Yemsa

Abstract This chapter looks into Yemsa, which is considered to be an independent branch of Omotic. Yemsa displays different politeness registers for person marking and a small part of its vocabulary, and three level tones with lexical roots. The chapter also addresses morphophonological processes of Yemsa–whereas the main part is dedicated to morphosyntax. Yemsa distinguishes two genders in both nominal and verbal forms, with feminine as morphological default. There are a variety of morphologically, semantically, and syntactically specified main and dependent verb forms including converbs, as well as twelve nominal cases. Mood is a prominent category on verbs, next to aspect. Negation and polarity are coded on the verb in ways that are specific to the chosen verb form.