Afaan Oromo/Alphabet

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Alphabet and Pronunciation

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Qubee

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Letter Qubee	Sound Sagalee	Example Fakkeenya
A a	short ah sound as in again or what	abalu
B b	unstressed b as in body, about	boba'uu
C c	hard, glottalized tch sound	ciccitaa
D d	stressed d sound as in dad	dadaa
E e	e sound as in pen or empty	eger
F f	unstressed f as in five or after	faarfannaa
G g	unstressed g as in game or ago	goggogaa
H h	unstressed h as in hammer	hahaaraa
I i	short i as in hit or in	isin
J j	unstressed j as in jump or agency	jejjuu
K k	unstressed k as in coco	kookii
L l	unstressed l as in little	laallee
M m	unstressed m as in member	mimmixa
N n	unstressed n as in none	naannoo
O o	O sound as in sore or open	obboleessa
P p	unstressed p sound as in paper	paappaayyaa
Q q	hard, glottalized k	qaqqabuu
R r	slightly rolling, soft r as in sparrow	roorroo
S s	unstressed s sound as in Susan	seenessa
T t	unstressed t as in tape	tattaa'ii
U u	oo sound as in who or Spanish uno	udumuu
V v	unstressed v as in avenue or very	viizaa
W w	unstressed, soft w sound as in now or wind	wawwaachuu
X x	hard, glottalized t	xaaxee
Y y	unstressed y as in year or bayou	yayii
Z z	unstressed z as in zigzag	zeeroo
Ch ch	slightly stressed ch as in chase	cheenchii
Dh dh	glottalized d produced with the tongue curled back	dhadhaa
Ph ph	glottalized p as in pope (said without breathing)	phaaphaasii
Sh sh	unstressed sh sound as in should	shaashii
Ny ny	like the Spanish ñ, like onion or cognac	nyanyee
Ts ts
Zh zh

Diphthongs and Long Vowels

aa — as in father, water, army
aw — as in cow or ouch
ay — as in aisle or pie
ee — as in eight or gray
ii — as in evil or teepee
oo — long o as in oboe or sober
oy — as in boy
uu — long oo as in fool or spoon.

Glottalized Consonants

The glottalized consonants are c, q, x, and ph. These can be described as explosive ch, k, t, and p sounds, respectively. Leslau (1969) describes the pronunciation of glottalized consonants as follows:

In pronouncing the glottalized consonants, the stream of air coming from the lungs is shut off by closure of the glottis. The air about it is then forced out through a stricture somewhere along the vocal organ. This stricture is a the lips for [ph], at the teeth for [x], at the palate for [c], and at the velum for q.

Double Letters

Vowels and consonants may be repeated to make the sound long. For example, to say the Oromo word annan (“milk”) one must hold the first n sound slightly longer than the second, as in the English word “pen-knife”. A doubled vowel makes the vowel long and can often change the meaning of the word, as in lafa (“ground”) and laafaa (“soft”). Dh, ch, ph, sh, and ny count as single consonants though they are written as two letters.

Spelling Rules

Traditionally, Oromo was written using Ge'ez script as used by Amharic. In 1991, the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization formally adopted a modified Latin alphabet (qubee) as shown at the beginning of this chapter. This qubee replaced the various other transliteration schemes of Oromo to Latin script and helped to standardize spelling of Oromo words. Spelling differences still occur, however, due to personal preferences and dialectal differences. Regardless, certain spelling rules can be observed that match speech patterns.

A word in Oromo cannot begin or end with a double consonant. The word for “sport” is converted to isporti.

Three consonants cannot occur in a row in a word. For this reason, certain suffixes may add an i to prevent this, as in arg (“see”) + na (1st per. plu. suffix) → argina (“we see”).

Vowels cannot change without a break, either a consonant or apostrophe, between them. What breaks are used can differ with spelling preferences and dialects. For example, “very” can be baa'ee, baayee, baa'yee, or baay'ee, and “to hear” can be dhaga'uu or dhagahuu. The apostrophe indicates that the vowels are produced independently and not as a diphthong.

Pronunciation Practice

bobaa — “lap”     bobbaa — “excrement”     boba'aa — “fuel”     bobba'a — “he will get out”     boba'a — “it's burning”

birraa — “Spring”     bira — “near”     biiraa — “beer”

dhugaa — “truth”     dhuuga — “yogurt”     duggaa — “hymn book”     duuga — “he whittles”

dhaala — “inheritance”     dhaalaa — “heir”     dhala — “child”     dhalaa — “female”     dallaa — “fence”

coora — “feeling”     cora — “gathering”     coraa — “remnant”

jaallataa — “lover”     jaallatta — “you love”     jallataa — “bent, curved”

haaraa — “new”     aara — “smoke”     har'a — “today”     haraa — “trash”

Notes

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