The Baale language, Baleesi or Baalesi is a

Surmic The Surmic languages are a branch of the Eastern Sudanic language family. Today, the various peoples who speak Surmic languages make their living in a variety of ways, including nomadic herders, settled farmers, and slash and burn farmers. Th ...

language spoken by the Baale or Zilmamo people of Ethiopia, and by the Kachepo of South Sudan.Dimmendaal, Gerrit. 2002. "Sociolinguistic Survey Report on Tirma, Chai, Baale, and Mursi" ''SIL Electronic Survey Reports'' 2002-033. It is a member of the

cluster; the self-name of the language and the community is Suri, which is the same as that of the

Suri language 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. The la ...

, evoking an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

that embraces the

Tirma Tirma are a surmic ethnic group in Ethiopia and in Sudan. They speak Suri. The population of this group is numbered in the tens of thousands. ReferencesTirmaJoshua Project The Joshua Project is a Christian organization based in Colorado Springs ...

, Chai (or T'id), and Baale communities, although linguistically the languages of these communities are different.Möller, Mirjam. 2009. ''Vowel Harmony in Bale - A Study of ATR Harmony in a Surmic Language of Ethiopia''. BA thesis. University of Stockholm
Online access
/ref> There are currently 9,000 native speakers of Baleesi, 5,000 in South Sudan and in Ethiopia; almost all of these are monolingual. Yigezu (2005) notes that although Baale is genetically a Southwest Surmic language, it has taken on many features of Southeast Surmic languages due to heavy contact.

General information

Baleesi can be alternately referred to as Baalesi, Baale, Bale, Baaye, Dok, Kacipo-Balesi, Kachepo, Silmamo, Tsilmano, Zelmamu, Zilmamu and Zulmamu. :"The Baale call their language Baalesi. They are also referred to as Zilmamo, which is the name of their country, situated west and south of Jeba town, towards the border with Sudan. The Gimira call the Baale people and their language Baaye, whereas the Anywak refer to them as Dok. The Baale people call the neighboring Dizi people Saara, and the Amhara are referred to as Goola. Baale is also spoken across the border in Sudan, in an area known as Kachepo, which is the name used by the neighboring Toposa, Juje, and Murle for the Baale people and their country." There are no known dialects of Baleesi, but it is closely related to the Didinga-Murle cluster, which consists of

Didinga The Didinga (diDinga) are a Surmic ethnic group that occupy the Didinga Mountains region in Budi County, Eastern Equatoria State in South Sudan. They live in the valleys, on the plateaus and slopes, and on the adjacent plains of the region. Their n ...

Tennet TenneT is a transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of Germany. ''TenneT B.V.'' is the national electricity transmission system operator of the Netherlands, headquartered in Arnhem. Controlled and owned by the Dutch g ...

, and Larim in Sudan, and Murle in both Sudan and Ethiopia. It shares 40%-54% lexical similarity with Murle and 35% lexical similarity with Mursi. It is spoken in Rumeat, Upper Boma, and Mewun villages,

Pibor County Pibor is a county in the Pibor Administrative Area, South Sudan. The county was part of the erstwhile Jonglei state. During the 2011–2012 South Sudan tribal clashes some six to eight thousand "armed raiders" entered the county in late December ...

Boma State Boma or BOMA may refer to: People * Boma Akpore, Nigerian actor * Boma Iyaye (born 1969), Nigerian accountant and politician Places * Boma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, a port city ** Boma Airport near Boma, Congo * Boma, Ghana, a town ...

, located near the Ethiopian border. It is also spoken in the northwestern corner of

East Equatoria Eastern Equatoria is a state in South Sudan. It has an area of 73,472 km². The capital is Torit. On October 1, 1972, the state was divided into Imatong and Namorunyang states and was re-established by a peace agreement signed on 22 Febru ...

State. The Baleesi counting system is based on twenty and uses the same

quinary Quinary (base-5 or pental) is a numeral system with five as the base. A possible origination of a quinary system is that there are five digits on either hand. In the quinary place system, five numerals, from 0 to 4, are used to represent an ...

system as does the Didinga-Murle cluster. The word for "1,000" literally means "plenty," and everything greater than 100 is referred to as "a lot." While the Tirma, Chai, and Baale people form an ethnic unit called Suri, sharing similar age-set systems, common ceremonies, and material cultures, their languages are only distantly related. There is no known writing system for Baleesi and it is regarded as an unwritten language. The language status is classified as vigorous, meaning that it is unstandardized and in use by all ages. However, it may still be considered an endangered language due to the relatively small population of native speakers in existence.

Speakers

The Baale have a positive attitude towards their language, and use it in most areas of life besides the market. Some Baale people can speak Tirma or Chai along with Baleesi, and a few also speak Dizi or

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

. Speakers of Baleesi include non-native individuals as well. In Jeba town, there are Dizi people who speak Baleesi as a second language, and often serve as intermediaries between local or regional traders and the Baale people when they come to the market. The literacy rate of both

first-language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native ...

and

second-language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

speakers is below 1%.

Culture

The Baale share many aspects of culture with their fellow

Suri people Suri is a collective name for three ethnic groups (Suri Chai, Timaga, and Suri Baale) mainly living in Suri woreda, in southwestern Ethiopia. Suri is the collective name for all three subgroups. They share many similarities politically, territor ...

. For example, a practice common among the tribes of the Surma (including the Baale), is the insertion of a clay plate into the bottom lip of young girls and women. Another ritual the Suri take part in is called the Donga, which involves champions of teams from different clans and villages fighting in pairs using long wooden sticks. The ritual is used as a way to resolve conflicts on either an individual or higher level.Video depicting the Donga stick fighting festival
/ref>

References

External links

Endangered Languages ProfileBaale (Baleesi) basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseAudio of a Surmic language, possibly BaleesiVideo of Christian missionaries visiting the Kachepo peopleBBC clip on the Donga stick fighting festival
{{authority control Languages of Ethiopia Languages of South Sudan Surmic languages

General information

Speakers

Culture

References

Further reading

External links