-ሌ
Harari
Etymology
From Proto-Semitic *lV-. Some semantics borrowed are from Somali -leh (“with, owning”). The postpositional instead of prepositional use is also a Cushitic loan; it occurs in Ethiopian Semitic in general the more southern the isolect is, with Harari being the outer extreme of them all, having utterly abated the prepositional use of Proto-Semitic *lV-, left to the historical chronolect called “Old Harari”.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [le]
Postposition
-ሌ (-le)
- to, towards
- for the sake of, with … in mind
- 1922, “Harari-Studien”, in Enno Littmann, editor, Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete, volume 1, page 64 Nr. 228:
- ጋር፡ሓረ፡አንሌ፡ባይቲ፡ከሎትዬው፡የዲጅሌ፡ጋር፡ሓረ።
- gar ḥarä ʾänle bayti kälotyew yädiǧle gar ḥarä.
- He went home for my sake; to get my cap he went home.
-
- used to express circumstances adverbially
Usage notes
Used after nouns, adjectives, verbal nouns, jussives.
References
- Gensler, Orin D. (1997), “Mari Akkadian iš “to, for” and Preposition-Hopping in the light of comparative Semitic syntax”, in Orientalia, volume 66, issue 2, pages 138–141
- Enno Littmann, editor (1922), “Harari-Studien”, in Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete, volume 1, page 83 line 15
- Enno Littmann, editor (1922), “Harari-Studien”, in Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete, volume 1, page 64 line 29