Azeb Amha
Azeb Amha (1967) is a linguist working on the morphology and syntax of Afroasiatic languages, with a special focus on Omotic languages. A senior researcher at the African Studies Center Leiden, Azeb is co-editor of the international Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (with Felix Ameka) and member of the board of the Dutch Society for African Studies (NVAS).
Azeb Amha | |
|---|---|
Amha (2022) | |
| Born | 1967 |
| Occupation | Linguist |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Addis Ababa University, Leiden University |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Leiden University |
| Main interests | morphology and syntax of Afroasiatic languages |
After undergraduate studies at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, Azeb obtained her PhD degree from Leiden University. Her thesis, a comprehensive grammar of the Maale language of South-West Ethiopia, was hailed as "an example of descriptive linguistics at its best". Her broad-ranging work since then has involved research on and audio-visual documentation of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Oyda, Zargulla and Wolaitta peoples, whose languages belong to the Omotic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family.
In 2007, her research on language endangerment and audiovisual documentation (with Maarten Mous and Anne-Christie Hellenthal) was one of 7 finalists for the Academische Jaarprijs and in 2016, she was awarded a competitive research grant for a three year project of the Endangered Languages Documentation Project for the linguistic and ethnographic documentation of endangered cultural practices of the Zargulla people in South-West Ethiopia. Her collection on house construction and farming among the Zargula people is available in the repository of the Endangered Languages Archive.