Ngasa language

Ngas
Ongamo
Native to Tanzania
Ethnicity Ngas people
Native speakers
 probably extinct (2012)[1]
Nilo-Saharan?
Language codes
ISO 639-3 nsg
Glottolog ngas1238[2]

Ongamo, or Ngas, is probably extinct Eastern Nilotic language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Maa languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, Samburu, and Camus. Speakers have shifted to Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu language.

History

An expansion of Ngas speakers onto the plains north of Mount Kilimanjaro occurred in the 12th century. The language was mutually intelligible with Proto-Maasai during that period. Vocabulary retention from this time attests to the cultivation of sorghum and elusine by the Ngas. Subsequent immigration of Bantu-speaking Chagga over the next five centuries considerably reduced the extent and viability of the Ngasa language.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Ngas at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Ngasa". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Leeman, Bernard and informants. (1994). 'Ongamoi (KiNgassa): a Nilotic remnant of Kilimanjaro'. Cymru UK: Cyhoeddwr Joseph Biddulph Publisher. 20pp.

Further reading

Ngasa profile on the Endangered Languages Project


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