TheGusii language (also known asEkegusii) is aBantu language spoken inKisii andNyamira counties inNyanza Province,Kenya, whose headquarters isKisii Town (between the Kavirondo Gulf ofLake Victoria and the border withTanzania). It is spoken natively by 2.2 million people (as of 2009), mostly among theAbagusii. Ekegusii has only two dialects: The Rogoro (upper-side) and Maate (lower-side) dialects. Phonologically, they differ in the articulation of /t/. Most of the variations existing between the two dialects are lexical. The two dialects can refer to the same object or thing using different terms. An example of this is the word for cat. While one dialect calls a catekemoni, the other calls itekebusi (a word that comes from the sound used to call a cat in Gusii culture). Another illustrating example can be found in the word for sandals. While the Rogoro word for sandals ischisiripasi (a loanword from the English word "slippers"), the Maate dialect word ischitaratara (adapted from the sound made by sandals when one walks while wearing them). Many more lexical differences manifest in the language. The Maate dialect is spoken in Tabaka and Bogirango. Most of the other regions use the Rogoro dialect, which is also the standard dialect of Ekegusii.
In the table below,orthographic symbols are included between brackets if they differ from theIPA symbols. Note especially the use of ‘y’ for IPA/j/, common in African orthographies. When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
The Gusii language has the consonant 'b' not realized as the bilabial stop as in 'bat' but as bilabial fricative as in words like baba, baminto, abana.
2008.Kisimbiti: Msamiati wa Kisimbiti-Kiingereza-Kiswahili na Kiingereza-Kisimbiti-Kiswahili / Simbiti-English-Swahili and English-Simbiti-Swahili Lexicon. Languages of Tanzania Project, LOT Publications Lexicon Series 7, 106 pp.,ISBN9987-691-09-9.
