Maasai language
Encyclopedia
The Maasai language (autonym: ɔl Maa) is an Eastern Nilotic
language spoken in Southern Kenya
and Northern Tanzania
by the Maasai people, numbering about 800,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties
Samburu
(or Sampur), the language of the Samburu
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 .
For some Maasai speakers the voiced stop consonants are not particularly implosive (e.g. IlKeekonyokie Maa), but for others they are lightly implosive or have a glottalic feature (e.g. Parakuyo Maa). The p consonant in Arusha Maa is pronounced differently than in other Maa varieties. In Arusha Maa it is typically a voiceless fricative [ɸ], but in some words it is even a voiced bilabial trill. People who read and write Swahili or English may think of sh and ch as separate sounds; but in Maasai varieties of Maa (at least in native Maa words) they are in complementary distribution: ch occurs after consonants, and sh elsewhere.
Like the other Maa languages, Maasai has advanced tongue root
vowel harmony
. 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
s, but often the implosion is very light to non-existent. Tone
is extremely important for conveying correct meaning.
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
s begin with a Demonstrative
or Gender-Number Prefix, followed by a quantifying noun or other head noun. Other modifiers follow the head noun, including Possessive
phrases.
Eastern Nilotic languages
The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in...
language spoken in Southern Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Northern Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
by the Maasai 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. They are subdivided into North and South Maa...
Samburu
Samburu language
Samburu is the Eastern Nilotic, North Maa language spoken by the Samburu in the highlands of northern Kenya. The Samburu number about 128,000 . Samburu is closely related to Camus and to the South Maa language Maasai...
(or Sampur), the language of the Samburu
Samburu
The Samburu are a Nilotic people of 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. The name they use for themselves is Lokop or Loikop, a term which may have a variety of...
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
The Maasai variety of ɔl-Maa as spoken in southern Kenya and Tanzania has 30 contrastive sounds, which can be represented and alphabetized as followsː a, b, ch (a variant of sh), d, e, ɛ, g, h, i, ɨ, j, k, l, m, n, ny, ŋ, o, ɔ, p, r, rr, s, sh (with variant ch), t, u, ʉ, w, wu (or ww), y, yi (or yy), and the glottal stop ' (ʔ).Consonants
In the table of consonant phonemes below, phonemes are represented with IPA symbols in / / brackets. When IPA conventions differ from symbols normally used in practical writing, the practical orthography symbols are given in brackets.For some Maasai speakers the voiced stop consonants are not particularly implosive (e.g. IlKeekonyokie Maa), but for others they are lightly implosive or have a glottalic feature (e.g. Parakuyo Maa). The p consonant in Arusha Maa is pronounced differently than in other Maa varieties. In Arusha Maa it is typically a voiceless fricative [ɸ], but in some words it is even a voiced bilabial trill. People who read and write Swahili or English may think of sh and ch as separate sounds; but in Maasai varieties of Maa (at least in native Maa words) they are in complementary distribution: ch occurs after consonants, and sh elsewhere.
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Alveopalatal / palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
/m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ (ny) | /ŋ/ (ŋ or ng') | ||
| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | / ʔ / (') | |
| implosive / glottalized | /ɓ/ (b) | /ɗ/ (d) | /ʄ/ or [dʒ] (j) | /ɠ/ (g) | ||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
/s/ | /ʃ/ (sh); after consonants [tʃ] (ch) | /h/ | |||
| Liquid Liquid consonant In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:... |
lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
/l/ | ||||
| tap | /ɾ/ (r) | |||||
| trill | / r̃/ (rr) | |||||
| Glide | lenis | /w/ | /j/ (y) | |||
| fortis | /ww/ (wu) | /jj/ (yi) | ||||
Like the other Maa languages, Maasai has advanced tongue root
Advanced tongue root
In phonetics, advanced tongue root and retracted tongue root, abbreviated ATR or RTR, are contrasting states of the root of the tongue during the pronunciation of vowels in some languages, especially in West Africa, but also in Kazakh and Mongolian...
vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which 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 stops 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. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...
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 inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
is extremely important for conveying correct meaning.
Syntax
Word order is usually verb–subject–object, 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, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
s begin with a Demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
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 * For possessive behavior in a relationship, see Attachment in adults...
phrases.
See also
- Kwavi languageKwavi languageKwavi is the dialect of Maasai spoken by the Kwavi people of Tanzania. It was formerly listed as "unclassified" by the Ethnologue, which corrected this mistake in the 15th edition by incorporating it in Maasai....
- Sonjo languageSonjo languageSonjo is a Bantu language spoken in northern Tanzania, 30–40 miles west of Lake Natron. Ethnolinguistically, it is a displaced member of Guthrie’s E50 group, most other members of which are found in Central Kenya. Within that group, it is most closely related to Gikuyu...
, the language of a Bantu enclave in Maasai territory - Yaaku, a people who almost completely abandoned their own language in favor of Maasai