Dime language

Dime or Dima is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in the northern part of the Selamago district in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of Ethiopia, around Mount Smith. Dime divides into at least two dialects, which include Us'a and Gerfa. It has six case suffixes in addition to an unmarked nominative. It is overwhelmingly suffixing, but uses prefixes for demonstratives and reduplication. Phonologically, it is noteworthy among the Omotic languages for having velar and uvular fricative phonemes. The basic word order is SOV (subject–object–verb), as in other Omotic languages, indeed as in all the languages of the core of the Ethiopian Language Area.

Dime
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	Debub (South) Omo Zone
Native speakers	11,000 (2007 census)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic South Omotic Dime
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dim
Glottolog	dime1235
ELP	Dimé

The language, as well as the Dime people themselves, reportedly decreased in numbers over the 20th century due to predation from their neighbors the Bodi, and both are in danger of extinction. According to Ethiopian census figures, the 1994 census reported 6293 speakers of the Dime language in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region alone; in the 2007 census, only 574 speakers were reported for all of Ethiopia. Further, because the Dime language still lacks a writing system and there are no local schools to promote the use of the language, it is even more threatened.Below is a table of Dime Pronouns

Phonology

Consonants

		BILABIAL	AVEOLAR	AVEO -PALATAL	VELAR	UVELAR	glottal
PLOSIVE	VL	p	t		k
	VD	b	d		g
	Ej imp	P’	t’		k’		ʔ
			ɗ
FRICATIVE	VL	f	s	š	x	χ	h
	VD		z	ž	ɣ	ʁ
	EJ		S’
AFFRICATE	VL		ts	č
	VD			ʤ
	EJ			čˈ
NASAL	VD	m	n
LIQUIDS			l
			r
GLIDES		w		y

Dime vowel

FRONT                   CENTRAL               BACK
Close	I                               e                                                                                           ɛ	ɨ                                                             ɘ a	u                                    o ɔ
Half close
Half open
Open

PHONOLOGICAL PROCESS OF DIME LANGUAGE

Free Variation

Dime language also undergoes phonological process when speaking and one of these process is the free variation. Free variation is a phenomenon of two or more sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered as wrong by a native speaker in Dime.

h and ʔ are free variation word initially in some lexemes.

example

ʔˈalfe and halfe Knife

ʔˈaʁe and haʁe wood, knife

ʔààke and hààke to pick up

ʔaay and haay grass

Other examples which shows free variation of y and h and y and ʔ

yízí and hízí to run

yín or ʔín you (obj)

Germinate

Dime language has a lot consonant germination which mostly occurs in the middle and final position of words which gives different meaning

Examples

m vrs mm

túmú (deep)

túmmú (stomach)

l vrs ll

ʔoloχ (quick)

ʔolloχ (slowly)

n vrs nn

ʔane (hand)

ʔanne (wild life)

Dime vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	U
Half-close	e		O
Half-Open	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

SYLLABIC STRUCTURE OF DIME LANGUAGE

Dime language has both closed and open syllable. It also has super heavy syllables and most of the consonants occurs in the middle and ending of the word.

Examples

CV

ná she

nú he

CVC

káf wait

lág friend

CVV

čúú  bottom

loo.mú lemon

CVVC

neey hunger

zuúb red

CVCC

gušš nails

físt mucu

gɘrž cat

CVVCC

lóokk

cˈíížž

Consonant cluster

Dime language also have consonant cluster. Consonants that occur in these clusters are most only two. There are some consonants that occur at the end and middle of the word respectively.

Examples of cluster of consonants that occur at the end of words

gušš nails

físt sneeze

tálk borrow

sáánk floor

túss pillar

Examples of cluster of consonants that occur in the middle of words

dámpe tobacco

básumb fearful

gázde boundry

bedze out

Morphology And Syntax

Definiteness

Definite is a term used to refer to a specific entity. Morphologically Dime language definiteness unlike indefiniteness. Dime definiteness is marked by the suffix -is

Examples

ʔ́ehé a house

ʔ́éh-is the house

nîts a child

nîts-is the child

ʔiyýi a person

ʔiyýs-is the person

ʔámzi gúdúm-ind-is the tall woman

woman tall -F-DEF

gúdúm-ub gǒst-is the tall man

tall            man DEF

In last example there is a modifier in the noun phrase the definite marker is suffixed to the modifier.

Definite marker -is may be changed optionally to -iz when it followed by a voiced consonant.

Examples

ʔéh-is the house

gášš-is the road

ʔámz-iz the woman

zúùb-iz the red one

Numbers

Nouns and noun phrases make singular and plural distinction in Dime language. Singular is morphologically unmarked. Plural is marked by suffix -af. That a head noun is plural can be inferred from morpheme -id which is suffix to modifier of the plural noun.

Examples

ʔéh- áf -is   the houses

house-PL-DEF

dər-áf-is    the goats

goat-PL-DEF

guur-af-is   the crocodiles

crocodile - PL-DEF

Dime Pronouns

Below is a table of Dime Pronouns

	Subject		Object
1S	ʔaté	I	ʔis-im	ME
2S	Yaay/yáye	YOU	yin-im	YOU
3SM 3SF	nú ná	HE SHE	kin-im kon-im	HIM HER
1PL	wótú	WE	won-im	US
2PL	yesé	YOU	yen-im	YOU
3PL	kété	THEY	ken-im	THEM