Aweer language

"Bon language" redirects here. For the language spoken in Cameroon, see Bankon language.
Aweer
Boni
Native toKenya
RegionCoast Province, North-Eastern Province
EthnicityAweer
Native speakers
7,600 (2009 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Kilii
  • Baddey
  • Bireeri
  • Jara
  • Kijee
  • Safaree
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3bob
Glottologawee1242
ELPAweer
Linguasphere14-GAF-a
Area where the Eastern Omo-Tana languages (minus Bayso and Rendille) are spoken

Aweer (Aweera), also known as Boni (Bon, Bonta), is a Cushitic language of Eastern Kenya. The Aweer people, known by the arguably derogatory exonym Boni, are historically a hunter-gatherer people, traditionally subsisting on hunting, gathering, and collecting honey.[2][3] Their ancestral lands range along the Kenyan coast from the Lamu and Ijara Districts into Southern Somalia's Badaade District.[4][5]

According to Ethnologue, there are around 8,000 speakers of Aweer. Aweer has similarities with the Garre language,[6][7][8] however, its speakers are distinct in culture and appearance from Garre speakers.[9]

  1. ^ Aweer at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Biber, Douglas; Heine, Bernd (1984). "The Waata Dialect of Oromo: Grammatical Sketch and Vocabulary". Language. 60 (4): 992. doi:10.2307/413828. ISSN 0097-8507. JSTOR 413828.
  3. ^ Stiles, Daniel (2001). "Hunter-Gatherer Studies: The Importance of Context" (PDF). African Study Monographs. Supplementary Issue. 26: 41–65. doi:10.14989/68408 – via Kyoto University Research Information Repository.
  4. ^ Prins, A.H.J. (1960). "Notes on the Boni, a Tribe of Hunters in Northern Kenya". Bulletin of the International Committee on Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research. 1 (3): 25–27.
  5. ^ Prins, A.H.J. (1963). "The Didemic Diarchic Boni". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 93 (2): 174–85.
  6. ^ Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  7. ^ Ethnologue - Garre language
  8. ^ Tosco, Mauro (1994). "The Historical Reconstruction of a Southern Somali Dialect: Proto-Karre-Boni". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika. 15: 153–209.
  9. ^ "Ethnologue - Aweer language". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-09-17.