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| Maasai | |
|---|---|
| ɔl Maa | |
| Native to | Kenya,Tanzania |
| Region | Central and Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Maasai |
Native speakers | 1.5 million (2009 census – 2016)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | mas |
| ISO 639-3 | mas |
| Glottolog | masa1300 |
Maasai (previously spelledMasai) orMaa (English:/ˈmɑːsaɪ/MAH-sye;[2]autonym:ɔl Maa) is anEastern Nilotic language spoken in SouthernKenya and NorthernTanzania by theMaasai people, numbering about 1.5 million. It is closely related to the otherMaa varieties:Samburu (or Sampur), the language of theSamburu people of central Kenya,Chamus, spoken south and southeast ofLake Baringo (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Samburu); andParakuyu of Tanzania. The Maasai, Samburu, il-Chamus and Parakuyu peoples are historically related and all refer to their language asɔl Maa. Properly speaking, "Maa" refers to the language and the culture and "Maasai" refers to the people "who speak Maa".
The Maasai variety ofɔl Maa as spoken in southernKenya andTanzania has 30 contrasting phonemes, including a series ofimplosive consonants. In Maasai,tone has a very productive role, conveying a wide range of grammatical andsemantic functions.
In the table of consonant phonemes below, phonemes are represented with IPA symbols. When IPA conventions differ from symbols normally used in practical writing, the latter are given in angle brackets.
| Labial | Alveolar | Alveopalatal /palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ⟨ny⟩ | ŋ⟨ŋ ~ ng⟩ | ||
| Plosive | pulmonic | p | t | k | ʔ⟨' ~ ʔ⟩ | |
| implosive | ɓ ⟨b⟩ | ɗ ⟨d⟩ | ʄ ⟨j⟩ | ɠ⟨g⟩ | ||
| Fricative | s | ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | h | |||
| Rhotic | tap | ɾ⟨r⟩ | ||||
| trill | r⟨rr⟩ | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Glide | lenis | w | j⟨y⟩ | |||
| fortis | wː⟨wu⟩ | jː⟨yi⟩ | ||||
For some speakers, implosive consonants are notingressive (e.g. IlKeekonyokie Maa), but for others, they are lightly implosive or have a glottalic feature (e.g. Parakuyo Maa).[citation needed] In Arusha Maa,/p/ is typically realized as a voiceless fricative[ɸ], but in some words, it can be a voiced trill[ʙ].[citation needed] The sounds[tʃ] and[ʃ] occur incomplementary distribution, with[tʃ] occurring following a consonant, and[ʃ] elsewhere.[citation needed]
There are nine vowel phoneme qualities in Maasai
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| ɪ⟨ɨ⟩ | ʊ⟨ʉ⟩ | ||
| Mid | e | o | |
| ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Low | a |
A feature that Maasai shares with the other Maa languages isadvanced tongue rootvowel harmony. In Maasai words, only certain combinations of vowels co-occur in the same word (i.e. vowel harmony), with the vowel/a/ being "neutral" in this system.[3] In Maasai, advanced tongue vowels only co-occur with other advanced tongue vowels (i.e. /i e o u/) and /a/, whereas non-advanced tongue vowels (i.e. /ɪ ɛ ʊ ɔ/) only co-occur with each other and with /a/. Note that tones play no role in the harmony system.
| Tongue root position | Phonemes | Phonology[3] | Spelling | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced tongue root | / i e o u / | / éɓúl / | ébúl | “S/he will pierce it” |
| / ōlmōsōrî / | ol-mosorrî | “Egg” | ||
| / ēnkītōʄó / | en-kitojó | “Rabbit” | ||
| Retracted tongue root | / ɪ ɛ ʊ ɔ / | / ɛ́ɓʊ́l / | ɛ́bʉ́l | “S/he will prosper” |
| / ɛ̄nkʊ́tʊ́k / | ɛn-kʉ́tʉ́k | “Mouth” | ||
| / kɪ̄ʊ́tɪ̄ʃɔ̄ / | kɨʉ́tɨshɔ | “Index finger” | ||
| Neutral | / a / | / ātūmōkî / | atumokî | “To have a good opportunity” |
| / ātʊ̄mʊ́k / | atʉmʉ́k | “To brew” |
Maasai is written using theLatin script with additional letters taken from theIPA, namely ⟨ɛ ɨ ŋ ɔ ʉ⟩, where the barred letters represent the near-close vowels. Theorthography uses a fewdigraphs (e.g. ⟨rr⟩ for /r/, ⟨sh⟩ for /ʃ), anddiacritics on vowels to represent tones. In this system, level tones are not represented, so that /ā ē ū/ etc. are represented as ⟨a e u⟩ and so forth.
| /i/ | /ɪ/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /a/ | /ɔ/ | /o/ | /ʊ/ | /u/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rising | í | ɨ́ | é | ɛ́ | á | ɔ́ | ó | ʉ́ | ú |
| Level | i | ɨ | e | ɛ | a | ɔ | o | ʉ | u |
| Low | ì | ɨ̀ | è | ɛ̀ | à | ɔ̀ | ò | ʉ̀ | ù |
| Falling | î | ɨ̂ | ê | ɛ̂ | â | ɔ̂ | ô | ʉ̂ | û |
Word order is usuallyverb–subject–object but can vary because tone is the most salient indicator of the distinction between subject and object roles. What determines the order in a clause is topicality since the order, in the simplest 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 occurs right after the verb and before the subject.
The Maasai language has only two fully-grammaticalprepositions but can userelational nouns, along with a most general preposition, to designate specific locative ideas.Noun phrases begin with ademonstrative prefix or a gender-number prefix, followed by a quantifying noun or other head noun. Other modifiers follow the head noun, includingpossessive phrases.
In Maasai, many morphemes are tone patterns. The tone pattern affects the case, voice and aspect of words, as in the example below:
(Surface Form)
(Morphemes)
ɛ́yɛ́tá ɛmʊtí
ɛ̀-ɛ́t-á ɛn-mʊtí(LH)
3P-remove.one.by.one-PFV.SG DEF.FEM.SG-pot(ACC)
"She removed (meat) from the pot."
(Surface Form)
(Morphemes)
ɛyɛ́ta ɛmʊ́ti
ɛ̀-ɛ́t-a ɛn-mʊ́ti(HL)
3P-remove.one.by.one-IPFV.MID DEF.FEM.SG-pot(NOM)
There are threenoun classes in Maasai: feminine, masculine, and place. Noun classes are often indexed via prefixes on nouns (ol-/ɔl- for masculine,e[n]/ɛ[n]- for feminine), although other word classes such as demonstratives may also index gender. Although words belong to a given class (e.g.ɔl-aláshɛ̀ “brother”;ɛn-kái “God”), some roots can also occur with both prefixes (e.g.ol-ŋatúny “lion” vs.e-ŋatúny “lion-ness”).[6]
"Who has come?" would be asked if the gender of the visitor were known. The noun would be preceded by a gendered prefix. If the gender of the visitor were unknown, "It is who that has come?" would be the literal translation of the English question.[6]
Adjectives in Maa serve only to describe the noun and inflect based on the noun described.
Pronouns in Maa usually have a gender (male, female, or place); if the gender is unknown, the meaning of the noun in context usually refers to a gender. For example, the context of a female might include working in the house, and a male gender would be implied if the action referred to work outside the home. Maasai uses place as a personal pronoun because place can help identify male or female (i.e. an action occurring in the house is almost always done by a female).[6]
Present tense in Maasai includes habitual actions, such as "I wake up" or "I cook breakfast". Past tense refers only to a past action, not to a specific time or place.[7]
In 1905,Alfred Claud Hollis publishedThe Masai: Their Language and Folklore,[8] which contains a grammar of the Maasai language, along with texts in Maasai and English translation. The texts include stories,[9] myths,[10] proverbs,[11] riddles,[12] and songs[13] (lyrics but no music), along with customs and beliefs[14] explained in Maasai. Here are some of the proverbs:
Here are some of the riddles:
The Maasai have resisted the expansion of European languages as well as that ofSwahili inEast Africa. Maasai speakers engage in frequent trade using their language. However, close contact with other ethnic groups in East Africa and the rise ofEnglish as alingua franca has led to a reduction in the speakers of Maasai. In Tanzania, former PresidentNyerere encouraged the adoption of Swahili as an official language to unite the many different ethnic groups in Tanzania, as well as English to compete on a global scale.[15] Although the Maasai language, often referred to as Maa, has survived despite the mass influx of English and Swahili education systems, economic plans, and more, the socioeconomic climate that the Maasai people face in East Africa keeps them, and their language, as an under-represented minority.[7]
The Maasai way of life is embedded in their language. Specifically, the economic systems of trade that the Maasai rely on to maintain their nomadic way of life, rely on the survival of the Maasai language, even in its minority status. With language endangerment, the Maasai people would continue to be threatened and their cultural integrity threatened.[16] The minority status that the language currently faces has already threatened traditional Maasai practices. Fewer and fewer groups of Maasai continue to be nomadic in the region, choosing to settle instead in close-knit communities to keep their language and other aspects of their culture alive.[15]
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