multifunctional morphemes jə- and -m in ezha: an ethio-semitic language

This paper is meant to indicate the different functional tasks covered by the two multifunctional bound morphemes: jə- and -m in Ezha. The former is found to mark accusative, genitive and dative cases. The latter, on the other hand, renders the functions of contrastive focus marking, converb marking, declarative clause marking in the affirmative perfective, and coordination. After a thorough description of their functions, it is attempted to propose as to whether the various roles rendered by the two forms relate to distinctive homophonous morphemes or to a single morpheme. The required data for this study were collected from native speakers primarily through elicitation, and this method was supplemented by recording free narratives.