Suri (''Churi, Dhuri, Shuri, Shuro''), 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 in the
West Omo Zone
West Omo or Mirab Omo is a Zone in the Ethiopian South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region. West Omo is located at Ethiopia’s southern margin, where Maji and Surma woredas are bordering Kenya, encompassing the area to the west of the Omo River
...
of the
South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region
The South West Region, officially the South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region () is a regional state in southwestern Ethiopia. It was split off from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) on 23 November 2021 after a succ ...
in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, to the
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...
border by the
Suri. The language has over 80%
lexical similarity
In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...
to
Mursi.
The language is often referred to by another form of its name, Surma, after which the Surmic branch of Eastern Sudanic is named, but that form is frequently used for the three related languages spoken by the
Surma 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 ...
: Suri, Mursi, and Me'en.
Suri is spoken in two dialect by two nationalities, 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 ...
(Tirmaga, Cirma, Dirma, Terema, Terna, Tid, Tirima, Tirmagi) and the
Chai (Caci, Cai).
References
Bibliography
* Abbink, Jon, Michael Bryant & Daniel Bambu. 2013.
Suri Orature An Introduction to the Society, Language and Oral Culture of the Suri People (Southwest Ethiopia).'' Cologne: R. Köppe Publishers, 203 pp..
*Bryant, Mike and Bargola Olekibo, compilers. 1997. ''Surichen ko aranjacan ko golacan (Suri–English–Amharic dictionary)''. 2nd ed. S.l.: Surma Translation Project. 65 p.
*Bryant, Michael G. 1999. ''Aspects of Tirmaga Grammar''. MA thesis. University of Texas, Arlington.
*Last, Marco and Deborah Lucassen. 1998. "A Grammatical Sketch on Chai, a Southeastern Surmic Language". in: Dimmendaal, Gerrit and Marco Last (eds.) ''Surmic Languages and Cultures''. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln. pp. 375–436.
*Unseth, Peter. 1997. "Disentangling the Two Languages Called 'Suri'". ''Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages'' 7: 49-69.
*Last, Marco and Deborah Lucassen. 1998. "Violence and Political Discourse Among the Chai Suri". in: Dimmendaal, Gerrit and Marco Last (eds.) ''Surmic Languages and Cultures''. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln. pp. 323.
External links
Endangered Languages Project -- Suri
Surma People
Suri basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Languages of Ethiopia
Surmic languages
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