| Gusii | |
|---|---|
| Ekegusii | |
| Native to | Kenya |
| Region | Nyanza Kenya, Kisii County & Nyamira County, Southern Rift Valley, parts of Kericho County & Bomet County |
| Ethnicity | Abagusii |
Native speakers | 2.2 million (2009 census)[1] 0.5 million |
Niger–Congo
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin, Arabic | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | guz |
| Glottolog | gusi1247 |
Guthrie code | JE.42[2] |
The Gusii language (also known Ekegusii) is a Bantu language spoken in Kisii and Nyamira counties in Nyanza Kenya, whose headquarters is Kisii town, (between the Kavirondo Gulf of Lake Victoria and the border with Tanzania). It is spoken natively by 2.2 million people (as of 2009), mostly among the Abagusii. The Bunchari dialect of the Ekegusii is also spoken among the Kuria as Kuria language and among the Suba people (Tanzania) and some other groups like the Suna-Girango and Simbete as well as other small splinter groups from Abagusii and Kuria in Migori County and Homa Bay County as Egesuba.
Sounds
Vowels
Gusii has seven vowels. Vowel length is contrastive, i.e. the words 'bór' to miss and 'bóór' to say are distinguished by vowel length only.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Near-close | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Consonants
In the table below, orthographic symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the IPA 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.
| bilabial | alveo-palatal | palatal | velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | p b | t | c (c) | k ɡ |
| fricative | s | |||
| affricate | cç (c) | |||
| nasal | m | n | ɲ (ny) | ŋ (ng') |
| trill | r | |||
| approximant | w | j (y) |
The following morphophonological alternations occur:
- n+r = nd
- n+b = mb
- n+g = ŋg
- n+k = ŋk
- n+m = m:
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.
Ekegusii language Alphabet
| Ekegusii alphabet (Kenya)[3][4][5] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ekegusii Alphabet | A | B | C | D | E | Ë | G | H | I | K | M | N | O | Ö | R | S | T | U | W | Y | ei | ie | io | oi | - | - | - | - | - |
| Ekegusii Consonants | Mb | Bw | mbw | Ch | Nch | Chw | Nchw | Nd | Ndw | Ng | Gw | Ngw | Ng' | Ng'w | Ny | Nyw | Nk | Kw | Nkw | Mw | Nw | Rw | Ns | Sw | Nsw | Nt | Tw | Ntw | Yw |
Ekegusii Noun Classes
Samples 1
| Ekegusii Noun Class | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class | Singular | Gloss | Plural | Gloss | |
| 1 | om-ab | omonto | person/human | abanto | people/humans |
| 2 | om-em | omotwe | head | emetwe | head |
| 3 | e-ch | eng'ombe | cow | chiombe | cows |
| 4 | e-eb | egekombe | cup | ebikombe | cups |
| 5 | ri-am | ritunda | fruit | amatunda | fruits |
| 6 | o-o | obwoba | cowardness | obwoba | cowardness |
| 7 | e-e | ekegusii | ekegusii | ----------- | ----------- |
| 8 | a-a | amabere | milk | amabere | milk |
| 9 | |||||
| 10 | -------------- | ------------ | |||
Ekegusii Numeral System
Sample 2
| Ekegusii numeral system | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Reading | Meaning | Number | Reading | Meaning |
| 1 | eyemo | 1 | 11 | ikomi nemo | 10+1 |
| 2 | ibere | 2 | 12 | ikomi na ibere | 10+2 |
| 3 | isato | 3 | 13 | ikomi na isato | 10+3 |
| 4 | inye | 4 | 14 | ikomi nainye | 10+4 |
| 5 | isano | 5 | 15 | ikomi na isano | 10+5 |
| 6 | isano nemo | 5+1 | 16 | ikomi na isano nemo | 10+5+1 |
| 7 | isano na ibere | 5+2 | 17 | ikomi na isano na ibere | 10+5+2 |
| 8 | isano na isato | 5+3 | 18 | ikomi na isano na isato | 10+5+3 |
| 9 | kianda | 9 | 19 | ikomi na kianda | 10+9 |
| 10 | ikomi | 10 | 20 | emerongo ebere | 20 |
Sample phrases
| English | Ekegusii |
|---|---|
| Good Morning | Bwakire buya |
| Good night | Obotuko obuya |
| Head | Omotwe |
| Ear | Ogoto |
| Water | Amache |
| Earth | Ense |
| Dwell | Menya |
| Homeland | Inka |
| Today | Rero |
| Sun | Risase |
| Dog | Esese |
| Stand | Tenena |
| Know | Manya |
| See | Rora |
| Upside/Northern/Hillside | Rogoro |
| Lake/Sea | Enyancha |
| Desert | Eroro |
| Fighter | Omorwani |
| Roll Over | Garagara |
| Milk | Amabere |
| She goat | Esibeni |
| Cowdung | Esike |
| Lady | Omosubati |
Bibliography
Bickmore, Lee
- 1997. Problems in constraining High tone spread in Ekegusii. Lingua, vol. 102, pp. 265–290.
- 1998. Metathesis and Dahl’s Law in Ekegusii. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, vol. 28:2, pp. 149–168.
- 1999. High Tone Spreading in Ekegusii Revisited: An Optimality Theoretic Account. Lingua, vol. 109, pp. 109–153.
Cammenga, Jelle
- 2002 Phonology and morphology of Ekegusii: a Bantu language of Kenya. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Mreta, Abel Y.
- 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., ISBN 9987-691-09-9.
Whiteley, Wilfred H.
- 1956 A practical introduction to Gusii. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi/Kampala: East African Literature Bureau.
- 1960 The tense system of Gusii. Kampala: East African Institute of Social Research.
- 1974 Language in Kenya. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
See also
References
- ^ Gusii at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Rhonda L. Hartell, ed. 1993. The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and Summer Institute of Linguistics
- ^ Nyauma, Shem (2014). "A Phonological Reconstruction Of Ekegusii And Egekuria Nouns: A Comparative Analysis" (PDF). Masters Thesis, University of Nairobi.
- ^ Hartell, Rhonda, ed. (1993). Alphabets of Africa. https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_kuj_ortho-1: UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar (BREDA). p. 186. ISBN 92-9091-020-3.
External links
- Gusii.com The Gusii Language Blog
- Ekegusii Encyclopedic Project & online Encyclopedia/Dictionary
- American soft power has helped this Kenyan man's efforts to ensure a future for his mother tongue—report by Patrick Cox for Public Radio International (January 26, 207)
Listening
- National Public Radio story about Kisii language (from All Things Considered program, April 29, 2006)