Gusii language

Gusii
Ekegusii
Native toKenya
RegionNyanza Kenya, Kisii County & Nyamira County, Southern Rift Valley, parts of Kericho County & Bomet County
EthnicityAbagusii
Native speakers
L1: 2.2 million (2009 census)[1]
L2: 500,000
Dialects
  • Ekegusii Proper
  • Bogirango Maate
Latin (after European contact)
Language codes
ISO 639-3guz
Glottologgusi1247
JE.42[2]
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The Gusii language (also known as Ekegusii) is a Bantu language spoken in Kisii and Nyamira counties in Nyanza Kenya, whose headquarters is Kisii Town, (between the Kavirondo Gulf of Lake Victoria and the border with Tanzania). It is spoken natively by 2.2 million people (as of 2009), mostly among the Abagusii. Ekegusii has only two dialects: The Rogoro (upper-side) and Maate (lower-side) dialects. Phonologically, they differ in the articulation of /t/. Most of the variations existing between the two dialects are lexical. The two dialects can refer to the same object or thing using different terms. An example of this is the word for cat. While one dialect calls a cat ekemoni, the other calls it ekebusi (a word that comes from the sound used to call a cat in Gusii culture). Another illustrating example can be found in the word for sandals. While the Rogoro word for sandals is chisiripasi (a loanword from the English word "slippers"), the Maate dialect word is chitaratara (adapted from the sound made by sandals when one walks while wearing them). Many more lexical differences manifest in the language. The Maate dialect is spoken in Tabaka and Bogirango. Most of the other regions use the Rogoro dialect, which is also the standard dialect of Ekegusii.

  1. ^ Gusii at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online