---
title: "Michael B. Ahland — paper by Meyer (2013) · Aethiopica 14"
description: "It builds on a short text recorded in 2001 from the last remaining speaker, together with older wordlists and an intelligibility… 11 references."
authors: ["Ronny Meyer"]
year: 2013
venue: "Aethiopica 14"
source: "https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/aethiopica/article/view/426"
doi: "10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.426"
licence: "CC BY-SA (journal licence per DOAJ; Aethiopica)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/meyer-2013-michael-b-ahland-language-death/"
---
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# Michael B. Ahland: Language Death in Mesmes: A Sociolinguistic and Historical-comparative Examination of a Disappearing Ethiopian-Semitic Language

**Authors:** [Ronny Meyer](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ronny-meyer/) · **Year:** 2013 · **Venue:** [Aethiopica 14](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/aethiopica/) ([Aethiopica 2013](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/aethiopica/2013/)) · **Publisher:** [Hamburg University Press](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/hamburg-university-press/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-SA (journal licence per DOAJ; Aethiopica)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.426) · [PDF](https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/aethiopica/article/download/426/429) · [DOI 10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.426](https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.426) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W1524004479)

**Citations:** 1 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14)

## Summary
This is Ronny Meyer's review article of Michael B. Ahland's book on Mesmes (Mäsmäs), an Ethiosemitic Gurage language that has recently died out. Ahland's monograph is an edited version of his 2004 M.A. thesis. It builds on a short text recorded in 2001 from the last remaining speaker, together with older wordlists and an intelligibility survey across Gunnän Gurage varieties. With these materials Ahland:
- explains why the community shifted to Hadiyya;
- checks whether the terminal speaker's data can be trusted;
- places Mesmes within Peripheral Western Gurage (PWG) using shared innovations, mostly ordered sound changes;
- separates contact-induced features from inherited ones;
- proposes a new subgrouping of the Gurage varieties.

Meyer judges the book the fullest account so far of an Ethiopian language dying out, and sees its main value in preserving the language's traces. He also raises serious concerns:
- variety names and labels are used inconsistently;
- the line between a language and a dialect is never clearly drawn;
- several morphological analyses are doubtful, and he offers simpler alternatives, such as treating a form as an Amharic loan;
- there are typos and citation errors.

## Key points
- **Data sources:** a single terminal speaker in his eighties, who had not actively used Mesmes for about thirty years. His lexicon was compared with material that Bender and Stinson gathered in 1969.
- **Causes of the shift to Hadiyya:**
  - isolation from the wider PWG community;
  - market trade, which required Hadiyya;
  - the lower prestige of Mesmes.
- **Intelligibility results:** Endegeñ listeners understood 78% of the Mesmes text and called it a kind of old Endegeñ. Ennemor listeners understood 68%. These scores support grouping Mesmes and Endegeñ as "South Inor".
- **Sound changes behind the new classification:**
  - l > r and r > n separate Sebat bet Gurage from Kistane and Mesqan.
  - Devoicing and degemination (dd > t, bb > p) set Inor/Geto apart.
  - Hetzron's "Central Western Gurage" and "Peripheral Western Gurage" are renamed "Sebat bet Gurage" and "Inor/Geto".
- **Appendices:**
  - two 99-item comparative wordlists, covering Ennemor, Endegeñ, Geto, Hadiyya and Kambaata;
  - the Mesmes text with analysis notes;
  - a map showing four proposed communication centres.

## Interesting ideas
- A single shaky informant was validated by three independent checks: agreement with an older wordlist, morphology consistent with sister varieties, and comprehension by speakers of a related variety.
- Subgrouping rests on shared innovations placed in chronological order, not on overall similarity; each split is justified by specific changes.
- Meyer tests a proposed conditioning rule (vowel rounding triggered by a plural suffix) on another form that has the same trigger, finds no rounding there, and falls back on a simpler loanword explanation.
- The "rusty speaker" model treats the informant's irregularities as a known kind of erosion, such as Amharic auxiliaries replacing native ones or person contrasts collapsing, rather than as random noise.
- Meyer points out that one label, Sebat bet Gurage, silently names two different groups, one including Ennemor and one excluding it.

## For Mova

How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests:

- **I1** (learn): Silver trees from one weak witness parser could be accepted only when several independent checks agree, such as other parsers, morphological consistency and a downstream comprehension test.
- **I2** (tree): UD dialect conversion could be written as an ordered chain of named transformations. Any treebank's divergence would then be explained step by step rather than by a raw similarity score.
- **I3** (learn): Self-induced repair rules should be checked against every example containing their trigger, as a negative control, before being kept.
- **I4** (tokens): The tagger and morphology could model typical error patterns of a degraded input source, such as merged agreement forms, so that non-standard text is normalised in a principled, explainable way.
- **I5** (world): The ontology should give every concept its own identifier and flag labels that map to more than one concept. This prevents one name from merging two entities in the knowledge graph.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

📚 Shelves (2): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 16,039 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 15,891 works

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## Cite

Cite as: Ronny Meyer. 2013. Michael B. Ahland: Language Death in Mesmes: A Sociolinguistic and Historical-comparative Examination of a Disappearing Ethiopian-Semitic Language. Aethiopica 14.

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{meyer2013michael,
  title = {{Michael B. Ahland: Language Death in Mesmes: A Sociolinguistic and Historical-comparative Examination of a Disappearing Ethiopian-Semitic Language}},
  author = {Ronny Meyer},
  booktitle = {Aethiopica 14},
  year = {2013},
  doi = {10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.426},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.426}
}
```

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## References

11 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

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2. G OLDENBERG , G. 1968, ߋKȸstanȸÐÐa: Studies in a Northern Gurage Language of Chris-tiansߌ, Orientalia Suecana 17, pp. 61߃102. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=G+OLDENBERG+%2C+G%2E+1968%2C+%DF%8BK%C8%B8stan%C8%B8%C3%90%C3%90a%3A+Studies+in+a+Northern+Gurage+Language+of+Chris%2Dtians%DF%8C%2C+Orientalia+Suecana+17%2C+pp%2E+61%DF%83102%2E)
3. G UTT , E.-A. 1980, ߋIntelligibility and Interlingual Comprehension among Selected Gurage Speech Varietiesߌ, JES 16, pp. 57߃84. ߄ 1997, ߋThe Silte Group (East Gurage)ߌ, in: R. H ETZRON (ed.), The Semitic Languages, London ߃ New York: Routledge, pp. 509߃534. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=G+UTT+%2C+E%2E%2DA%2E+1980%2C+%DF%8BIntelligibility+and+Interlingual+Comprehension+among+Selected+Gurage+Speech+Varieties%DF%8C%2C+JES+16%2C+pp%2E+57%DF%8384%2E+%DF%84+1997%2C+%DF%8BThe+Silte+Group+%28East+Gurage%29%DF%8C%2C+in%3A+R%2E+H+ETZRON+%28ed%2E%29%2C+The+Semi)
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5. H ETZRON , R. 1968, ߋMain Verb-markers in Northern Gurageߌ, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 38, 2, pp. 156߃172. ߄ 1972, Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification, Manchester: Manchester University Press. ߄ 1977, The GunnÃn߃Gurage Languages, Napoli: Don Bosco. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=H+ETZRON+%2C+R%2E+1968%2C+%DF%8BMain+Verb%2Dmarkers+in+Northern+Gurage%DF%8C%2C+Africa%3A+Journal+of+the+International+African+Institute+38%2C+2%2C+pp%2E+156%DF%83172%2E+%DF%84+1972%2C+Ethiopian+Semitic%3A+Studies+in+Classification%2C+Manchester%3A)
6. H UDSON , G. 1976, ߋHighland East Cushiticߌ, in: M.L. B ENDER (ed.), The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia, East Lansing, MI: African Studies Center Michigan State University, pp. 232߃277. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=H+UDSON+%2C+G%2E+1976%2C+%DF%8BHighland+East+Cushitic%DF%8C%2C+in%3A+M%2EL%2E+B+ENDER+%28ed%2E%29%2C+The+Non%2DSemitic+Languages+of+Ethiopia%2C+East+Lansing%2C+MI%3A+African+Studies+Center+Michigan+State+University%2C+pp%2E+232%DF%83277%2E)
7. Aethiopica 14 (2011) Ronny Meyer L ESLAU , W. 1979a, Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic), Volume II: English߃ Gurage Index, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ߄ 1979b, Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic), Volume III: Etymological Section, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ߄ 1992 [1971], ߋThe verb forms of the Gurage Dialect of EndegeÐߌ, in: W. L ESLAU (ed.), Gurage Studies: Collected Articles, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 466߃473. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Aethiopica+14+%282011%29+Ronny+Meyer+L+ESLAU+%2C+W%2E+1979a%2C+Etymological+Dictionary+of+Gurage+%28Ethiopic%29%2C+Volume+II%3A+English%DF%83+Gurage+Index%2C+Wiesbaden%3A+Harrassowitz%2E+%DF%84+1979b%2C+Etymological+Dictionary+of+Gurage)
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9. R OSE , S. 2005, ߋDurational Conditions on EndegeÐ Geminationߌ, in: PICES 15, pp. 843߃850. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=R+OSE+%2C+S%2E+2005%2C+%DF%8BDurational+Conditions+on+Endege%C3%90+Gemination%DF%8C%2C+in%3A+PICES+15%2C+pp%2E+843%DF%83850%2E)
10. S ASSE , H.-J. 1973, ߋBemerkungen zum ߇Language Survey of Ethiopia߈ߌ, ZDMG 123, pp. 117߃128.0 T HOMASON , S.G. ߃ T. K AUFMAN 1988, Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. V µLLMIN , S. 2009, ߋSome Dialectal Differences between Gumer and Chaha (Gurage)ߌ, in: J. C RASS ߃ R. M EYER (eds.), Language Contact and Language Change in Ethiopia, KÕln: KÕppe, pp. 83߃95. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=S+ASSE+%2C+H%2E%2DJ%2E+1973%2C+%DF%8BBemerkungen+zum+%DF%87Language+Survey+of+Ethiopia%DF%88%DF%8C%2C+ZDMG+123%2C+pp%2E+117%DF%83128%2E0+T+HOMASON+%2C+S%2EG%2E+%DF%83+T%2E+K+AUFMAN+1988%2C+Language+Contact%2C+Creolization%2C+and+Genetic+Linguistics%2C+Berkeley%2C+CA)
11. W ETTER , A. 2010, Das Argobba: Eine deskriptive Grammatik der VarietÃt von Shonke und T߈ollaha, KÕln: KÕppe. Ronny Meyer, Addis Ababa University Aethiopica 14 (2011) [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=W+ETTER+%2C+A%2E+2010%2C+Das+Argobba%3A+Eine+deskriptive+Grammatik+der+Variet%C3%83t+von+Shonke+und+T%DF%88ollaha%2C+K%C3%95ln%3A+K%C3%95ppe%2E+Ronny+Meyer%2C+Addis+Ababa+University+Aethiopica+14+%282011%29)

*Updated 29 October 2026*