Galla

Galla: see Oromo.

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Oromo

 pejorative Galla

Major ethnic group of Ethiopia, numbering more than 20 million, or nearly one-third of the population, and occupying much of its central and south-central regions. They speak a Cushitic language of the Afroasiatic family. They are a diverse group, having assimilated and intermarried with other peoples since the 16th century. Traditionally the Oromo were nomadic herders, but today most are settled agriculturalists. Politically they are largely subjugated to the dominant Amhara. In religion they are divided among Islam, the Ethiopian Orthodox faith, and traditional beliefs.

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Galla 

Gallas, a people living in Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Their population is more than 5.9 million in Ethiopia and approximately 50,000 in Kenya (1967, estimate). Their language belongs to the Cushitic group of the Semito-Hamitic language family.

The Galla are subdivided into several groups, among them the Tulama (Shoa Province), Macha (Wallaga Province), Arusi, and Boran (Sidamo Province and Kenya). Their main occupation is farming, which is combined with cattle raising in central and western Ethiopia; cattle raising is the chief occupation in southern Ethiopia and Kenya. Some of the Galla profess Christianity of the Monophysite sect; others are Muslims. In central Ethiopia the Galla are consolidated with other peoples into a single Ethiopian nation.

REFERENCES

Rait, M. V. Narody Efiopii. Moscow, 1965.
Haberland, E. Galla Süd-Äthiopiens. [Stuttgart] 1963.

M. V. RAIT

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Galla 

the language of the Galla people in southern and eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya (approximately 6 million people; 1967, estimate). Galla belongs to the Cushitic group of the Semito-Hamitic language family.

The consonant system of Galla contains glottalized k and t and preglottalized d. Tones and the length of vowels and consonants play a phonological role. Grammatical meaning is expressed primarily by means of suffixes, which are basically agglutinative but with strong phonetic interference from adjacent morphemes, which brings the word structure close to that of the inflectional type. Case relations are expressed by noun suffixes, postpositions, and accent. There is a marked nominative case. The noun has semigrammatical categories of singularity (similar to the Russian goroshina, “pea”) and plurality (used much less frequently than in European languages). The verb is inflected for the person, number, and gender of the subject and for tense, mood, and voice (reflexive, passive, causative, and so on); it has special negative forms. Word formation is of the suffixal type. The Semito-Hamitic internal inflection has been lost. Word order is relatively fixed: the verb-predicate is located at the end of the sentence, and the attributive usually follows the dependent member.

REFERENCES

Moreno, M. M. Grammatica teorico-pratica della lingua galla con esercizi. Rome, 1939.
Thiene, G. da. Dizionario della lingua galla. Harar, 1939.
Tucker, A. N., and M. A. Bryan. Linguistic Analysis: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. London-New York-Cape Town, 1966.

A. B. DOLGOPOL’SKII