IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS)

Volume 24, Issue 8, Ser. 10 (August. 2019) 08-18

e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845.
www.iosrjournals.org

The Pragmatics of Blessing Expressions in Sidaama Culture

Luter Balcha Erango1, Mathewos Woldegiorgis Sidole2
1
Lecturer, Department of Sidaamu Afoo, Hawassa College of Teacher Education, Ethipia
2
Lecturer, Department of Sidaamu Afoo & Literature, CSSH, Hawassa University, Ethiopia

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to reflect the pragmatics of blessing expressions in Sidaama culture.
The method employed to conduct the study was qualitative so that collected data were analyzed qualitatively.
The data was gathered through in-depth interviews conducting with a total of 8 individuals (four clan leaders,
two village cultural leaders, and two elders). In order to gather accurate and full information about the topic,
the participants‘ age was ranged from 45-85 and selected through purposive sampling method. As a result,
blessing could be expressed as a strong tool that ties the people to live together respecting each other and keeping
healthy generation. Therefore, this study mainly reflects the situations that blessing takes place and
categorizations of blessing accompanying with morphological analysis and the descriptions of meaning. This
also enables to present that the pragmatics of blessing is a display of culture, life style, and social norms of
Sidaama people. The situation of blessing refers to the condition that blessing occurs; the type of blessing reveals
who can and cannot make blessing on whom; and the categorization of blessing betokens that for what purpose
the blessing could be done in the society.
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Date of Submission: 14-08-2019 Date of Acceptance: 30-08-2019
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I. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Sidaama refers to the people and the land they live in. The language is alternatively called as Sidaamu
Qaale‘ (previously) or ‗Sidaamu Afoo‘ (currently). Geographically, Sidaama as Sidaama Zone and Hawassa
Self-administrative Town is located in the south-central part of Ethiopia. In spite of the variation of the
statistical reports, the current population might be above 3,000,000 because of the rate of population growth
indicated in the report of the 2007 Census Commission in Ethiopia. Of the total population, more than
2,530,000 is monolingual, and more than 101, 000 people speak the language as a second language (Kawachi
2007: 2; the Ethnologue, 2017). Sidaama is marked by three climatic zones: lowlands, midlands, and highlands
that all supporting different activities and lifestyles.
Sidaamu Afoo belongs to the Cushitic (Highland East) language sub-family. Cushitic is among the
three major language sub-families of the Afro Asiatic phylum that are found in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian
Cushitic languages are divided into four: North Cushitic, Central Cushitic, South Cushitic, and East Cushitic.
The group East Cushitic is sub-divided into the Highland East Cushitic and the Lowland East Cushitic
(Kawachi 2007: 4). It is closely related to Kambaata, T'embaro, Halaaba (Alaba), Hadiyya, Kabeena, Gedeo,
and Burji. Among these languages, Sidaamu Afoo has a close affinity with three of them. According to
Ethnologue, it shares lexical similarity with Halaaba-Kabeena (64%), Kambaata (62%) and Hadiyya (53%).
Burji and Gedeo are closer to the Language by 41% and 40 %, respectively (Ethnologue, Mathewos, 2010:2).
According to Bender (1976), Sidaama is the widely spread language of the Highland East Cushitic Cluster. It is
less differentiated into dialects though there are minimal differences in different areas of the zone.
Comparatively, Sidaamu Afoo is the fifth populous language in Ethiopia after Afaan Oromoo, Amharic,
Tigrinya and Af-Somali (Kawachi 2007: 2).

1.2 Problem Statement and Objectives

According to Fromkin (2011:167), there are two kinds of context that are relevant to understand
language. The first is linguistic context – the discourse that precedes the phrase or sentence to be interpreted;
and the second is situational context – virtually everything non-linguistic in the environment of the speaker and
hearer. Situational context includes the speaker, hearer and any third parties present; along with their beliefs and
what others believe. It includes the physical environment, the social environment, the subject of conversation,
the time of the day and so on.
Though there are few descriptive works by missionaries and scholars, there are no visible works that
reveal the pragmatics of blessing, its categories, its values in language development, and its sustainability. This

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 The Pragmatics of Blessing Expressions in Sidaama Culture

work, thus, is expected to have several contributions such as preserving the indigenous culture for the
generations and using as further descriptive works on the culture and traditions.
Therefore, this article aims to describe how the pragmatics of blessing is being exercised in the society
in answering the following questions: Who has the mandate to bless? When do people bless? Based on such a
ground, the general objective of the paper is to provide a descriptive account of blessing at different socio-
cultural settings in the Sidaama. Hence, it is specifically expected to meet, firstly, in identifying who is/are in
charge of blessing and, secondly, in describing when people do bless in the organization of the society.

1.3 Methodology and Design

The study focused on Wonsho Woreda, Hula Woreda, Bursa woreda and Boona woreda. Though there
is some dialect difference, the study is based on the variety used as a standard around Hawassa. So, the
description is limited to language use irrespective of dialect variation.
The study is conducted through a qualitative approach and cross-sectional descriptive design. This
approach is intended to discover experiences, thoughts or behavior as claimed by Dawson (2007: 21). The
researchers had used interview and participant observation as the main data collecting methods. The tools
are interview guides and notes recoded during observation. For the interview guide, unstructured questions
were mainly used because the researcher wanted to collect plenty of data without any restriction. There is a
prepared guiding checklist to focus on the target issues which were happenings on occasions during
observation.
This article mainly focuses on primary data so that native speakers were used as primary sources.
During the interview, the native language ‗Sidaamu Afoo‘ was used as a target language since most of the
respondents were local language speakers. The second source is introspection. Since both of the researchers are
natives and familiars to the culture of the target society, they used indigenous experiences to collect data. The
other source is observation. The researchers had been participated in different occasions such as the celebration
of ‗Fichee Cambalaalla‘ the new year of Sidaama, mourning, and weddings and collected the primary source
data. Eight interviewees were selected purposefully based on their rich experience in indigenous cultures and
traditions, and their age. Elders can be reliable sources because of their long-lived experience. Their
geographical location (highland, lowland, and middle) was also taken into account.
In this study, the Leipzig Glossing Rules have been u s e d in order to transcribe native words. The
Rules are intended t o reflect common usage, and only very few (mostly optional) innovations are proposed.
From these rules, the word-to-word correspondence was used to transcribe each blessing utterance. Sidaamu
Afoo is transcribed in the first line; word-to-word correspondence is placed in the second line; and the English
version is written in the third line. Moreover, the phonemic transcription was used to transcribe Sidaamu Afoo.
Besides, the IPA was used for native words throughout the paper and the words were italicized except the
language name and the translated interviews.

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Definition of Blessing
Doing good by fulfilling the expectations of own for individuals or for society leads to blessing; a
mechanism of inclusion, which can be individual or collective in its manner of execution. Blessings are a
universal phenomenon although they vary across one society to another in terms of linguistic expressions and
manner of practice. The executive agents are individuals or social constructs. It means that it occurs when an
individual or group does well in playing out its role to the satisfaction of and in the interest of the society as a
whole or to those within the immediate context of the individual or group in question (Baye, 1998). In addition,
a blessing is something that is welled with people‘s belief and that is something people wish to happen on their
or other‘s life from God or good spirit originated from the truth so that they believe it as God‘s help and
protection (Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary 8 th edition CD-ROM, 2010). Furthermore, a blessing is the
invoking of favor upon a person. It is wishing something well up on somebody. It is speech acts related to some
future actions. Blessings often function as performatives, which when uttered alters some state of affairs in the
world (Eba and Ashenafi, 2017).

2.2 How People Communicate One Another and Enculturation

Communication is a very important issue in human experience. People pay out much time to exchange
information on social, political, economic and cultural issues. Based on the nature of communication, it is
possible to say that without communication the existence of human being is questionable. Communication is
necessary for a healthy society so that people exchange their culture from generation to generation through
communication. In anthropology, culture is further defined as the patterns of behavior and thinking that people
living in a social group learn, create and share. Culture also teaches one how to think, conditions one‘s how to
feel, and instructs one how to act, especially how to interact with others in other words, how to communicate

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 The Pragmatics of Blessing Expressions in Sidaama Culture

(Nevlier, 2012). Ogwezzy (2009) emphasizes that culture is the belief, custom, tradition, practices and social
behavior of a particular nation and its people. Based on this argument, it is possible to say that culture
distinguishes one human group from another.
In the contemporary Ethiopian context, traditional institutions refer to those informal institutions that
serve the community at the local and grassroots level dealing with socio-economic and political matters. In
Sidaama, there are indigenous social and political institutions whose influences have been declining since the
end of the 19th century in regulating socio-economic and political lives of the society. However, they still have
sizeable numbers of adherents despite the diminishing trend in their potency (Hamer, 1987).
Another issue that the scholars raised is about the way people communicate one another in a certain
culture. As Saville-Troike (1996:363) points out:
Communicative competence extends to both knowledge and expectation of who may or may not
speak in certain settings, when to speak and when to remain silent, whom one may speak to, how
one may talk to persons of different statuses and roles, what nonverbal behaviors are
appropriate in various contexts, what the routines for turn-taking are in conversation, how to ask for and
give information, how to request, how to offer or decline assistance or cooperation, how to
give commands, how to enforce discipline, and the like – in short, everything involving the use of
language and other communicative dimensions in particular social settings.
Sidaama society has distinct tradition and cultural life as regards marriage ceremonies and
arrangements, resolution of problems between individuals and groups, religious practices, celebration of culture-
based holidays and ceremonies like New Year festivals (Fichee), classification of generational system or Luwa,
adherence to the yakka institution serving as Ombudsman for women, customary norms, and mourning rituals
(Markos, 2014:58).
Enculturation is a gradual acceptance of another culture: the gradual acceptance by a person or group
of the standards and practices of another person or culture (Encarta® 2009). Moreover, enculturation happens
when people migrate or people come to one‘s area with different missions. They could bring their own culture
and traditions to those people who accept the guests. As Laurenti Magesa, (2004) stated in title of Transforming
the Church in Africa, from the Christian theological perspective, enculturation is understood to be the process
whereby the faith already embodied in one culture encounters another culture. In this encounter, the faith
becomes part and parcel of this new culture. It fuses with the new culture and simultaneously transforms it into a
novel religious-cultural reality. In practical terms, this process involves the interaction of mutual critique and
affirmation. It entails acceptance or rejection of thought forms, symbolic and linguistic expressions and attitudes
between the faith-cultures in question. This process is usually primarily instinctive and popular, without much
systematic planning and arrangement to it. But it can also be promoted and enhanced by institutional study and
direction. During enculturation, people may leave their indigenous traditions and culture and receive the new
one. If it is not kept well and documented in a standardized way, the indigenous knowledge will be in danger.
As P.N. Wachege, cited in (Njururi, N.1983: IV), ―the handing down of proverbs from one generation to another
orally is a tribal custom closely linked to the education of the youth and to the social interchange of
conversation....‖ Consequently, ―children are traditionally brought up on proverbs which are significantly
directed to them for their instruction and which are casually around them in daily conversation...proverbs form a
comprehensive code of law and morals which has not been obliterated or changed by the impact of Western
culture.

2.3 Types of Blessing

Blessing type may be different as a party who do it. In the first place, there is a divine intervention
party who has power beyond what is possible for a human being can do blessing over to all living creatures. For
instance, Holy Bible in Genesis (chapter 1: verses 22, 28) states that God blessed creatures including man after
He created them saying be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it. In addition, people believe
that God for Himself is blessed because of his power of protecting people from their enemies (Genesis, chap.
14: ver.20). In the other case, an individual or a group who has deserved the respect of dignity in a society can
bless others, for example, elders (elders of the tribe, the village elders, older people in a family, etc.). According
to Holly Bible, for instance, God speaks that people can bless one another saying that He will bless them whom
bless Abram (Genesis, chap. 12: ver.3). The Bible also tells us that parent can bless their children at the end of
their life (Genesis, chap. 27, 48). As mentioned in Markos (2014:62), elders may have a full mandate to bless
others because they are considered as graceful people by the grace that they receive from God. In Sidaama,
according to Markos (Ibid), elders have the upper hand and increased influence in dealing with issues that range
from family matters to broader societal concerns. Therefore, the above discussion may contribute a lot to the
topic which the researchers had selected to study.

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 The Pragmatics of Blessing Expressions in Sidaama Culture

III. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Blessings are speech acts which have linguistic features of formal and formulaic structures. Despite
their prevalence in all religious activities, they are highly associated with ordinary expressions and politeness
formulas of daily conversations. Pragmatically, they are accompanied by specific linguistic/nonlinguistic
features; such as gestures (holding hands, looking up, sitting in circle, sitting on green grasses, etc.), objects (
clothes, grasses, leaves and branches of particular trees) and substances (butter, milk, food, coffee, honey,
etc.). After all requirements are fulfilled, elders from local religious or cultural leaders utter out the linguistic
expressions which the blessed individuals/groups receive and respond in some patterns- hamiiɂni means ―I
receive, let it be upon me‖.
In Sidaama society, there are different types of blessings which are being practiced within man kinds
such as biblical blessings and non-biblical blessings. The biblical blessings are usually expected from divine
power and are believed that the divine power can bless the people/individuals according to their or his/her acts.
Non-biblical blessings are also categorized in different types such as collective (group) blessings and individual
blessings. Each of them has its own speech acting processes. For instance, collective ones can be done in a
group. There are also special occasions to utter blessing; whereas individuals are usually unexpected and
unplanned. Each individual can bless wherever good situations meet or the good act happen. There is a number
of reasons for society to practice blessings. To point some of them, performing well as innovative aspects of the
society, the individual who help others, respect social values and elaborated rituals are more taken into account.
In the next place, the paper presents individual blessings and collective blessings as social council‘s blessings of
Sidaama in detail.

3.1 Individual Blessings

An individual can bless either the individual or the group as the situations/occasions meet. An
individual can be different according to age or gender. Most of the blessings are the same that male/female can
utters. However, some of them are completely different from the way an individual's speeches. Based on their
age or sex, individuals may be categorized as fathers, mothers, sisters, mothers/fathers-in-law, and non-relatives.
These categorizations show below how each individual bless in the tradition of society:

Father’s Blessings:
In Sidaama culture, there is a tradition which the father blesses his children when they act well to him.
These blessings take place according to their age, and the act and the situations which the activities take place.
For example, there is a slight difference between the child and the mature enough. However, there are some
common speech acts for males and females. Not only the age of the child is considered for the seriousness of the
blessings, but also the age of the father matters how the power of the words is workable. The father should be
old enough to bless his children and also the children should be mature enough to understand what is said.
Father blesses his children when they fulfill all that they are expected to him, like respecting his words
whenever he speaks in any condition, dressing or feeding him at his old age, supporting him wherever he needs
their help, etc. See the following examples that describe how the father blesses when the expected requirements
fulfill:
(1a) sumuu ji-ino ɂoos-iʧʧ‘o kaliik‘i ɂo-o-ɂne
agree say-PR PRF children-3P LORD give-JUS-ObjAGR:2P
‗God may give you children who be obeyed for you‘
(1b) haʤaʤ-an-t-o-he duuʧʧa
command-PASS-3P-JUS-ObjAGR:2S all
‗Let all things be under your command‘
(1c) godow-i-ɂja maass-i-Ɂr-o-ɂne
‗stomach-NOM-POSS:1S bless-EP-BEN-JUS-ObjAGR:2P
‗May my stomach (internal body) bless you‘
(1d) ɂanʤ-i-ʧʧ -i-ɂja ɂatoote ɂikk-o-he
saliva-EP-DIM-NOM-POSS:1S prosperous be-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let my saliva be prosperous for you‘
(1e) ɂafiɂr-a-tenni ɂado-tenni gedeɂn-i
wealth-INF-PP milk-PP long last-IMP:2S
‗Long last in success and with plenty of cattle‘
(1f) beetto-ɂja man-na jor-tooti; jor-r-anna (<jor-n-anna) heeɂr-i
child-POSS:1S man-P beg-IMP:NEG beg-P-SUBF:PROG live-IMP:2S
‗My child, let you never beg others; let the others beg you‘
According to the elders, a father blesses his children in different ways. He might focus on the issue he
got them or the future he wants to be on his children. For instance, if the child obeys him whenever, he will say

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haʤaʤantohe duuʧʧa as in (1b), (meaning: I order all things to be under your foot; nobody says no if you
speak). The other (1d), for example, says that the father gives his saliva to the children. The saliva, ɂanʤa, has
vast meaning in Sidaama culture. Not only father gives saliva to an individual, but also anybody else (elders)
can give their saliva to a person who acts well. It symbolizes a great prosperous, health, success or everything
which are important for human life. During the time a father is uttering blessing words to his children or
anybody else, he may spit saliva, ɂanʤa tufa, with the words. Even though a father has no properties to offer to
his children, he gives his saliva — ɂanʤa — as great wealth. The blessing recipient also believes that the
father‘s saliva will be big wealth in his future life. There is also a belief of a silent blessing in the culture that a
father‘s heart may bless the person who did well to him even if he does not utter a blessing word during an act.
That is why he is saying godowiɂja maassi‘roɂne as in (1c), (meaning: I have no word to say, but my stomach
(heart) may speak what I thought). Therefore, respecting fathers and obeying them are preconditions to get their
blessings in society.

Mother’s Blessings
Mother blesses her children as a father does in the society though the ways mother blesses and father
blesses are slightly different. Most blessings are nearly common; however, mothers are able to see things in
different directions before they speak a word of blessing. Most of the time, a mother should be old enough to
bless her children or anybody of the same age and the children or any blessing recipient body also should be
mature enough to understand what is said. Consider the following mother‘s blessings:
(2a) beetto-ɂja k‘ans-u-mm-a-he ɂunuun-i ɂel-o-he
Child-POSS:1S feed-PFV-SubAGR:1S-1SF-ObjAGR:2S breast-NOM favour-JUS-ObjAGR:2S ‗Let
the breast that I fed favor you‘
(2b) wot‘a-ɂja kaaɂl-i-t-o-he
spirit-POSS:1S help-EP-3F-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let my spirit help you‘
(2c) maahojj-am-anno beetto wot‘a-ɂja ɂuj-t-o-he
Obey-PASS-IPFV child spirit-POSS:1S give-3F-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let my spirit give you the obedient children‘
(2f) ɂanʤ-i-ʧʧo-ɂja ɂoy-oo-mm-a-he
Saliva-EP-DIM:NOM-POSS:1S give-PR PRF-SubAGR:1S-1FS-ObjAGR:2S
‗I gave you my saliva to you‘
(2h) beett-u sey-o-he
child-NOM be good-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Get good children‘
(2i) gedeno biif-i
later beautify-IMP:2S
‗Your later life be joyful‘
A mother is a very respectful and lovely individual in society so that everybody act in a good manner in
front of his/her mother. Anybody who respects all expectations would be blessed by his/her mother. During she
blesses her children, she can use different speech acts in order to symbolize the blessing, like her spirit, breast,
womb, saliva, etc. Consider few of the above examples (1c) and its pragmatic meanings: maahojjamanno beetto
wot‘aɂja ɂujtohe — here, she is asking her spirit to give an obedient baby to her son/daughter; means that the
spirit becomes obedient to her commands. Though the spirit is unseen, people in the society believe that there is
always response for all the proposed begs or commands of elders. In addition, example (2b) implies that the
spirit of a mother provides any good support for a recipient as proposed by the mother. In cases of (2a), a mother
symbolizes her breast to offer a strong blessing for a recipient. On the other hand, she calls/raises her breast to
bless the children because she primarily gave life for her children feeding breast milk. As a belief of the society,
breastfeeding is a long life gift that the mother could offer to her child in early childhood development.
Moreover, the mother‘s saliva is also expected as a powerful agent to do a blessing as in (2f). She gives it as if
she gives objects/properties to her children saying, ɂanʤiʧʧoɂja ɂoommahe. This implies that she has nothing to
hire to her children, but she can give them saliva that would make them wealthy. There is a belief that if a
mother or anybody else blesses spitting slight drop of saliva from her mouth repeatedly in a fast manner, she
released irreversible and unabrogated truth of blessing out from her soul/spirit. This means that what uttered
once will happen in the recipient future life. Therefore, everybody needs mother‘s blessing, even she is not a
true mother (= s/he is not born from her), respecting her or performing well-doing before her.

Sister’s Blessings
Sisters among their brothers also do have the mandate to do the blessing in the society. This is because
there is a consideration that the source for human being foundation is a woman. Even a man comes to rule this

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world through a woman so that women should be given deserving respect according to society‘s belief. On such
a ground, a sister blesses her clan and family when they do good things to her during her visits after she got
married. During her blessing, she uses different utterances according to her feelings. Consider the following
examples:
(3a) ledo gont‘-u-mmo (<got‘-n-u-mmo) godow-i maass-i-ɂr-o-he
with sleep:P-IPFV-SubAGR:2P womb-NOM bless-EP-BEN-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let the womb that we slept bless you‘
(3b) ledo k‘an-n-u-mmo ɂunuun-i ɂel-o-he
with feed-P-IPFV-SubAGR:2P breast-NOM favor-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let the breast that we fed together will favor you‘
(3c) ɂani ɂate nafara beetti-kki-ra randiʧʧo ɂikk-oonke-he
I your doorstep child:NOM-POSS:2S-PP sister be-JUS:NEG-ObjAGR:2S
Literal: ‗Let me not be the sister for your son at your home‘
Figurative: ‗Have a daughter in addition to your son/sons or your wife gives birth to a daughter‘
(3d) ɂille-nniha waahino-nniha randiʧʧo-te magan-i k‘iiʃ-o-ɂne
eye-REL hate-REL sister-POSS:3F God-NOM mislead-JUS-ObjAGR
‗Be saved from whom look you bad eye and hate you by the spirit of sister‘
(3e) ɂama-ɂja ɂanni-ɂja mudukk-i hagiiᵭᵭ-o-he
mother-POSS:1S father:NOM-POSS:1S navel-NOM pleased:BEN-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let my mother‘s and father‘s navels be satisfied with you‘
As considered, sisters bless either their brothers or sisters referring to the different her mother‘s body
parts (as mother uses her own), like breast and womb (or navel) because the breast is that they fed together and
the womb is that they slept while they were an infant. She refers to her mother's breast wishing to bless them as
in (3b), ledo k‘annummo ɂunuuni ɂelohe. Culturally, the society accepted a breast as a powerful agent to transfer
blessing from mother‘s spirit to her children (see also explanations about breast under the subtopic ‗Mother‘s
Blessings‘). Similarly, sisters during their blessing utterances can refer to their mother‘s womb. It is the place
where they were created and lived for nine months. That is unchangeable truth everybody in the society should
accept not to deny it so that it has the power to bring blessings on individuals (recipients) for their good act to
deserved parties who have the mandate to do blessing. For example, this is reflected as in (3a) like ledo
gont‘ummo godowi maassiɂroɂne; through these words, she says that she and her brothers and/or sisters are born
from the same mother so that the truth of that reality brings blessings upon them for their good kinds. Besides,
as presented in (3c and 3d), she may utter blessings believing in her spirit that it can give a daughter for her
brother (3c) and can escape her clan/brothers/sisters from evils (3d), ɂillenniha waahinonniha randiʧʧote
magani k‘iišoɂne (meaning: let my spirit lead evil things in misdirection when they come towards you or hide
you until evils pass). As in (3e), she refers to her mother‘s and father‘s navels to bless so that the navel can be
always satisfied by them because of her blessing words though they could not act well to their parents. In
general, the sisters are respectful in society and have the mandate to bless people around her.

Mother-in-law’s/Father-in-law’s Blessings
Mothers-in-law or fathers-in-law are other parties who have the mandate to do the blessing in Sidaama
community. This paper mainly focuses on the blessings that they do on their sons-in-law and/or daughters-in-
law so that the following examples are common both to mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law. However, the way
mothers-in-law blesses calling mother‘s spirit, woxa, could remain differently as in (2b), …woxaɁya kaaɁlitohe,
and (2c), …woxaɁya Ɂuytohe; or wishing successes in all the way of their sons/daughters-in-law, they say
wot‘aɂja ɂeltohe (meaning: Let my spirit favor you).
(4a) ballo ɂikk-i
mother-in-law be-IMP:2S
‗Be mother-in-law/father-in-law or give birth‘
(4b) ɂane gede faar-i
me like get-many-children-IMP:2S
‗Be mother/father having many children like me‘
(4c) beetto ɂil-t-o-he ʧ‘iir-t-o-he
child give birth-3F-JUS-ObjAGR:2S get seedlings-3F-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let your wife be fertile‘
Above examples present different contents through blessing words mainly revolving around the issue
that having children is very important in life. Mother-in-law or father-in-law utters blessing her/his
daughter/son-in-law gets a chance of being mother/father-in-law in turn in their life as in (4a). This indirectly
shows that the blessing primarily can give a potential of giving birth and healthy family to them. In addition, the
blessing presented as in (4b) reflects that only giving birth and having limited children is not enough. Based on

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such a belief, mother/father-in-law utters words of blessing that lead to having a number of children around.
Moreover, another blessing that focuses on daughter-in-law, as in (4c), indicates that in the first place being
blessed towards giving birth is very important. To conclude, people in this culture accept mothers-in-law‘s or
fathers-in-law‘s blessing as a workable one so that they must always be respected in an appropriate way in the
society.

Non Relative Blessings

Under individual blessings (cf. 3.1) we could consider that blessing is done among family relatives.
Out of that line, non-relatives can also bless wherever an individual performs well in front of one who invokes
blessing from the true spirit or God. The common blessings and the way non-relatives blesses is depended upon
the action which an individual acts. For examples,
(5a) tu! tu! lopp‘-i baa bajiʧʧo ɂiill-i
spitting saliva grow-IMP:2S destination reach-IMP:2s
‗Spitting saliva-let you grow up, be successful and reach destination‘
(5b) kaaɂl-anno-ha hoog-g-ooti (<hoog-t-ooti)
help-IPFV-REL(m):ABS miss-2S-NEG
‗Be helped wherever you need help‘
(5c) maahojje ji-t-o-he ɂooso
okay say-3F-JUS-ObjAGR:2S children
‗Let your children be obedient for you‘
(5d) buʃuri soɂr-o-he, danʧuri tim-o-he
bad thing:NOM miss-JUS-ObjAGR:2S good thing:NOM over flow-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let bad fortune miss you, and good thing over flow up on you‘
(5e) kul-l-oonni-tenni (<kul-n-oonni-tenni) gat-i
told-P-PR PRF-what being save-IMP:2S
‗Be saved from what is told‘
These blessings (5a-e) approach different level members of society using different
expressions/language or different blessing contents. For instance, either young people or adults should carry
blessings that fit their age level in society. Based on such a ground, blessing (5a) addresses children level young
spitting saliva upon them wishing that it may make their growth normal and successful. Blessing (5b) denotes
that it is for either youngsters or a married person. The meaning conveyed for youngsters is that they will never
miss help for their everlasting life. The meaning on the married person side is to wish that a person will have
children who can help him in the same way. According to blessing (5c), a person who have children, focusing
on an adult, should have them who always obey and provide all desirable helps to him/her. Blessing (5d) serves
for all level of society members wishing to have a life of good fortune being escaped from bad fortune. Blessing
(5e) seems that refer to all level members wishing them to be saved from the bad lucks told by the direful body
because of the envy s/he bears upon them. Finally, these blessings conveyed the meaning that blessing one
another is not a limited culture for only among family members; rather it is a limitless action for all level of
human creatures.

3.2 Songo’s Blessings

The word ‗songo‘ refers to a ‗elders‘ or social council‘ in Sidaamu Afoo. There are different level
songos – social councils – traditionally in Sidaama society which have authority to resolve problematic issues,
to make decisions on communal issues of society, and to bless or curse over individuals and groups based on
their acts in the community (Markos Tekile, 2014:112-116).
When Songo bless, there are different requirements to be fulfilled before the blessing action; for
example, place selection of meeting for Songo, occasions or ceremonies of the process, the provision of animals
for slaughter, and the preparation of drinks like malawo-‗honey‘. After all these are prepared properly, either of
the level leaders slaughters the animals and tastes the honey first then starts to bless the people, nations or
country.
During the blessing, the elders open the inside part or folded part of seemma —‗the cultural clothe of
Sidaama‘ which is clean and white. This implies that the blessees to be like seemma. During Fichee
Chambalaalla which is the most celebrated Sidaama cultural holiday of the new year also the songo will bless
the society wishing that the new year would be blessed, peaceful, full of prosperous and full of health uttering as
follows:
(6a) gobba geɂ-i ; gobba-te keere ɂuj-i
land stable-IMP:2S land-PP peace give-IMP:2S
‗Let land be full of peace‘ ; ‗Let peace be for the country‘
(6b) gaʃʃoote-ho, gadaann-i-ra garo-te geelo-ra keere ɂuj-i

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 The Pragmatics of Blessing Expressions in Sidaama Culture

government-PP leader-NOM-PP leader-PP leader-PP peace give-IMP:2S

‗New year, give peace for all clan leaders‘
(6c) ɂurde gedeni-ra hig-i ; ɂurde mundee hool-i-nke
war backward-PP return-IMP:2S ; war bloodshed debar-IMP:2S-Obj:1P
‗Let war be back‘; ‗Avoid war and bloodshed‘ (LORD, Protect our land from war and bloodshed)
(6d) gobba-te t‘eena ɂuj-i ; gobba-te duuwo k‘ol-i ;
land-PP rain give-IMP:2S ; country-PP satiety bring back-IMP:2S ;
loos-iɂn-i-hu (loos-inɂ-i-hu) mis-o; hude duumba-ra
work-PR PRF:BEN-PFV-REL(m) productive-JUS famine back-PP
qol-o-he
sway- JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let the rain come‘; ‗Let the country be full of food‘; ‗Let the garden be fruitful‘; ‗Let the
famine be back‘
(6e) ᵭibba t‘idda hool-i-nke; buʃa dag-g-ooti (day-t-ooti)
disease grief protect-IMP:2S-Obj:1P ; evil come-2S-NEG ;
‗Get back disease and death‘; ‗Let bad things be back‘
(6f) gobba-te gosa-te t‘aado ɂuj-i
countries-PP people-PP concord give-IMP:2S
‗LORD, let you give accordance to the countries and peoples‘ (May accordance is among
countries or peoples)
Blessing (6a) focuses on the stability and peace of the country or land of people whereas blessing (6b)
focuses on the peace of government and leaders of people. Blessings (6c) and (6d) imply the war‘s
destructiveness in economic development so that blessing is important overall people in order to avoid that
destruction from their land. Blessing (6e) reflects that any evil and disease cause death and carnage to the
people‘s life should be avoided because of this blessing. The blessing uttered by Songo as in (6f) reflects that
the relationship between peoples should be strong and effective to live in peace. Finally, these kinds of blessings
maybe belonging to clan, nation or country.
However, when the elders bless individuals, s/he (who receives blessing) is expected to do some
preliminary as a criterion, for instance, food and/or drink ceremony that is namely called ‗woɂma‘. A material
provided for drinks is called ‗malawo‘ – ‗drinks made of honey‘ and a drinking tool is also called ‗boowe‘ – ‗a
drinking cup‘. As a ceremony took place, the elders (Songo) call an individual in front of them and ask him/her
to open his hands‘ palm toward them. Then they hold the hands and utter blessings over individuals as follows:
(6g) buʃa buubb-e saɂ-o-he ; danʧa dant-e dag-g-o-he (day-t-o-he)
evil fly-CVB pass-JUS-ObjAGR:2S; good over-CVB come-2S-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let evil things pass over you‘; ‗Let all good things overflow you‘
(6h) koo beetto Ɂil-i, ʧ‘iir-i, sir-i simakko ɂikk-i
you boy be father-PFV burgeon-PFV multiply-PFV seedling be-PFV
‗You man, get children, be fruitful, and multiply‘
(6i) gobba bat‘-t‘-o-he (bat‘-t-o-he)
land love-3F-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let the land that you live accept you‘
(6j) ɂajjaan-i-nke maass-i-ɂr-o-he
Spirit-NOM-POSS:1P bless-NOM-BEN-JUS-ObjAGR:2S
‗Let our spirit bless you‘

IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Conclusions
A culture i s a way of living a n d certain people have experienced in common. Likewise, these long-
lived cultural traditions have served various functions. Some of them are keeping a good relationship between
individuals, controlling evil acts and promoting good acts. Blessing is the culture which Sidaama people have
been practicing for a long time. The people bless anybody who does something good which builds ethics and
moral aspect in any communication level of society. It means that blessing follows the activities like obedience,
respection, and support provide for any respected body in society. The action of blessing may be processed by
using different substances like breast, womb, saliva, honey, milk, green land, and others. Raising breast and
holding womb, during the blessing, are only the mother‘s act. Songo will go to green land and spray honey/milk
to make a blessing. Spiting saliva as great prosperity is the act of almost all blessers.
In this study, the researchers have discussed the pragmatic of blessing in the Sidaama culture and its
socio-cultural value. Blessing is found as a very important tool to tighten the relationship between individuals
and peoples live together in society. The study revealed that the people of Sidaama perform this cultural practice

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in different ways. For instance, individuals/groups who bless others should be adult enough in their age such as
mothers, fathers, sisters, and elders of any level. However, children cannot bless the elders or their parents. The
age matters to understand whether the utterances are blessing or not even for both bodies. On the other hand, the
beggars blessing is not fruitful or does not work according to the belief of society even the reason should be
researched more in the future.
As the informants explained, the individuals bless can be spoken everywhere whereas the group blesses
needs special places to be accomplished. For example, the green area would be selected for blessings with a
great implication that it supports the effectiveness of blessing. The pragmatic meaning of blessing varies
according to the situation, context, personality, or activities. The level of understanding between the individuals
also may be depending on age, maturity, and .gender. A few words carry many message to be interpreted.
Sometimes the meaning of the blessings might be multiple rather the speaker thinks.

4.2 Recommendations
This culture is one of the most valuable assets that the Sidaama people have been experienced for a
long time. It is performed to create peaceful co-existence among the people and preserve the good culture of
helping one another. However, according to the findings of the study, a blessing is facing a great challenge that
could be from external or internal pressures. The elders fear a lot because it looks that blessing does not
continue as culture and tradition to the coming generation because the young generation does not seem
to feel a responsibility in preserving the culture in order to transmit it to the next generation. Besides, the
expansion of modernizations and enculturation may affect the existence of this culture and its pragmatic
context in the language. The recent generation is not using the language properly. That by itself may lead
them to the situation of missing the past context of the language.
These days, in concluding, since this long-lived public culture has faced a tremendous challenge, the
researcher would like to recommend the following points addressing elders, youngsters, religious body, scholars,
and government. Elders‘ contribution to preserving the blessing culture is vital so that they have to teach the
youngsters and share ideas on what they should do to protect their culture from foreign culture mix-ups. The
young generation is also one of the most responsible bodies in preserving their culture. In the first place, they
should give more values to their indigenous culture and then ask and build their indigenous cultural knowledge
from elders. In the second place, they must learn and appreciate their own culture using modern education to
enrich their culture. Religious figures (leaders) should promote their faith respecting the traditional cultural
identity and practices of the indigenous people. Moreover, scholars should conduct research in different
indigenous cultures to save from extinction and should find out contextually applicable scientific methods which
are helpful in solving culture-related problems. As the last point, t he government is expected to protect cultural
practices from destruction taking initiatives to invite elders, religious leaders, elites, and all the concerned body
from the society and opening discussions on ways of maintaining cultural heritage. In general, we believe that the
blessing culture should be integrated into the education system as significant values based on the levels of
students.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the first place, Dr. Fekede Menuta, Associate professor of Linguistics and Communication in
College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Hawassa University is duly acknowledged for his constructive
advice. In the next place, the authors would like to thank the informants for their effective cooperation and
discussion they made during the data collection process.

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ABBREVIARIONS AND SYMBOLS

ABBREVIATIONS
1- first person
1P - first plural
1S - first singular
2 - second person
2P - second plural
2S - second singular
3 - third person
3F - third feminine
3M - third masculine
3P - third plural
AUX - auxiliary
BEN - autobenefactive
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 The Pragmatics of Blessing Expressions in Sidaama Culture

COMP - complementizer
CVB - converb
DIM - diminutive
EP - epenthetic
F – feminine
FS – feminine singular
IMP - imperative
INF - infinitive
IPFV - imperfective
JUS - jussive
M(m) - masculine
NEG -negation
NOM - nominative
ObjAGR – object agreement
P - plural
PASS - passive
PFV - perfective
POSS – possession
PP - preposition
PR PRF - present perfect
PROG – progressive
REL - relativizer
S – singular
SubAGR - subject agreement
SUBF - subordinate former
s/he – she or he
KEY TO SYMBOLS
(< ) - underlined form

Luter Balcha Erango & Mathewos Woldegiorgis Sidole. "The Pragmatics of Blessing
Expressions in Sidaama Culture." IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-
JHSS). vol. 24 no. 08, 2019, pp. 08-18.

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