Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa) Orthography Primer
I decided to create a resource for basic Hadiyya orthography (Hadiyyisa alphabet and writing system). It will be updated as needed. My stimulus comes from the lack of such basic resource online. I had wanted to lean it myself, but my online searches yielded nothing – until I found it buried in an indirect source, Oslo Studies in Language scholarly journal.1 By creating this, I hope to help others who are in the same situation, and contribute towards Hadiyyisa’s development as a written language and help reverse its observed weakening trend. State of Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa) Language of Ethiopia is an in depth article about this issue.
The Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa) Language Alphabet
| Letter (Large/small) | Name/Sound | Example Hadiyyisa Word(s) |
|---|---|---|
| A a | [a] | mato (one), Waa’aa (God) |
| B b | [ba] | baxo (work), lobakata (much, many) |
| C c | [t∫’a] | maceesee (hear me), cawoomoo (I’ll be silent). * |
| CH ch | [t∫a] | manchoo (man), heechaa (life) |
| D d | [da] | daddaraanchoo (merchant), danaamoo (good, beautiful) |
| E e | [e] | neesee (us), eranee (well, good) |
| F e | [fa] | hoffanee (small), fatakimaa or fatahimaa (to release) |
| G g | [ga] | gatisima (to save, to secure), gaga (self) |
| H h | [ha] | hasee (find it), halichoo (donkey) |
| I i | [i] | iihanee (mine), hinkid (how) |
| J j | [dʒa] | joraa (bad), jagara (small residence usually next to a bigger one) |
| K k | [ka] | ka (‘you’ for male), kuk (this) |
| L l | [la] | lelee (play), laroo (cows) |
| M m | [ma] | ma’ccee (ear), maree (go) |
| N n | [na] | nafaraa (meadow in front area), neesee (us) |
| NY ny | [ɲa] | adapted for loan words such as ‘sanyo’ (monday) of Amharic |
| O o | [o] | meenticcoo (woman or the woman), woroon (below) |
| P p | [pa] | adapted for loan words such as politics from English, and police from Amharic/English. However, monolingual Hadiya actually change the sound to [ba] in their speech |
| PH ph | [p’a] | aphisee (hit it), ccoophaaroo’o (food – minsed meat/greens in butter & spices) * |
| Q q | [k’a] | qoxaraa (strong), ha’qaa (wood) * |
| R r | [ra] | hurbaata (food), woro’nee (in) |
| S s | [sa] | lasagee (later), so’oo (barley) |
| SH sh | [∫a] | shokkiissoohanee (hot, burning), bashillaa (far) |
| T t | [ta] | diinatee (money or cattle), matayanoo (being busy) |
| TS ts | [s’a] | adapted for loan words such as ‘tsom’ (fasting) of Amharic * |
| U u | [u] | Uulla (earth or one’s plot/plat), hundam (all of it) |
| V v | [va] | adapted for loan words such as ‘university’ of English |
| W w | [wa] | weeraa (cedar tree), wo’oo (water) |
| X x | [t’a] | wiximaa (seeding), iix (he) * |
| Y y | [ya] | iiyyimaa (carrying), malayyee (strength, force) |
| Z z | [za] | zara (race or ethnic group) |
| ZH zh | [ʒa] | adapted for loan words such as ‘gezhii’ (governor) of Amharic |
| ‘ (no allograph) | [ʔa] | ki’aakka’a (rising), liira’imito’oo (they rejoiced) |
* In his work mentioned above, Dr. Shimelis Mazengia recommends the replacement of < c ph q ts x > with < c’ p’ k’ s’ t’ > respectively to facilitate learnability, regularity, simplicity, economy, and to reduce negative transferability to English orthography. However, while this is an impressive study and the recommendations are good, I am not sure of the feasibility and even the suitability of adapting it given the present stage of Hadiyyisa’s orthography. In addition, the merits of his recommendation must be evaluated carefully by the practitioners on the ground even though Dr. Mazengia’s expert advice has considerable weight should not be taken lightly. For instance, I imagine the generous use of apostrophe as he recommends make Hadiyyisa sentences and paragraphs appear complicated and messy to readers, not to mention the possible conflict and confusion with the current legitimate use this character as glottal stop in Hadiyyisa orthography.
Even if the practitioners on the ground were to accept the recommendations, I am sure they will use a balance between redeveloping what little materials that we have in Hadiyyisa plus retraining effort needed on the one hand and the long-term effectiveness of his recommended modification of the orthography. The right question maybe: do we have bigger issues to tackle such as making Hadiyyisa a literary language in the first place? I differ the answer to linguists and practitioners on the ground.
- Binyam Sisay Mendisu & Janne Bondi Johannessen (eds.) Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Challenges and Capacity Building Efforts, Oslo Studies in Language 8(1), 2016. 201–218. (ISSN 1890-9639)
I finally found this basic information in Dr. Shimelis Mazengia’s article in Oslo Studies in Language scholarly journal volume that was generously made available online by the publisher. My presentation here uses his work as a primary and only source.
Linguists and educators among you may certainly offer me feedback. I would appreciate suggestions from people with such backgrounds and those that are simply practitioners of Hadiyyisa orthography globally. I suspect professionals that are in Ethiopia (educators, linguists, and other practitioners), especially on the ground in Hadiya Zone, would have valuable advice to offer.
14 thoughts on “Hadiyya (Hadiyyisa) Language Orthography – Alphabet and Writing”
I am keen to support your work for the future. Let me also ask one questions , why did you not mentioned the letters. ” cha”, “sha” & “pha” ?
Hi Sintayehu, Thank you for your support. Yes, we can connect and do somethings together since there is not much work done out there on Hadiyyisa language and Hadiya cultural preservation/revitalization/development. The goal of this site is to get us started. To provide Hadiya people a platform to exchange ideas and information and to facilitate further contributions from the community towards preservation/revitalization of its own culture, history, and language.
If you are on Facebook, Hadiya Journey page is a counterpart to this website and the place where we try to reach out to Hadiya on Facebook since they are already there. You might want to follow/like the page to keep up with Hadiya discussions there that might not necessarily be on the website (unfortunately people don’t visit website as much). We also have Hadiyyi Googo Group Facebook group you can be a part of for more project oriented discussions.
I don’t think I missed [cha], [sha], and [pha] as you mentioned as they are represented by ch with a sound [t∫a], sh with a sound [∫a], and ph with a sound [p’a]. At first I too was having challenges as a non-linguist understanding symbols. I had to brush up on international phonetic alphabet, etc to be an OK amateur on the subject. Thanks for the good question though.
I appreciate the beginning and we work together for renaissance of Hadiyya. However, for the pronunciation of Hadiyyisa more referencing is required. For instance: B b [ba] baxoo (work), lobakataa (much, many), G g [ga] gatisimaa (to save), gagaa (self), U u [u] Uullaa (earth or one’s plot/plat), hundam (all of it), Z z [za] zaraa (race or ethnic group), which has to be written as baxo (work), lobakata (much, many); gatisima (to secure), gaga (self), Uulla (earth or one’s plot/plat), hundam (all of it), Z z [za] zara (race or ethnic group), respectively. This way of expression has to be applied for the rest.
Thanks Tadewos for your comment. This is exactly the feedback we need, especially from Hadiya linguists and educators types. Are you one of the professionals in these areas?
It looks like you are suggesting in B b examples from baxoo to baxo, lobakataa to lobakata – well taken. In G g gatisimaa (to save) to gatisima (to secure) – in this I accept the change to gatisima, but the meaning ‘to save’ is wrong necessarily, I will do this: “(to save, to secure”. Sounds good? Gagaa to gaga, Uullaa to Uulla, zaraa to zara will be done. I hope I did not miss any!
Is well
Thanks
Thank you for starting this page for the people who want to learn the language like me. I come across your page while I was searching for some dictionary of Haddiyyisa language. Of course the language are not so much far from Afan Oromo in some words. The embellishment of Alphabet and word construction is also similar. For example let me compare the following words.
1. Waa’aa (God)= waaqa (God)
2. cawoomoo (silent) = Callisee(silent)
3. manchoo (man)= Namichoo(man)
4. joraa (bad)= Joraa(Useless person)
5. maree (go)= Maree( rolling a rope)
6. hurbaata (food),= Hurbaata or Erbaata( dinner)
7. Uulla (earth or one’s plot/plat)=Uullaa or Hulaa( side door in which small land can accessed)
8. hundam (all of it)=Hunduma(all)
9.Moyee(Morter)=Moyee(Morter)
Etc.
There for go ahead and develop this page.
It is good work
Thank you!
some word sense disambiguate letters for haddiyyisa language like Ts,Sh,Ph,ny, so we takes two letters why not convert into one sound letter.
may be I want to do research work on this letter or may be help word sense disambiguate for Haddiyyisa languages more than two meanings.can you in Hadiyyisa language data set?
Tanks Abraham for your comment and willingness to work on this issue. We have a shortage of scholars doing research on Hadiyyisa. Did you mean a body of work written in Hadiyyisa in soft copy? I am afraid not enough has been written in Hadiyyisa in any standardized orthography for use in machine learning, etc..
Please I want to learn Hadiya
Perhaps start by using Apps on Android or iOS. There are resources on this site that are helpful or might point out to other helpful resources. Ultimately the best way to learn is to actually speak with the natives which can start by following Hadiyyisa media programs from such sources as hadiya television, hadiya media network and others.
Is there a frequency list?