Abe Abraham wrote: ↑13 Dec 2019, 16:48
... Birhan that the Arabs borrowed from us. That is how Arabic is related to our languages. [/b][/color]
Abe Abraham,
Speaking of Birhan, you might want to know the following two words in Borana lanaguage (Afan Oromo): በሪ and በሪኤ. The first one means dawn and the second one means dawned. I imagine the Amharic word በራ has the same origin as በሪኤ. I am guessing the equivalent word sounds the same in Tigrigna and Ge'ez. If you go further and look at the origin of the English word bright, it makes you wonder more. Here are its variations in various languages: beorht (Old English,) bjartr (Old Norse,) bairhts (Gothic,) beraht (Old High German,) bjerk (Norwegian,) brokig (Swedish.) You may also wonder if other languages might also have had their own challenges of using their own Qubes in order to write a single word with the same meaning.
DefendTheTruth,
I remember watching a while back a YouTube video clip wherein Dr. Gemechu Megersa was asked a challenging question about an outlook of the Borana people. He appeared caught off guard about the question and gave a short response, which I think is correct. If I remember correctly, his short response was ነመ ጄዹ or something to that effect. Just the other day, I was listening to another YouTube video clip where an Afan Oromo speaking young man said ነመ፣ ሌንጨ፣ and so on (I don't remember all those that he listed.) Did the differentiation that you are reading and understand today exist when the ancient people started to say ነመ፣ በሪ፣ በሪኤ, and so on? That is a question that everybody should ask himself or herself and get a satisfying answer. If you can scientifically say humanity is one kind in a set, you can always conveniently get subsets based on the language they speak or the geographic area they occupy. Convenience is what leads to grammatically incorrect statements like this: "There are the Oromo people, there are the Amhara people, the Guraghe people and these are
peoples of Ethiopia and can be called together part of the Ethiopian
People."
YAY,
I have just gotten back to this thread. So, pardon me for my belated responses.
Thank you for providing various references that are new to me. I have been calling for a Borana-Ge'ez dictionary. I read the meanings of the Ge'ez words delightfully. They reinforce my call for that kind of dictionary. In a way, it takes us to the earliest days of spoken language. As I read through the words, I was imagining the landscape where those words were used. In Horus' response to you, it seems to me that the word ሃገር itself is related to ጋር, which appears to me a variation of ጋረ in Borana language. When you say ጉዞ, I ask if ጎዳና is also a Ge'ez word. If it is, then I jump to the word ጎዳኔ, which literally explains the meanings of many of the words you listed. When you provide a meaning for ኣሕባራ, I wonder if the word ኣቧራ is related to it and then I jump to ኣዋረ. ኣቧራ and ኣዋረ mean the same thing. We can talk about early human migration without the need for DNA study. Language study may be equally rich.
Now, going back to my question, I don't think I am confused about the term ህብረብሄር or ህብረ ብሄር. I understand you when you say: "I find it confusing more now, when different people seem to mean different things by the same term." As I wrote early on in this thread, ብሄር፣ ሃገር፣ እና የሃገር ድንበር ኣይነጣጠሉም። If you take the U.S. as an example, it has a defined geographic boundary and all of its citizens make a nation, not a multi-nation. I also have enough of a reading when it comes to the activism and venture to define Ethiopia as multi-nation, which is directly translated into ህብረብሄር or ህብረ ብሄር. When you have a country, you have a nation, not a multi-nation. That much is clear to me.
Horus,
I am reading that you are suggesting that the words ሃገር and ጋራ may be related. Did I misunderstand you?