Omaio (Omaiyo) is an obscure
Dorobo
Dorobo (or ''Ndorobo'', ''Wadorobo'', ''dorobo'', ''Torobo'') is a derogatory umbrella term for several unrelated hunter-gatherer groups of Kenya and Tanzania. They comprised client groups to the Maasai people, Maasai and did not practice cattle pa ...
language of Tanzania. According to interviews with speakers, the people were expelled from the
Serengeti
The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning the Mara and Arusha Regions of Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game r ...
in the 1950s to make way for the park. As of 2014, three speakers remember some words of the language, though it had not been spoken since they were children. Based on the few hundred words and phrases that have been collected, the language has
not been classified. There is evidence of words that can be traced to contact with speakers of the
Maa and
Datooga languages, as well as older words from the
Southern Nilotic family which may have been inherited or borrowed.
See also
*
Serengeti Dorobo language
Notes
External links
Omaiyo Language Resources
{{Languages of Tanzania
Languages of Tanzania
Unclassified languages of Africa
Endangered unclassified languages
Endangered languages of Africa
Dorobo
stub