Masaba language

Masaba (Lumasaaba), sometimes known as Gisu (Lugisu) after one of its dialects, is a Bantu language spoken by more than two million people in East Africa. The Gisu dialect in eastern Uganda is mutually intelligible with Bukusu, spoken by ethnic Luhya in western Kenya. Masaba is the local name of Mount Elgon and the name of the son of the ancestor of the Gisu tribe. Like other Bantu languages, Lumasaba nouns are divided into several sets of noun classes. These are similar to the genders in Germanic and Romance languages, except that instead of the usual two or three, there are around eighteen different noun classes. The language has a quite complex verb morphology.

Masaba
Lumasaba
Native to	Uganda
Region	Eastern Uganda, south of the Kupsabiny, Bugisu Province
Ethnicity	Masaba, Luhya
Native speakers	2.7 million (2002 & 2009 censuses)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Masaba–Luhya (J.30) Masaba
Dialects	Gisu Kisu Bukusu Syan Tachoni Dadiri Buya
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: myx – Masaba (Gisu, Kisu, Dadiri, Buya) bxk – Bukusu (Tachoni) lts – Tachoni
Glottolog	masa1299  Masaaba buku1249  Bukusu tach1242  Tachoni
Guthrie code	JE.31[2]

Varieties

Varieties of Masaba are as follows:^[3]

• Gisu (Lugisu)
• Kisu
• Bukusu (Lubukusu; ethnic Luhya)
• Syan
• Tachoni (Lutachoni; ethnic Luhya)
• Dadiri (Ludadiri)
• Buya (Lubuya)

Dadiri is spoken in the north, Gisu in the center, and Buya in the center and south of Masaba territory in Uganda. Bukusu is spoken in Kenya, separated from ethnic Masaba by Nilotic languages on the border.

Phonology

See Bukusu dialect for details of one variety of Masaba.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		g
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
	voiced	β	z
Approximant		(w)	l	j

• Sounds /k, ɡ, ŋ/ when before front vowels /i, e/ are heard as palatal [c, ɟ, ɲ].

• Sounds /i, u/ may be heard as glides [w, j] within initial vowel sequences.

Vowels

Masaba has a basic 5-vowel system consisting of /i, e, a, o, u/.