Soddo (autonym kəstane "Christian"; formerly called Aymälläl in Western sources, after a particular dialect of it) is a Gurage language spoken by a quarter million people in southeastern Ethiopia.
Nouns which are definite objects (direct or indirect) are both marked with the prefix yä- or nä-: e.g. yä-geʸi ažžo "he saw the house"; yä-zämmihʷan abännət "he gave it to his brother" (lit.
Possessives can also be formed by simply adding yä- to the standalone pronouns, e.g.: yädähəm t'əb "your clan".
Reflexive pronouns are formed by äras-, gubba-, k'um- plus the possessive suffixes, e.g. ädi äras-əddi mät'afi t'afkunnət "I myself wrote the book".
The copula (positive and negative) is irregular in the present tense: Example: zämmidi nähä "you are my brother".
The existential verb "be at", "exist" in the present is: In the past and future, it is expressed just like the copula, with näbbärä and honä.
In subordinate clauses the present is expressed with -allä conjugated in the perfect (negative -lellä), e.g.: bämeda yalləmi säbočč araš näm "the people who are in the field are farmers".
In the former case, they fall into three "conjugations" differing in their vowels and in gemination of the imperfect, illustrated for a three-consonant verb: Derived stems can be formed in several ways: There are two tenses/aspects, perfective (past) and imperfective (non-past); each has distinct forms for main versus subordinate clauses, and positive versus negative.
Examples: ge aräššo "he built a house"; banätäw k'ən awänna-m bämida tonnaw "having put butter on the top of his head, he sat outside".
Examples: ahoññ gäbäya nalfu "today we shall go to the market"; yəgädəl məss "the man who kills"; mas tənäsa-m yibara wawt'a tək'ärsi "she picks up the sleeping mats and begins to remove the dung."
Examples: ahoññ yəmät'a timäsəl "it does not seem that he will come today"; ädahʷan t-aykäfəl alläfo "he left without paying his debt".