Ethiopic Documents: Argobba Grammar and Dictionary (review)

Leslau has published essential grammars, dictionaries, and studies of the vast majority of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia, as well as made diverse contributions to our understanding of other Semitic languages (such as Soqot.ri in the Modern South Arabian group) and to Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics in general. Argobba is the South Ethiopic Semitic language spoken by the Argobbas—who are Muslims—in the regions of Ankober (North Argobba) and Harar (South Argobba). More than half a century ago, South Argobba became extinct and was replaced by Oromo in Harar. In his lifetime of research, L has had diverse opportunities to work with different speakers of North Argobba. Unfortunately, the only speaker of South Argobba to whom L had access in the mid 1940s had no teeth, which put an end to L’s work on that dialect. Nevertheless, several dialectal variants can still be distinguished based on early linguistic surveys of Argobba (132–35).

The first part of the volume (1–135) is devoted to a thorough descriptive grammar of Argobba, including an especially useful chapter (116–31) on isoglosses shared by Argobba and Amharic as well as linguistic features that differentiate both Ethiopic languages. The second part includes reprints of four previously published articles: on the old descriptions of Argobba published by Seetzen and Lefebvre (137–45); on Argobba vocabulary (147–57); on Arabic loanwords in this language (159–62); and L’s early article with a preliminary description of the same language (163–85). The third part presents Argobba- English (188–227) and English-Argobba (228–51) dictionaries. The volume closes with indexes of the Argobba and English terms discussed.

In spite of its many virtues, this work would have been even more useful if a chapter on syntax (in addition to the overall section on clauses and conjunctions, 98–110) and a selection of Argobba texts had only been included, as Stefan Weninger has pointed out in his recent review (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 95.63–65, 2000). In light of the pace at which many of these languages spoken in Ethiopia and other African countries are dying and being substituted by national official languages (Amharic, Arabic, Hausa, etc.), swift fieldwork should be urged in order to document and archive the actual linguistic artifacts of their speakers (oral traditions, improvised speeches, folklore, etc.).

In sum, as expected, this work lives up to the standards of excellence set by L in his long and exceedingly fruitful career as a leading scholar in Semitic linguistics, and he should be thanked and congratulated for constantly improving and enhancing our knowledge of the linguistic wealth of Ethiopia.