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April 26

Transversal

What does the word transversal mean in the infobox in the Amharic article? It's also used in Ethiopian Semitic languages but still without any explanation. Rojomoke (talk) 11:09, 26 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

According to the "Semitic Languages" article in The World's Major Languages, edited by Bernard Comrie, "Transversal South Ethiopic" includes Amharic, Argobba, Harari (Adare), and East Gurage (but not other "Gurage")... AnonMoos (talk) 12:55, 26 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The term "transversal" seems to have been introduced by Robert Hetzron, probably in his work "Ethiopian Semitic: studies in classification", published in 1972. There appears to be no explanation as to why the South Ethiopic languages were divided into "transversal" and "outer" branches. Mikenorton (talk) 13:33, 26 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Robert Hetzron wrote the article I mentioned in my previous comment... AnonMoos (talk) 15:23, 26 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Some time shortly after the 1st century A.D., Southethiopic split off from the northern branch. A traditional theory, proposed in the 1950s by Robert Hetzron, states that this southward migration took place along two routes, a direct path into the Southeast and a transversal route along the western coast. The theory remains unprovable, but provides a working hypothesis for the grouping of the southern languages into Outer South Ethiopic and Transversal South Ethiopic.^[1]

--Lambiam 10:28, 27 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Given that he didn't complete his PhD until 1966, "the 1950s" looks a little early, but he was using the term "outer South Ethiopic" by 1971 and from this biography probably from 1968 in 'Main verb markers in Northern Gurage' (Africa, 1968), which the bio describes thus "in which article he also introduced his innovative and controversially detailed classification of Ethiopian Semitic". The explanation of the terms seems reasonable, but it would be good to check that 1968 article for confirmation. Mikenorton (talk) 11:09, 27 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]