| Asa | |
|---|---|
| Aasá | |
| Region | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Asa |
| Extinct | 1952–1956[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aas |
aas.html | |
| Glottolog | aasa1238 |
| ELP | Aasáx |
 | |
TheAsa (Aasá) language, commonly renderedAasax (also rendered as Aasá, Aasáx, Aramanik, Asak, Asax, Assa, Asá[3]), is anAfroasiatic language formerly spoken by theAsa people ofTanzania. The language isextinct; ethnic Assa in northern Tanzania remember only a few words they overheard their elders use, and none ever used it themselves. Little is known of the language; what is recorded was probably Aasa lexical words used in aregister ofMaasai, similar to the mixed languageMbugu.[4]
Asa is usually classified asCushitic, most closely related toKw'adza. However, it might have retained a non-Cushitic layer from an earlierlanguage shift.
The Aramanik (Laramanik) people once spoke Asa, but shifted toNandi (as opposed to Maasai).
Asa is known from three primary sources: two vocabulary lists from 1904 and 1928, and a collection byW. C. Winter from 1974.[5]
The following are some example words of Asa, together with probablecognates identified in Kw'adza andIraqw:[6]
Some loanwords in Asa from other languages are known:[7]
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