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

Afroasiatic language The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the ...

formerly spoken by the Asa people of

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. The language is

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

; 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 Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), ...

of Maasai, similar to the mixed language Mbugu.

Classification

Asa is usually classified as

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2 ...

, most closely related to Kw'adza. However, it might have retained a non-Cushitic layer from an earlier

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

. 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

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

s identified in Kw'adza and Iraqw: * 'big': ''jira'' — Kw'adza ''dire'' * 'bird': ''širaʔa'' — Iraqw ''tsʼirʕi'' * 'louse': ''ʔita'' — Iraqw ''itirmo'' * 'blood': ''saʔaka'' — Kw'adza ''saʔuko'' * 'bone': ''farit'' — Kw'adza ''falaʔeto'', Iraqw ''fara'' * 'horn': ''hadoŋ'' — Kw'adza ''xalinko'', Iraqw ''xaraŋ'' * 'hair': ''seʔemuk'' — Iraqw ''seʔemi'' * 'head': ''sogok'' — Kw'adza ''sagiko'', Iraqw ''saga'' * 'eye': ''ilat'' — Kw'adza ''ilito'', Iraqw ''ila'' * 'mouth': ''afok'' — Kw'adza ''afuko'', Iraqw ''afa'' * 'tongue': ''šeferank'' — Iraqw ''tsʼifraŋ'' * 'breast': ''isank'' — Iraqw ''isaŋ'' * 'heart': ''monok'' — Kw'adza ''munaku'', Irawn ''muna'' * 'water': ''maʔa'' — Kw'adza ''maʔaya'', Iraqw ''maʔay'' * 'sand': ''hajat'' — Kw'adza ''hasinko'', Iraqw ''hasaŋ'' * 'stone': ''deʔok'' — Kw'adza ''tlʼaʔiko'', Iraqw ''tlʼaʕano'' * 'to drink': ''wat-'' — Kw'adza ''wat-'', Iraqw ''wah-'' * 'to eat': ''ʔag-'' — Kw'adza ''ag-'', Iraqw ''ʕayim-'' * 'to lie': ''ʔat-'' — Kw'adza ''kʼat-'', Iraqw ''qat-'' * 'to die': ''ga-'' — Kw'adza ''gwaʔ-'', Iraqw ''gwa-'' * 'to kill': ''gas-'' — Kw'adza ''gaʔis-'', Iraqw ''gas-'' * 'far': ''sanga'' — Kw'adza ''sagumu'', Iraqw ''saw'' * 'near': ''šaya'' — Kw'adza ''tsʼahemi'', Iraqw ''tsʼew'' Some loanwords in Asa from other languages are known: * 'three': ''samak'' and 'five': ''mut'', from Datooga * 'dog': ''kite'', from

Chaga The Chaga or Chagga () are a Bantu ethnic group from Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania and Arusha Region of Tanzania. They are the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They founded the now former sovereign Chagga states on the slopes of M ...

Notes

Literature

* * *

External links

Aasax basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
South Cushitic languages Languages of Tanzania Unclassified languages of Africa Mixed languages Languages extinct in the 1950s Dorobo {{AfroAsiatic-lang-stub