The Gusii language (also known as Ekegusii) is a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

spoken in Kisii and Nyamira counties in Nyanza

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, whose headquarters is

Kisii Town Kisii (also known as Getembe or Bosongo) is a municipality and urban centre in south-western Kenya and the capital of the Kisii County. Kisii Town also serves as major urban and commercial centre in the Gusii Highlands—Kisii and Nyamira cou ...

, (between the Kavirondo Gulf of

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...

and the border with

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

). It is spoken natively by 2.2 million people (as of 2009), mostly among the

Abagusii The Abagusii (also known as Kisii (Mkisii/Wakisii) in Swahili, or Gusii in Ekegusii) are a highly diverse East African ethnic group and nation indigenous to Kisii (formerly Kisii District) and Nyamira counties of former Nyanza, as well as ...

. Ekegusii has only two dialects: The Rogoro and Maate dialects. Phonologically they differ in the articulation of /t/. Most of the variations existing between the two dialects are lexical. The two dialects can refer to the same object or thing using different terms. Example Cat. While one dialect calls a cat ekemoni, the other calls it ekebusi. As well, the rogoro dialect calls sandals Chidiripasi while the maate dialect calls it chitaratara. Many more lexical differences manifest in the language. Maate Dialect is spoken in Tabaka and Bogirango. Most of the other regions use the Rogoro Dialect,which is also the standard dialect

Sounds

Vowels

Gusii has seven vowels.

Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...

is contrastive, i.e. the words 'bór' ''to miss'' and 'bóór' ''to say'' are distinguished by vowel length only.

Consonants

In the table below, orthographic symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

symbols. Note especially the use of ‘y’ for IPA , common in African orthographies. When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. The following morphophonological alternations occur: * n+r = ��d* n+b = ��b* n+g = ��ɡ* n+k = ��k* n+c = ��tʃ* n+s = ��s* n+m = ː 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.

Ekegusii language Alphabet

Ekegusii Noun Classes

Samples 1

Ekegusii Numeral System

Sample 2

Sample phrases

Bibliography

Bickmore, Lee *1997. Problems in constraining High tone spread in Ekegusii. ''Lingua'', vol. 102, pp. 265–290. *1998. Metathesis and Dahl’s Law in Ekegusii. ''Studies in the Linguistic Sciences'', vol. 28:2, pp. 149–168. *1999. High Tone Spreading in Ekegusii Revisited: An Optimality Theoretic Account. ''Lingua'', vol. 109, pp. 109–153. Cammenga, Jelle * 2002 ''Phonology and morphology of Ekegusii: a Bantu language of Kenya''. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Mreta, Abel Y. * 2008. ''Kisimbiti: Msamiati wa Kisimbiti-Kiingereza-Kiswahili na Kiingereza-Kisimbiti-Kiswahili / Simbiti-English-Swahili and English-Simbiti-Swahili Lexicon''. Languages of Tanzania Project, LOT Publications Lexicon Series 7, 106 pp., .

Nash, Carlos M.

* 2011. ''Tone in Ekegusii: A Description of Nominal And Verbal Tonology''. University of California, Santa Barbara.

Nyauncho, Osinde K.

* 1988. ''Ekegusii morphophonology: an analysis of the major consonantal processes''. University of Nairobi. Whiteley, Wilfred H. * 1956 ''A practical introduction to Gusii''. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi/Kampala:

East African Literature Bureau The Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) is a publishing house and state corporation in Kenya founded in 1947. It is located in South-C off Popo Road in Nairobi. History The Kenya Literature Bureau was initially established by the "East Africa governme ...

Available Here
* 1960 ''The tense system of Gusii''. Kampala: East African Institute of Social Research. * 1974 ''Language in Kenya''. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.

References

External links

*
Gusii.com
The Gusii Language Blog

online Encyclopedia/DictionaryAmerican soft power has helped this Kenyan man's efforts to ensure a future for his mother tongue
��report by Patrick Cox for

Public Radio International Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States. PRI was one of the main providers of programm ...

(January 26, 207)

Listening

National Public Radio story about Kisii language
(from ''All Things Considered'' program, April 29, 2006) {{Authority control Great Lakes Bantu languages Languages of Kenya