Mursi language

Last updated
Mursi
ሙነን‎ (munɛn)
Native to Ethiopia
RegionCentral Omo
Ethnicity Mursi
Native speakers
7,400 (2007 census) [1] [2]
Geʽez, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 muz
Glottolog murs1242
ELP Mursi

Mursi (also Dama, Merdu, Meritu, Murzi, Murzu) is a Southeast Surmic language spoken by the Mursi people who live in the South Omo Zone on the eastern side of the lower Omo valley in southwest Ethiopia. [3] The language is similar to Suri, another Southeast Surmic language spoken to the west of the Mursi language area. [4] It is spoken by approximately 7,400 people. [1]

Contents

Classification

Mursi is classified as belonging to the Southeast Surmic languages, to which the following other languages also belong: Suri, Me'en and Kwegu. [5] [6] As such, Mursi is also part of the superordinate Eastern Sudanic family of the Nilo-Saharan languages.

Phonology

Phoneme inventory

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]

Consonants of Mursi [8] [9]
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal 		Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless t c ⟨č⟩ k ( ʔ )
voiced b d ɟ ⟨dʒ⟩ ɡ
Implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ h
voiced z
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Liquids r , l
Approximant j w
Vowels of Mursi [13]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Tone

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]

Grammar

The Mursi grammar makes use of the following parts of speech: nouns, [20] verbs, [21] adjectives, [22] pronouns, [23] adverbs, [24] adpositions, [25] question words, [26] quantifiers, [25] connectors, [27] discourse particles, [28] interjections, [29] ideophones, [25] and expressives. [25]

Nouns

Nouns can be inflected for number and case. [30] The number marking system is very complex, using suffixation, suppletion or tone to either mark plurals from singular bases, or singulatives from plural bases. [31] Mursi preverbal subjects and all objects are unmarked, [32] whereas postverbal subjects are marked by a nominative case. Further cases are the oblique case and the genitive case. [32] Modified nouns receive a special morphological marking called construct form by Mütze. [33]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majang language</span> Eastern Sudanic language of Ethiopia

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Komo is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Kwama (Komo) people of Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan. It is a member of the Koman languages. The language is also referred to as Madiin, Koma, South Koma, Central Koma, Gokwom and Hayahaya. Many individuals from Komo are multilingual because they are in close proximity to Mao, Kwama and Oromo speakers. Komo is closely related to Kwama, a language spoken by a group who live in the same region of Ethiopia and who also identify themselves as ethnically Komo. Some Komo and Kwama speakers recognize the distinction between the two languages and culture, whereas some people see it as one "ethnolinguistic" community. The 2007 Ethiopian census makes no mention of Kwama, and for this reason its estimate of 8,000 Komo speakers may be inaccurate. An older estimate from 1971 places the number of Komo speakers in Ethiopia at 1,500. The Komo language is greatly understudied; more information is being revealed as researchers are discovering more data about other languages within the Koman family.

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Murle is a Surmic Language spoken by the Murle people in the southeast of South Sudan, near the Ethiopian border. A very small number of Murle live across the border in southwestern Ethiopia.

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Gumuz is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. It has been tentatively classified within the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Ethiopian speakers live in Kamashi Zone and Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 reportedly live outside the town of Welkite. The Sudanese speakers live in the area east of Er Roseires, around Famaka and Fazoglo on the Blue Nile, extending north along the border. Dimmendaal et al. (2019) suspect that the poorly attested varieties spoken along the river constitute a distinct language, Kadallu.

References

  1. 1 2 "Ethiopian Census 2007". csa.gov.et. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency. 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  2. ↑ Mursi at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  3. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 1.
  4. ↑ Worku (2021), pp. 19 f.
  5. ↑ Worku (2021), pp. 36 f.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 45.
  8. ↑ Mütze (2014), p. 26.
  9. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 46.
  10. ↑ Mütze (2014), pp. 26 f.
  11. ↑ Worku (2021), pp. 46 f.
  12. ↑ Worku (2021), pp. 46, 49 f, he even several times calls it velar.
  13. ↑ Mütze (2014), p. 37.
  14. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 59.
  15. ↑ Mütze (2014), p. 39.
  16. ↑ Mütze (2014), p. 42.
  17. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 86.
  18. ↑ Turton & Bender (1976), p. 559.
  19. ↑ Moges Yigezu (2001). A Comparative Study of the Phonetics and Phonology of Surmic Languages. Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles.
  20. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 102.
  21. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 128.
  22. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 130.
  23. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 132.
  24. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 143.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Worku (2021), p. 151.
  26. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 154.
  27. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 161.
  28. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 163.
  29. ↑ Worku (2021), p. 168.
  30. ↑ Mütze (2014), p. 47.
  31. ↑ Worku (2021), ch. 6.2.
  32. 1 2 Mütze (2014), p. 53.
  33. ↑ Mütze (2014), p. 62.

Bibliography

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