Mursi (also Dama, Merdu, Meritu, Murzi, Murzu) is a SoutheastSurmic language spoken by theMursi people who live in theSouth Omo Zone on the eastern side of the lowerOmo valley in southwestEthiopia.[3] The language is similar toSuri, another Southeast Surmic language spoken to the west of the Mursi language area.[4] It is spoken by approximately 7,400 people.[1]
The vowel and consonant inventory of Mursi is similar to those of other Southeast Surmic languages, except for the lack of ejectives, the labial fricative /f/ and the voiceless stop /p/.[7]
Except for the hesitant inclusion of the glottal stop /ʔ/ by Firew, both Mütze and Firew agree on the consonant inventory. The layout mostly follows Mütze. The characters in angled brackets are the ones used by Firew, where they differ from Mütze.
Mütze rejects the phonemic status of the glottal stop [ʔ], claiming that it is phonetically inserted to break up vowel sequences.[10] Firew discusses this and leaves the question undecided, but includes the sound in the phoneme chart.[11]
Firew classifies the alveolar implosive /ɗ/ as postalveolar, without giving reasons.[12]
Both Mütze[16] and Firew[17] agree that there are only two underlying tone levels in Mursi, as opposed to larger inventories proposed by Turton and Bender[18] and Moges.[19]
^ab"Ethiopian Census 2007".csa.gov.et. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency. 2007. Archived fromthe original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved9 July 2021.
^Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (1998). "Surmic Languages and Cultures: an Introduction". In Dimmendaal, Gerrit J.; Last, Marco (eds.).Surmic Languages and Cultures. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. pp. 35–81.
Yigezu, Moges; Turton, David (2005)."Latin Based Mursi Orthography".ELRC Working Papers.1 (2). Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Languages Research Center:242–57. Retrieved9 July 2021.
Mütze, Bettina (2014).A Sketch of the Mursi Language (MA thesis). Gloucester: Redcliff College, University of Gloucestershire.
Turton, David; Bender, M. Lionel (1976). "Mursi". In Bender, M. Lionel (ed.).The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University. pp. 533–561.
Turton, David; Moges Yigezu; Oliserali Olibui (2008).Mursi-English-Amharic Dictionary. Addis Ababa: Culture and Arts Society of Ethiopia.
