Wolf Leslau Libros

Gurage has twelve dialects that can be divided in East Gurage (Selti, Wolane and Zway) West Gurage (Caha, Endegen, Ennemor, Eza and Gyeto) and North Gurage (Soddo). The categorization of three further Gurage dialects (Muher, Mäsqan and Gogot) remains to be investigated. The present studies aims to shed light on the categorization of Mäsqan, a Gurage dialect spoken in the region of Buttagira, about 80 miles south from Addis Abäba. In order to find out more about the character of Mäsqan Wolf Leslau compares it to other Gurage dialects and concludes that regarding the verb an affinity to the East Gurage dialects can be stated.

This book closes the gap for beginners who want to study the Amharic language and had difficulties in finding the right grammar for this purpose: The first grammar of Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, was published by Hiob Ludolf in 1698. The Amharic grammar published by Praetorius in 1879 is based on Amharic religious texts and on scattered material, usually composed by missionaries. A milestone in the study of Amharic is Marcel Cohen´s Traite de langue amharique (1936), but this grammar, too is not completely suited for beginners since the author’s generalizations are at times aimed at linguists. The grammar that comes closest to the concept of a beginner’s grammar is that of C. H. Dawkin (1960), yet this grammar is extremely short, does not give examples and does not introduce the student to the intricacies of the language. The new book gives all the grammatical forms and the sentences of the present grammar in Amharic script and in phonetic transcription. The illustrative examples have a free and a literal translation. This procedure should likewise prove to be useful for the Semitist as well as for the general linguist.

Ge'ez is an ancient Ethiopian language which is still important for the liturgy of the Orthodox church.The dictionary is arranged in the order of the Ge'ez syllabary. All the basic as well as the derived forms are presented in the Ge'ez alphabet and in phonetic transcription. The transcription should be helpful in indicating the correct pronunciation of the entries. The dictionary includes nearly all the entries that are considered essential for students of Ge'ez.

This collection of essays has two purposes: first to give the advanced student of Amharic a sample of the Amharic writing style and secondly to provide information on Ethiopia’s cultural background. The texts were written by several Ethiopian university students some 40 years ago on subjects with which they were most familiar such as naming, christening, wedding, burial ceremony, food and drink, the manner of wearing clothes, house construction in Amhara country, daily work of an Ethiopian woman, landholding disputes, beauty, merchant, mercato, country market, artisans, elderhood, priests, däbtära, monkhood, divination, Christmas, Easter, Addis Ababa, the City of Gondar, Harar City etc. Although some time has passed since the collection was compiled the texts convey a good picture of Ethiopian culture. Each Amharic text is given an English translation on the opposite side. The book is completed by an Amharic-English Dictionary of nearly 90 pages and an index of English words and Amharic lexemes.