordinate, participle, if-thens, reflexive, passive, pres. cont., past cont., conditional, causative) with examples, list of plurals (nouns and adjectives)
- Translations of the dialogues
- Additional Readings
- Glossary
- Bibliography