Asa language

Asa
Aasá
Region	Tanzania
Ethnicity	Asa people
Extinct	mid 20th century
Language family	Afro-Asiatic? Cushitic? Rift? East Rift Asa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aas
Glottolog	aasa1238[1]

The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax, was spoken by the Asa people of Tanzania. The language is extinct; ethnic Assa in northern Tanzania remember only a few words they overheard their elders use, and none ever used it themselves. Little is known of the language; what is recorded was probably Aasa lexical words used in a register of Maasai like the mixed language Mbugu.

Classification

Asa is usually classified as Cushitic, most closely related to Kw'adza. However, it might have retained a non-Cushitic layer from an earlier language shift, and might be best left unclassified.^[2]

The Aramanik (Laramanik) people once spoke Asa, but shifted to Nandi (as opposed to Maasai).

Vocabulary

• wataka - all
• buʕurita - burn
• dah - claw
• ga - cloud
• ki=te - die
• wa-t--dog
• rakaš-dry
• yatara -drink
• haǯa-t -earth
• ʔag- ~ ʔag-im- - eat
• ila-t - - eye
• ʔoreʔ-ek -far ^[3]

Notes

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Aasax". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
2. "Towards a new classification of African languages", Linguistic Contribution to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa, University of Lyons
3. https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_irk_swadesh-1/irk.txt

• Petrollino, Sara & Maarten Mous, 2010, Recollecting Words and Expressions in Aasá, a Dead Language in Tanzania

External links

• Aasax basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database