Native to Uganda | Ethnicity Masaba, Luhya | |
Region Eastern, south of the Kupsabiny, Bugisu Province Native speakers 2.7 million (2002 & 2009 censuses) Language family Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Southern Bantoid
Bantu
Northeast Bantu
Great Lakes Bantu
Masaba–Luhya (J.30)
Masaba Dialects Gisu
Kisu
Bukusu
Syan
Tachoni
Dadiri
Buya | ||
Masaba (Lumasaaba), sometimes known as Gisu (Lugisu) after one of its dialects, is a Bantu language spoken by more than two million people in East Africa. Gisu dialect in eastern Uganda is mutually intelligible with Bukusu, spoken by ethnic Luhya in western Kenya. Masaba is the local name of Mount Elgon and the name of the son of the ancestor of the Gisu tribe. Like other Bantu languages, Lumasaba has a large set of prefixes used as noun classifiers. This is similar to how gender is used in many Germanic and Romance languages, except that instead of the usual two or three, there are around eighteen different noun classes. The language has a quite complex verb morphology.
Contents
Varieties
Varieties of Masaba are as follows:
Dadiri is spoken in the north, Gisu in the center, and Buya in the center and south of Masaba territory in Uganda. Bukusu is spoken in Kenya, separated from ethnic Masaba by Nilotic languages on the border.
Phonology
See Bukusu dialect for details of one variety of Masaba.
Vowels
Masaba has a basic 5-vowel system consisting of /i, e, a, o, u/.