Mursi | |
---|---|
ሙነን (munɛn) | |
Native to | Ethiopia |
Region | Central Omo |
Ethnicity | Mursi |
Native speakers | 7,400 (2007 census) [1] [2] |
Geʽez | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
muz |
Glottolog |
murs1242 |
ELP | Mursi |
Mursi (also Dama, Merdu, Meritu, Murzi, Murzu) is a Southeast Surmic language spoken by the Mursi people who live in the South Omo Zone on the eastern side of the lower Omo valley in southwest Ethiopia. [3] The language is similar to Suri, another Southeast Surmic language spoken to the west of the Mursi language area. [4] It is spoken by approximately 7,400 people. [1]
Mursi is classified as belonging to the Southeast Surmic languages, to which the following other languages also belong: Suri, Me'en and Kwegu. [5] [6] As such, Mursi is also part of the superordinate Eastern Sudanic family of the Nilo-Saharan languages.
The vowel and consonant inventory of Mursi is similar to those of other Southeast Surmic languages, except for the lack of ejectives, the labial fricative /f/ and the voiceless stop /p/. [7]
Labial | Alveolar |
Postalveolar/ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | t | c ⟨č⟩ | k | (ʔ) | |
voiced | b | d | ɟ ⟨dʒ⟩ | ɡ | ||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | h | ||
voiced | z | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Liquids | r, l | |||||
Approximant | j | w |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a |
Both Mütze [16] and Firew [17] agree that there are only two underlying tone levels in Mursi, as opposed to larger inventories proposed by Turton and Bender [18] and Moges. [19]
The Mursi grammar makes use of the following parts of speech: nouns, [20] verbs, [21] adjectives, [22] pronouns, [23] adverbs, [24] adpositions, [25] question words, [26] quantifiers, [25] connectors, [27] discourse particles, [28] interjections, [29] ideophones, [25] and expressives. [25]
Nouns can be inflected for number and case. [30] The number marking system is very complex, using suffixation, suppletion or tone to either mark plurals from singular bases, or singulatives from plural bases. [31] Mursi preverbal subjects and all objects are unmarked, [32] whereas postverbal subjects are marked by a nominative case. Further cases are the oblique case and the genitive case. [32] Modified nouns receive a special morphological marking called construct form by Mütze. [33]
Mursi | |
---|---|
ሙነን (munɛn) | |
Native to | Ethiopia |
Region | Central Omo |
Ethnicity | Mursi |
Native speakers | 7,400 (2007 census) [1] [2] |
Geʽez | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
muz |
Glottolog |
murs1242 |
ELP | Mursi |
Mursi (also Dama, Merdu, Meritu, Murzi, Murzu) is a Southeast Surmic language spoken by the Mursi people who live in the South Omo Zone on the eastern side of the lower Omo valley in southwest Ethiopia. [3] The language is similar to Suri, another Southeast Surmic language spoken to the west of the Mursi language area. [4] It is spoken by approximately 7,400 people. [1]
Mursi is classified as belonging to the Southeast Surmic languages, to which the following other languages also belong: Suri, Me'en and Kwegu. [5] [6] As such, Mursi is also part of the superordinate Eastern Sudanic family of the Nilo-Saharan languages.
The vowel and consonant inventory of Mursi is similar to those of other Southeast Surmic languages, except for the lack of ejectives, the labial fricative /f/ and the voiceless stop /p/. [7]
Labial | Alveolar |
Postalveolar/ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | t | c ⟨č⟩ | k | (ʔ) | |
voiced | b | d | ɟ ⟨dʒ⟩ | ɡ | ||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | h | ||
voiced | z | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Liquids | r, l | |||||
Approximant | j | w |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a |
Both Mütze [16] and Firew [17] agree that there are only two underlying tone levels in Mursi, as opposed to larger inventories proposed by Turton and Bender [18] and Moges. [19]
The Mursi grammar makes use of the following parts of speech: nouns, [20] verbs, [21] adjectives, [22] pronouns, [23] adverbs, [24] adpositions, [25] question words, [26] quantifiers, [25] connectors, [27] discourse particles, [28] interjections, [29] ideophones, [25] and expressives. [25]
Nouns can be inflected for number and case. [30] The number marking system is very complex, using suffixation, suppletion or tone to either mark plurals from singular bases, or singulatives from plural bases. [31] Mursi preverbal subjects and all objects are unmarked, [32] whereas postverbal subjects are marked by a nominative case. Further cases are the oblique case and the genitive case. [32] Modified nouns receive a special morphological marking called construct form by Mütze. [33]