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Charles Ferguson first proposed the Ethiopian language area (1970, 1976). (Various scholars may also use the terms ''Sprachbund'' or ''linguistic area''.) He posited a number of phonological and morpho-syntactic features that were found widely across Ethiopia (which included Eritrea at that time), including the Ethio-Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages, (though it did not include the Nilo-Saharan languages). Since then, others have pointed out smaller areas of shared features within this larger area, (Appleyard 1989, Breeze 1988, Sasse 1986, Tosco 1994, Wedekind 1989). One of the strongest features of the Ethiopian Language Area seems to be the use of the verb "say" as an inflected dummy element for an uninflected lexical base (Appleyard 2001, Cohen ''et al.'' 2002). Hayward has also pointed out patterns of lexicalization as evidence of a shared linguistic unity across the Language Area (1999, 2000) and Treis has found further examples of this (2010). Though Tosco earlier accepted that the status of the Ethiopian Language Area had "long been well established" (1994:415), he has since challenged Ferguson’s work, pointing out flaws (2000). He concludes that the Ethiopian Language Area is not valid, and suggests that Ferguson’s work reflects the politics of his time, when there was a strong emphasis on Ethiopian unity, as reflected in Levine's book ''Greater Ethiopia: the evolution of a multiethnic society.''〔Levine, Donald. 1974. ''Greater Ethiopia: the evolution of a multiethnic society.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press.〕 Baye Yiman has shown evidence of pragmatic similarities among languages of the Ethiopian Language Area (1997). Güldemann has proposed that the use of a generic auxiliary is an area feature that includes Ethiopia but also other languages further to the west and northwest.〔Tom Güldemann. 2005. Complex predicates based on generic auxiliaries as an areal feature in Northeast Africa. ''Studies in Africamn Linguistic Typology'' ed. by F. K. Erhard Voeltz, pp. 131-154. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.〕 Similarly, Cohen, Simeone-Senelle, and Vanhove have examined the grammaticalized use of "say" and "do" as an area feature in what they call "East Africa".〔David Cohen, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, and Martine Vanhove. 2002. The grammaticalization of "say" and "do": An areal phenomenon in East Africa. ''Reported discourse: a meeting ground for different linguistic domains'', ed. by Güldemann, Tom and Manfred von Roncador, pp. 227-251. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.〕 This topic is still not settled among Ethiopian linguists. ==Citations== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ethiopian language area」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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