Suri language

Suri
Surma
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	West Omo Zone
Ethnicity	Suri, Tirma
Native speakers	27,000 (2007 census) [1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic? Southern Eastern? Surmic South Surmic Southeast Surmic Pastoral Surmic Tirma–Chai–Mursi Suri
Dialects	Tirma Chai
Writing system	Latin [2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	suq
Glottolog	suri1267
ELP	Suri

Suri (Churi, Dhuri, Shuri, Shuro), is a Surmic language spoken in the West Omo Zone of the South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region in Ethiopia, to the South Sudan border by the Suri. The language has over 80% lexical similarity to Mursi. ^[3] The language is often referred to by another form of its name, Surma, after which the Surmic branch of Eastern Sudanic is named, but that form is frequently used for the three related languages spoken by the Surma people: Suri, Mursi, and Me'en.

Suri is spoken in two dialect by two nationalities, the Tirma (Tirmaga, Cirma, Dirma, Terema, Terna, Tid, Tirima, Tirmagi) and the Chai (Caci, Cai).

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless		t	c	k	( ʔ )
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	g
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ	ɠ
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ		h
	voiced		z
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Flap/Trill			ɾ ~ r
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

• /ɗ/ may also be heard as a retroflex implosive [ᶑ] among the Chai dialect.
• /ʃ/ variant of [c] among speakers in the Tirmaga dialect. In the Chai dialect, it is heard as a separate phoneme.
• /ɾ/ can be heard as a trill [r] in word-final positions.
• /b, ɡ/ can be heard as [β, ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
• Implosives /ɓ, ɗ/ are heard as plosive sounds [p, t] in pre-consonantal and word-final positions.
• Sounds /b, ɟ, ɡ/ are devoiced as [p, c, k] pre-consonantal word-final.
• Some speakers of the Chai dialect may pronounce /s, z/ as dental fricatives [θ, ð].
• /j/ can be heard as a fricative [ð] among older speakers in different positions.
• A glottal stop [ʔ] may be heard in word-final position in connected speech. ^[4]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• /i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables. ^[5]

References

1. Ethiopia 2007 Census
2. Suri language at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
3. Suri language at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
4. Last & Lucassen 1998.
5. Bryant 1999.

Bibliography

• Abbink, Jon, Michael Bryant & Daniel Bambu. 2013. Suri Orature: An Introduction to the Society, Language and Oral Culture of the Suri People (Southwest Ethiopia). Cologne: R. Köppe Publishers, 203 pp..
• Bryant, Mike and Bargola Olekibo, compilers. 1997. Surichen ko aranjacan ko golacan (Suri–English–Amharic dictionary). 2nd ed. S.l.: Surma Translation Project. 65 p.
• Bryant, Michael G. (1999). Aspects of Tirmaga Grammar (MA thesis). University of Texas, Arlington.
• Last, Marco; Lucassen, Deborah (1998). "A Grammatical Sketch on Chai, a Southeastern Surmic Language". In Dimmendaal, Gerrit; Last, Marco (eds.). Surmic Languages and Cultures. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. pp. 375–436.
• Unseth, Peter. 1997. "Disentangling the Two Languages Called 'Suri'". Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages7: 49-69.
• Last, Marco and Deborah Lucassen. 1998. "Violence and Political Discourse Among the Chai Suri". in: Dimmendaal, Gerrit and Marco Last (eds.) Surmic Languages and Cultures. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln. pp. 323.

External links

• Endangered Languages Project -- Suri
• Surma People
• Suri basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database