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The Semantics of Locative Adpositions in Amharic
Amharic belongs to the transversal group of the South Ethiopian Semitic branch of the Ethiopian Semitic subfamily, the Semitic family of the Afroasiatic phylum. According to the Population Census Commission, Ethiopian people speak Amharic as a first language. It is the second most populous Semitic language after Arabic. It was the only language of education in Ethiopian primary schools and the most prestigious and dominant language in Ethiopia until 1991. It serves as a de facto lingua franca in major cities and towns of the country, and is the working language of the federal government. Although there are monolingual speakers of Amharic in various major towns and cities of the country, including Addis Abǝba, native Amharic speakers live in the core Amhara areas such as Gondǝr, Godʒdʒam, (North) ʃǝwa and Wǝllo.
In this article, I identify and examine the linguistic forms employed in basic locative constructions in the sense of Levinson and Wilkins’ topological relations.8 The term ‘basic locative construction’ refers to the construction used in a basic locative function. It focuses on responses to ‘wherequestions’ (i.e. ‘where is the X?’).