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Maasai language
 
 
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The Maasai language (autonym: ?l Maa) is an Eastern Nilotic
Eastern Nilotic languages

The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic languages subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in the far south of Sudan....
 language spoken in Southern Kenya
Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
 and Northern Tanzania
Tanzania

Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
 by the Maasai
Maasai

The Maasai are an Indigenous peoples African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well-known African ethnic groups internationally....
 people, numbering about 800,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties
Maa languages

The Maa languages are a group of closely related Eastern Nilotic languages spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania by more than a million speakers altogether....
  Samburu
Samburu language

Samburu is the Eastern Nilotic languages, North Maa languages language spoken by the Samburu in the highlands of northern Kenya. The Samburu number about 128,000 ....
 (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu
Samburu

The Samburu are an ethnic group in north central Kenya that are related to but distinct from the Maasai. The Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists who herd mainly cattle but also keep sheep, goats and camels....
 people of central Kenya, Chamus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Samburu); and Parakuyu of Tanzania. The Maasai, Samburu, il-Chamus and Parakuyu peoples are historically related and all refer to their language as .

the other Maa languages, Maasai has Advanced Tongue Root vowel harmony
Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance Assimilation Phonology process involving vowels in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on what vowels may be found near each other....
.






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The Maasai language (autonym: ?l Maa) is an Eastern Nilotic
Eastern Nilotic languages

The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic languages subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in the far south of Sudan....
 language spoken in Southern Kenya
Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
 and Northern Tanzania
Tanzania

Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
 by the Maasai
Maasai

The Maasai are an Indigenous peoples African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well-known African ethnic groups internationally....
 people, numbering about 800,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties
Maa languages

The Maa languages are a group of closely related Eastern Nilotic languages spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania by more than a million speakers altogether....
  Samburu
Samburu language

Samburu is the Eastern Nilotic languages, North Maa languages language spoken by the Samburu in the highlands of northern Kenya. The Samburu number about 128,000 ....
 (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu
Samburu

The Samburu are an ethnic group in north central Kenya that are related to but distinct from the Maasai. The Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists who herd mainly cattle but also keep sheep, goats and camels....
 people of central Kenya, Chamus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Samburu); and Parakuyu of Tanzania. The Maasai, Samburu, il-Chamus and Parakuyu peoples are historically related and all refer to their language as .

Phonology

Like the other Maa languages, Maasai has Advanced Tongue Root vowel harmony
Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance Assimilation Phonology process involving vowels in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on what vowels may be found near each other....
. There are nine contrastive vowels, with the vowel /a/ being "neutral" for harmony. For some speakers the voiced stops may be realized as implosive consonant
Implosive consonant

Implosive consonants are stop consonant with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs....
s, but often the implosion is very light to non-existent. Tone
Tone (linguistics)

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning?that is, to distinguish or inflection words. All languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation , but not all languages use tones to distingu...
 is extremely important for conveying correct meaning.

Syntax

Word order is usually Verb Subject Object
Verb Subject Object

Verb Subject Object is a term in linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these constituents in neutral expressions: Ate Sam oranges....
, though order can vary because tone is the most important indicator of Subject versus Object. What really determines order in a clause is topicality; thus order in most simple clauses can be predicted according to the information structure pattern: [Verb - Most.Topical - Less.Topical]. Thus, if the Object is highly topical in the discourse (e.g. a first person pronoun), and the Subject is less topical, the Object will occur right after the verb and before the subject.

The Maasai language has only two fully grammaticalized prepositions, but can use "relational nouns" along with the most general preposition to designate specific locative ideas. Noun phrase
Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase is a phrase whose Head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a set of modifiers.Noun phrases are very common linguistic typology, but some languages like Tuscarora language and Cayuga language have been argued to lack this category....
s begin with a Demonstrative
Demonstrative

Demonstratives are deictic expression words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. Demonstratives are employed for spatial deixis and as discourse deictics, referring to propositions mentioned in speech....
 or Gender-Number Prefix, followed by a quantifying noun or other head noun. Other modifiers follow the head noun, including Possessive
Possessive

Possessive may be:* Possessive case* Possessive adjective* Possessive pronoun* Possessive suffix* Possessive construction, pattern among words indicating possession ...
 phrases.

See also

  • Kwavi language
    Kwavi language

    Kwavi is the dialect of Maasai language spoken by the Kwavi or Parakuyo sub-tribe of the Maasai in Tanzania. It was formerly listed as "unclassified" by the Ethnologue, which corrected this mistake in the 15th edition by incorporating it in Maasai....
  • Sonjo language
    Sonjo language

    Sonjo is a Bantu languages language spoken in northern Tanzania, 30-40 miles west of Lake Natron. Ethnolinguistically, it is a displaced member of Malcolm Guthrie?s E50 group, most other members of which are found in Central Kenya....
    , the language of a Bantu enclave in Maasai territory
  • Yaaku
    Yaaku

    The Yiaku are a people living in the Mukogodo forest west of Mount Kenya, a division of the Laikipia District Kenya of Rift Valley Province, Kenya....
    , a people who almost completely abandoned their own language in favor of Maasai


Bibliography

  • Mol, Frans (1995) Lessons in Maa: a grammar of Maasai language. Lemek: Maasai Centre.
  • Mol, Frans (1996) Maasai dictionary: language & culture (Maasai Centre Lemek). Narok: Mill Hill Missionary.
  • Tucker, Archibald N. & Mpaayei, J. Tompo Ole (1955) A Maasai grammar with vocabulary. London/New York/Toronto: Longmans, Green & Co.
  • Vossen, Rainer (1982) The Eastern Nilotes. Linguistic and historical reconstructions (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 9). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.


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