-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)

1. to, towards
2. for the sake of, with … in mind
   • 1922, “Harari-Studien”, in Enno Littmann, editor, Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete‎^[1], 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.

3. 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^[2], volume 66, number 2, pages 138–141
• Enno Littmann, editor (1922), “Harari-Studien”, in Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete‎^[3] (in Tigre), volume 1, page 83 line 15
• Enno Littmann, editor (1922), “Harari-Studien”, in Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete‎^[4] (in Tigre), volume 1, page 64 line 29