Günther Schlee also notes that it is the native language of a number of related peoples, such as the Sakuye.
[2] Dialects are Borana proper (Boran, Borena), possibly Arsi (Arussi, Arusi) and Guji (Gujji, Jemjem) in Ethiopia and, in Kenya, Karayu, Salale (Selale), and Gabra (Gabbra, Gebra).
[4] The Boraana speakers and people are solely based in the southern region (Oromia) of Ethiopia and the northern frontier district of Kenya.
Most Kenyan Boraana people can be found in towns like Tula, Garba, Isiolo and Marsabit.
Boraana is a major dialect of the Oromo language but as of yet does not have extensive easily accessible information documented.
Though Boraana is unique in its own systems, it does share some cluster simplification rules in the verb paradigm with Orma (another Southern Oromo dialect).
Previously B. W. Andrzejewski conducted a studies of Boraana Oromo particularly in tone, phonetics, phonology as well as plural formations (1957, 1960, 1962, 1972).
[6] In 1973 an informative Boraana dictionary, Dizionario Borana-Italiano, was written and published by Venturino but unfortunately lacked consistent transcription.
[6] In 1978 the Bible Society of Kenya published Wold'ak'isaa Haraa Afaan Boranatiin T'aafani (The New Testament in Borana) and Kitaana Uumama, the Boraana Genesis translation.
Though the elder Kenyans still use Oromo the younger generation operate solely on Swahili and English, the two officially recognized languages.
Examples: "Nouns ending in the singulative suffixes -(e)esa, -(e)ensa, -(i)isa, -(i)ca, have stress on the first syllable.
[34] Examples: -Linker clitic in genitive function- (the word preceding it loses its base form stress pattern in this process) "the top of the tree"[35] -Verb inflection- (First syllable of a verb stem except in the case of main clause affirmative verbs and in verb forms containing a stressed suffix) With the exclusion of preverbal short final vowels, usually preverbal syllables in present and past affirmative statements have stress.
For example the stress pattern of the word gabayaa: aaniI (SUBJ)yaaFOCkaleeyesterdaybillaaknifegabaya[a]market (w/ preverbal stress)bit+ad'd'+ebuy+MIVO+1sgPASTaani yaa kalee billaa gabaya[a] bit+ad'd'+e{I (SUBJ)} FOC yesterday knife {market (w/ preverbal stress)} buy+MIVO+1sgPASTaaniI (SUBJ)yaaFOCkaleeyesterdaybillaaknifegab[a]yaamarket LIN=SCOPEbit+ad'd'+ebuy+MIVO+1sgPASTaani yaa kalee billaa gab[a]yaa bit+ad'd'+e{I (SUBJ)} FOC yesterday knife {market }LIN=SCOPE buy+MIVO+1sgPAST"Yesterday I bought a knife at the market"[37]There are many morphological processes that take place within Boraana Oromo.
Consonant clusters across morpheme boundaries originate in verb forms, nouns, adjectives occasionally having two realizations due to free variation, a gap in data, or a semantic block on one of the variants.
[40] A noun may be modified by a possessive, an adjective, and a demonstrative and they are also gender sensitive with the following order taking place.
"Nouns, adjectives, numerals, demonstratives, personal pronouns, possessives, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns and postpositions have a "base" form in direct object position, predicate position, in temporal and locative expressions, before postpositions and suffixes and in word-by-word elicitation.
Adjectives and nouns are marked for subject by suffixes while demonstrative and personal pronouns have separate forms.
woraabesahyena++iiSUBJworaabesa + iihyena + SUBJ"hyena"Any other grammatical relations not going through the processes previously mentioned are expressed by the linker clitic.
sidamtica - An Ethiopian man sidamtittii - An Ethiopian woman obbolee - brothers and sisters obboleesa - brother(s) obboleettii - sister(s) Nouns are not marked for definiteness but demonstratives are used instead for this purpose and Indefiniteness is expressed by tokko "one" (namica tokko - a man).
saw) him"in Predicate position obboleesabrotherkiyamyk'aroo+niclever+SUBJiisahimobboleesa kiya k'aroo+ni iisabrother my clever+SUBJ him"He is my clever(est) brother"Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns are invariant for person, gender and number and therefore behave like nouns with forms ufi (self) and woli (together, each other).The word Wolini itself means together.
[51] anini obboleettii tiya arge - I saw my sister guyyoo obboleesa kiya - Guyyo is my brother obboleettiini tiya worra jirti - My sister is home "The irreducible element of any verbal form is termed the verb root".
Both the simple and the extended verb stem have suffixed markers associated with categories of number, person, gender, tense and affirmation/negation.
Preverbal elements are:[53] obboleettii-nisister-SUBJtiyamyboritomorrow(h)in-d'uf-tiFOC-come-3.F.SG.PRESobboleettii-ni tiya bori (h)in-d'uf-tisister-SUBJ my tomorrow FOC-come-3.F.SG.PRES"My sister will come tomorrow"hin-d'aab-in(n)iNEG-cook-NEG.IMPhin-d'aab-in(n)iNEG-cook-NEG.IMP"Don't cook (it)"aaniI.SUBJyaaFOCkaleeyesterdaybillaaknifegabayaamarketbit-ad'd'-ebuy-MID-1.SG.PSTaani yaa kalee billaa gabayaa bit-ad'd'-eI.SUBJ FOC yesterday knife market buy-MID-1.SG.PST"Yesterday I bought a knife at the market"innihe.SUBJhaaADHmanahouseisahimaaLK.GENseen-uenter-3.SG.PRES.SUBORDinni haa mana isa aa seen-uhe.SUBJ ADH house him LK.GEN enter-3.SG.PRES.SUBORD"May he enter his house"