Native to Ethiopia Ethnicity Suri, Tirma Dialects Tirma
Chai | Region Bench Maji Zone Native speakers 27,000 (2007 census) | |
Language family Nilo-Saharan?
Eastern Sudanic
Kir–Abbaian
Surmic
South
Southeast
Suri–Mursi
Suri | ||
Suri (Churi, Dhuri, Shuri, Shuro), is a Nilo-Saharan Eastern Sudanic language, of the Surmic grouping. It is spoken in the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia, to the South Sudan border, and across the border in South Sudan by the Suri. The language has over 80% lexical similarity 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, Mursi, and Me'en.
Suri is spoken in two dialect by two nationalities, the Tirma (Tirmaga, Cirma, Dirma, Terema, Terna, Tid, Tirima, Tirmagi) and the Chai (Caci, Cai).
References
Suri language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA