Some Comparative Phonology and Morphology of Kambata and Oromo
Tilahun Negash Mekuria

Abstract
Comparative linguistics is a study which mainly focuses on comparing languages with a view of establishing their relatedness. This article presents some comparative analysis of studies on the phonological and morphological systems of Cushitic languages namely; Kambata and Oromo. Kambata is under Highland Land East Cushitic and Oromo is under Lowland East Cushitic. Comparative study of the Cushitic languages has been done fairly and this necessitated the study to be undertaken to determine the relatedness of the two Cushitic languages. The proposed study was guided by two objectives; to establish whether the languages are related and to discuss some forms and differences of linguistic elements in the languages. The data in this study was gathered from two natives from each language and the secondary data collected on the two languages. The comparative method then was involved in data analysis. The majority of the comparison is based on the secondary data collected on the respective languages from earlier studies on the languages. Distinctive features of the languages are indicated based on the findings. Correspondingly, different phonological and morphological aspects that make the languages identical or different are valued in the paper. The study established that the languages are related. It is observed that there are extraordinary similarities in phonemic and morphemic inventories. Based on the study objectives, it was recommended that Study of the Cushitic language should be done to clearly show their degree of relatedness.

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