Gusii language

For the Gusii or Kisii people, see Gusii people.
Gusii
EkeGusii
Native to Kenya
Region Western Kenya, Gusii district
Native speakers
2.2 million (2009 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 guz
Glottolog gusi1247[2]
JE.42[3]

The Gusii language (also known as Kisii or Ekegusii) is a Bantu language spoken in the Kisii district in western Kenya, whose headquarters is Kisii town, (between the Kavirondo Gulf of Lake Victoria and the border with Tanzania). It is spoken by the Gusii people, numbering about 2.0 million (SIL/Ethnologue 1994). A few Gusii people are bilingual in Luo.

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.

Phonetic inventory of vowels in Gusii
FrontCentralBack
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.

Phonetic inventory of consonants in Gusii
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:

Bibliography

Bickmore, Lee

Cammenga, Jelle

Mreta, Abel Y.

Whiteley, Wilfred H.

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.

References

  1. Gusii at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Gusii". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online

External links

Listening

See also

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