Ngasa language
Ongamo, or Ngas, is a probably extinct Eastern Nilotic language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Maa languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, Samburu, and Camus. Speakers have shifted to Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu language.
| Ngas | |
|---|---|
| Ongamo | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Ngas people |
Native speakers | probably extinct (2012)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nsg |
| Glottolog | ngas1238 |
| ELP | Ngasa[2] |
History
An expansion of Ngas speakers onto the plains north of Mount Kilimanjaro occurred in the 12th century. The language was mutually intelligible with Proto-Maasai during that period. Vocabulary retention from this time attests to the cultivation of sorghum and elusine by the Ngas. Subsequent immigration of Bantu-speaking Chagga over the next five centuries considerably reduced the extent and viability of the Ngasa language.[3]
References
- Ngas at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Endangered Languages Project data for Ngasa.
- Leeman, Bernard and informants. (1994). 'Ongamoi (KiNgassa): a Nilotic remnant of Kilimanjaro'. Cymru UK: Cyhoeddwr Joseph Biddulph Publisher. 20pp.
Further reading
- Sommer, Gabriele (1992) 'A Survey on Language Death in Africa', in Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 301–417.
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