Burunge language

Last updated
Burunge
Burungaisoo
Native to Tanzania
Region Dodoma
Ethnicity30,000 Burunge (2007) [1]
Native speakers
28,000 (2009) [1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 bds
Glottolog buru1320
ELP Burunge

Burunge (also Bulunge, Burunga Iso, Burungee, Burungi, Kiburunge, Mbulungi, Mbulungwe) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Tanzania in the Dodoma Region, by the Burunge people, a small community of about 28,000 native speakers that live in the Northeastern region of Tanzania. [1] The Burunge belong to a cluster of Tanzanian groups known as Southern Cushites, which also categorizes Burunge as part of the South Cushitic language family. [2] The Burunge live in close proximity to other languages such as the Rangi, Gogo and Sandawe, and ultimately, their language and culture is endangered by dwindling number of speakers and absorption by larger tribes.

Contents

Name

Burunge is a language spoken by a clan of peoples of the same name, and it belongs to a larger "Cushtic" language family which is one of the largest and most important in East Africa. Thirty million people in the region trace their native language back to the Cushitic language family. [2] Burunge has no known dialects, but it does share a high similarity with the Alagwa language  a different Cushitic language spoken in the same Dodoma Region as Burunge.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain lateral plain lab. plain lab.
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p t t͡ʃ k q ʔ
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ ɡʷ
ejective tɬʼ t͡ʃʼ
Fricative voiceless f s ɬ x ħ h
voiced ʕ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Trill/Tap r
Approximant l j w

Prenasalization is also said to occur among plosives and fricatives.

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Voiceless vowels may also occur as / , , /. [3]

History

The modern use of the term "Cushite" is used to describe the cultural descendants of ancient cultures in northeastern Africa. The heritage of these descendants is traced back through languages that are descended from their ancient ancestors. Thus, the term "Cushite" is a linguistic grouping rather than a racial or cultural designation. [4] This method of characterization allows for a more clear cut historical lineage than just identifying by cultural groups. Therefore, peoples of Cushite heritage are those who speak languages of the Cushite grouping of the Afro-Asiatic family, and as a result of this categorization or clustering on the basis of language, the Cushitic peoples can exhibit diverse physical and racial features.

The Burunge belong to the Southern Cushites in Tanzania; their ancestors are believed to have originated from Southern Ethiopia and migrated into the northeastern region of Tanzania around 1000 BC. After migration into Tanzania, the ancient Burunge culture centered on subsistence farming and cattle grazing. Although the Burunge originally came from the region of what is now Ethiopia, there is a marked difference between the languages of the Southern Cushites in Tanzania and the Cushites of Southern Ethiopia which suggests that a long period of isolation and linguistic differentiation has occurred between the Burunge migration and present day.

Present day

Burunge both as a language and distinct designation of peoples are in danger of disappearing as a result of the dominance of Swahili in Tanzania, the small population of Burunge speakers, and also the Burunge clan of approximately thirteen thousand being absorbed into stronger, more populous clans. The Rangi is one such clan; they are a neighbouring clan with their own specific language, and not only do they have a larger population than the Burunge, they are also more economically advantaged. The Rangi have subgroup "clubs" within their clan, that male members of the Burungee can officially join to become a member of the Rangi clan. Once someone is a member, they have to shed their identity as a Burunge and become completely Rangi by marrying a Rangi woman and raising their children as Rangi. [5] Many Burunge have joined the Rangi this way over the past few decades, so it is unclear if Burunge as a people and language group will continue to exist as a distinct and separate culture, as the new generations born of both Burunge and Rangi heritage will be seen as and taught only Rangi language and culture.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cushitic languages</span> Branch of Afroasiatic native to East Africa

The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2012, the Cushitic languages with over one million speakers were Oromo, Somali, Beja, Afar, Hadiyya, Kambaata, and Sidama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Kenya</span>

The demography of Kenya is monitored by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in East Africa. Its total population was at 47,558,296 as of the 2019 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somali language</span> Cushitic language of the Horn of Africa

Somali is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken primarily in Greater Somalia, and by the Somali diaspora as a mother tongue. Somali is an official language in both Somalia and Ethiopia, and serves as a national language in Djibouti, it is also a recognised minority language in Kenya. The Somali language is officially written with the Latin alphabet although the Arabic script and several Somali scripts like Osmanya, Kaddare and the Borama script are informally used.

The Saho language is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. It belongs to the family's Cushitic branch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Nubia</span> Northernmost part of Nubia

Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern population, were relocated as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia; Qasr Ibrim is the only major archaeological site which was neither relocated nor submerged. The intensive archaeological work conducted prior to the flooding means that the history of the area is much better known than that of Upper Nubia. According to David Wengrow, the A-Group Nubian polity of the late 4th millenninum BCE is poorly understood since most of the archaeological remains are submerged underneath Lake Nasser.

Lowland East Cushitic is a group of roughly two dozen diverse languages of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Its largest representatives are Oromo and Somali.

The South Cushitic or Rift languages of Tanzania are a branch of the Cushitic languages. The most numerous is Iraqw, with half a million speakers. Scholars believe that these languages were spoken by Southern Cushitic agro-pastoralists from Ethiopia, who began migrating southward into the Great Rift Valley in the third millennium BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kambaata people</span> Cushitic ethnic group in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region in Ethiopia

Kambaata people also spelt as Kambata or Kembata are a Cushitic ethnic group that inhabits the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. They speak the Kambaata language. It was a province of Ethiopia beginning in the early 15th century through to the mid-17th century; Ethiopian rule was once again established in the late 19th century under Emperor Menelik II. During this first period, Kambaata province was largely Christianized. The former province is contained within the contemporary Kembata Tembaro Zone of SNNPR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rangi people</span> Ethnic group from Dodoma Region of Tanzania

The Rangi are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of mixed Bantu and Cushitic heritage in the Dodoma Region of central Tanzania. In 2022, the Rangi population was estimated to number 880,000.

The Alagwa are a Cushitic ethnic group mostly based in the Kondoa District of the Dodoma Region in central Tanzania, an area well known for rock art. Smaller numbers of Alagwa reside in the Hanang district of the Manyara Region in Tanzania, as well. They speak the Alagwa language as a mother tongue, which belongs to the South Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. In 2022, the Alagwa population was estimated to number 52,816 individuals, and Mous (2016) estimates the number of speakers to be slightly over 10,000.

The Burunge or Burungi are a Cushitic ethnic group and among Iraqhw Communities based in the Chemba District of Dodoma Region in central Tanzania. They speak the Burunge language as a mother tongue, which belongs to the South Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. In 2007, the Burunge population was estimated at 30,000 individuals.

Highland East Cushitic or Burji-Sidamo is a branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in south-central Ethiopia. They are often grouped with Lowland East Cushitic, Dullay, and Yaaku as East Cushitic, but that group is not well defined. The most populous language is Sidama, with close to two million speakers.

El Molo is a possibly extinct language belonging to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It was spoken by the El Molo people on the southeastern shore of Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya. Alternate names to El Molo are Dehes, Elmolo, Fura-Pawa, and Ldes. It was thought to be extinct in the middle part of the 20th century, but a few speakers were found in the later 20th century. However, it may now be truly extinct, as the eight speakers found in a survey published in 1994 were over 50. Most of the El Molo population have shifted to the neighboring Samburu language. El Molo also has no known dialects but it is similar to Daasanach.

The Aroid or Ari-Banna languages possibly belong to the Afro-Asiatic family and are spoken in Ethiopia.

The Somali languages form a group that are part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They are spoken as a mother tongue by ethnic Somalis in Horn of Africa and the Somali diaspora. Even with linguistic differences, Somalis collectively view themselves as speaking dialects of a common language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Tanzania</span> Languages of the country and its peoples

Tanzania is a multilingual country. There are many languages spoken in the country, none of which is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. Swahili and English, the latter of which was inherited from colonial rule, are widely spoken as lingua francas. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than of English in Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savanna Pastoral Neolithic</span> Archaeological cultures of the Rift Valley of East Africa

The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic is a collection of ancient societies that appeared in the Rift Valley of East Africa and surrounding areas during a time period known as the Pastoral Neolithic. They were South Cushitic speaking pastoralists who tended to bury their dead in cairns, whilst their toolkit was characterized by stone bowls, pestles, grindstones and earthenware pots.

Roland Kiessling is a German linguist and Africanist. Kiessling's research interests include language documentation, phonetics, historical linguistics, Cushitic languages, Nilotic languages, Niger-Congo languages, and !Xoon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cushitic-speaking peoples</span> Collection of ethnic groups residing in East Africa

Cushitic-speaking peoples are the ethnolinguistic groups who speak Cushitic languages natively. Today, Cushitic languages are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north and south in Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, and Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric Ethiopia</span> Occurrence and people throughout Ethiopian prehistory

Ethiopia is considered the area from which anatomically modern humans emerged. Archeological discoveries in the country's sites have garnered specific fossil evidence of early human succession, including the hominins Australopithecus afarensis and Ardipithecus ramidus. Human settlements in present-day Ethiopia began at least in the Late Stone Age, and the agricultural revolution took place in the third millennium BCE. Ethnolinguistic groups of Afroasiatic speakers and Nilo-Saharan speakers—defined by new ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities—emerged around 2000–1000 BCE.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Burunge at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. 1 2 Lamberti, M. (1991). Cushitic and its classifications. Anthropos, (H. 4./6), 552–561.
  3. 1 2 Kiessling, Roland (1994). Eine Grammatik des Burunge. Hamburg: Research and Progress.
  4. "A Summary of the Cushite Peoples of Eastern Africa".
  5. Stegen, O. (2003, June). How does their language survive?. In talk presented at the meeting of the Language in Context Research Group, University of Edinburgh.

Bibliography