From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Maasai language (autonym: ɔl Maa) is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 1,200,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties Samburu (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu people of central Kenya, and to Chamus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Samburu). The Maasai, Samburu and il-Chamus people are historically related and all refer to their language as ɔl Maa.

Like the other Maa languages, Maasai has Advanced Tongue Root vowel harmony. There are nine contrastive vowels, with the vowel /a/ being "neutral" for harmony. For some speakers the voiced stops may be realized as implosive consonants, but often the implosion is very light to non-existent. Tone is extremely important for conveying correct meaning.

Word order is usually Verb Subject Object, though order can vary because tone is the most important indicator of Subject versus Object. What really determines order in a clause is topicality; thus order in most simple clauses can be predicted according to the information structure pattern: [Verb - Most.Topical - Less.Topical]. Thus, if the Object is highly topical in the discourse (e.g. a first person pronoun), and the Subject is less topical, the Object will occur right after the verb and before the subject.

The Maasai language has only two fully grammaticalized prepositions, but can use "relational nouns" along with the most general preposition to designate specific locative ideas. Noun phrases begin with a Demonstrative or Gender-Number Prefix, followed by a quantifying noun or other head noun. Other modifiers follow the head noun, including Possessive phrases.

• Kwavi language
• Sonjo language, the language of a Bantu enclave in Maasai territory
• Yaaku, a people who almost completely abandoned their own language in favor of Maasai

• Mol, Frans (1995) Lessons in Maa: a grammar of Maasai language. Lemek: Maasai Centre.
• Mol, Frans (1996) Maasai dictionary: language & culture (Maasai Centre Lemek). Narok: Mill Hill Missionary.
• Tucker, Archibald N. & Mpaayei, J. Tompo Ole (1955) A Maasai grammar with vocabulary. London/New York/Toronto: Longmans, Green & Co.
• Vossen, Rainer (1982) The Eastern Nilotes. Linguistic and historical reconstructions (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 9). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

• Ethnologue report on Maasai
• On-line Maa dictionary
• Maasai Language Project

This Nilo-Saharan languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.