As I mentioned before, afaan Oromoo has a case system. This might be something that is less known for those who have not learned another language in the past. In essence, this means that the form of the noun changes depending on the information that the word is portraying. In English, these meanings are often done through the placement of words within a sentence. For example, the sentences “I drink coffee.” and “Coffee is present.” both use the word coffee in different ways. In the first sentence, “I” is the subject who is using coffee. In the second sentence, “I” is the item that is present. Afaan Oromoo would use the sentences Ani bunan dhuga. and Bunni jira. respectfully for each idea. You can see how the word for coffee is buna, in the first, and bunni, in the second, to show the different way that the word is used.
This shows the two most common cases the accusative for buna and the nominative for bunni. The accusative is the form of the noun that you would say if someone just asked “What does this word mean in afaan Oromoo?” The nominative is the fkrm that the noun takes when it is the subject or the noun attached to the verb as the “doer” of that verb. There are generally recognized to be seven cases in afaan Oromoo. The two cases I have explained there are the two major ones that students beyond the most basic of grammar understanding will begin to pick up on and should start trying to use. This makes hour speech sound more native and normal compared to just placing the correct verb in the equivalent English language location.
Afan Oromo by Abebe Bulto
For the book this week, Afan Oromo, there is no discuss of the case system that afaan Oromoo uses. Admittedly, a beginner can start speaking without being aware of this system. That in fact is the way that I first learned the language, and my teachers glossed over this point. It wasn’t until I started searching for additional resources and finding mostly academic texts, that I begin to identify these more easily. I do think that this is something that should be pointed out to students so they can try to self correct their speech before it becomes fossilized but I would like to think that my friends did not find me incomprehensible in the handful of months before I started to try and make these distinctions.