-ቤ

Harari

Etymology

From Proto-Semitic *bV-. The postpositional instead of prepositional use is 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 *bV-, left to the historical chronolect called “Old Harari”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [be]

Postposition

-ቤ (-be)

1. in
2. to, towards

Usage notes

Used often to express circumstances adverbially, for space as well as time.

References

• Gensler, Orin D. (1997) “Mari Akkadian iš “to, for” and Preposition-Hopping in the light of comparative Semitic syntax”, in Orientalia‎^[1], volume 66, number 2, pages 138–141
• Enno Littmann, editor (1922), “Harari-Studien”, in Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete‎^[2] (in Tigre), volume 1, page 42 line 23