Asa language

Asa
Aasax
Aasá
RegionTanzania
EthnicityAsa
Extinct1952–1956
Language codes
ISO 639-3aas
Glottologaasa1238
ELPAasáx
Aasax is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO World Atlas of Languages

The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax (also rendered as Aasá, Aasáx, Aramanik, Asak, Asax, Assa, Asá), is an Afroasiatic language formerly 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, similar to 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.

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

Vocabulary

Asa is known from three primary sources: two vocabulary lists from 1904 and 1928, and a collection by W. C. Winter from 1974.

The following are some example words of Asa, together with probable cognates identified in Kw'adza and Iraqw:

Some loanwords in Asa from other languages are known:

Notes

  1. ↑ Winter 1979.
  2. ↑ "Aasax |Unesco WAL". World Atlas of Languages. 2021.
  3. ↑ "Aasáx". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  4. ↑ Petrollino & Mous 2010, p. 212.
  5. ↑ Ehret 1980, p. 14.
  6. ↑ Ehret 1980, pp. 386–388.
  7. ↑ Ehret 1980, p. 385.

Literature