Serengeti-Dorobo (a nonce name) is an obscure "
Dorobo" language, a few words of which were recorded in the late 19th century by Oscar Baumann. From the little data available, the language is not obviously related to any other, though the numeral system is Nilotic. It is not the only "Dorobo" language formerly spoken in the Serengeti.
Vocabulary
A few paragraphs were recorded by Baumann (1894, p. 366), but without any word-by-word translations.
Numerals are as follows. Most resemble those of neighboring
Nilotic languages
The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples.
Etymology
The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile River or to the Nile region of Africa.
Dem ...
.
:1 ''napu'' (''kinavéta napó'' 'one cattle')
f. Maasai fem. ''nabo'':2 ''ennya''
f. Datooga ''iyeny'', Omotik ''ainia'':3 ''uni''
f. Maasai fem. ''uni'':4 ''ongwan''
f. Maasai fem. ''ongwan'', Datooga, Okiek ''angwan'':5 ''mot''
f. Datooga ''mut'', Okiek ''mʊʊt'', Omotik ''moot'':6 ''lei''
f. Datooga ''la'', Okiek ''ile'', Maasai ''ilɛ'', Omotik ''lai'':7 ''oner''
:8 ''sissie''
f. Datooga ''sis'':9 ''naudó''
f. Okiek ''naudo'', Maasai fem. ''naaudo'':10 ''gaget''
:15 ''gaget aχ mot''
:20 ''tegenos''
f. Okiek, Maasai ''tikitam'':30 ''tegenos aχ gaget''
See also
*
Omaio language
Notes
* Oscar Baumann (Berlin, 1894), ''Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle. Reisen und Forschungen der Massai-Expedition des deutschen Antisklaverei-Komite in den Jahren 1891–1893''
{{Languages of Tanzania
Languages of Tanzania
Unclassified languages of Africa
Languages extinct in the 20th century
Dorobo
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