Asa language

{{Infobox language

|name=Asa

|nativename={{lang|aas|Aasá}}

|region=Tanzania

|ethnicity=Asa

|extinct=1952–1956

|ref={{sfn|Winter|1979}}

|familycolor=Afro-Asiatic

|fam1=Afro-Asiatic

|fam2=Cushitic

|fam3=South?

|fam4=East

|iso3=aas

|linglist=aas.html

|glotto=aasa1238

|glottorefname=Aasax

| map = Lang Status 01-EX.svg

| mapcaption = {{center|{{small|Aasax is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO World Atlas of Languages{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Aasax {{!}}Unesco WAL |url=https://en.wal.unesco.org/languages/aasax |website=World Atlas of Languages}}}}}}

}}

The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax (also rendered as Aasá, Aasáx, Aramanik, Asak, Asax, Assa, Asá{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/aas|title=Aasáx|website=Ethnologue|language=en|access-date=2019-07-17}}), is an Afroasiatic language formerly spoken by the Asa people of Tanzania. The language is extinct; 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 of Maasai, similar to the mixed language Mbugu.{{sfn|Petrollino|Mous|2010|p=212}}

Classification

Asa is usually classified as Cushitic, most closely related to Kw'adza. However, it might have retained a non-Cushitic layer from an earlier language shift.

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.{{sfn|Ehret|1980|p=14}}

The following are some example words of Asa, together with probable cognates identified in Kw'adza and Iraqw:{{sfn|Ehret|1980|pp=386–388}}

'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:{{sfn|Ehret|1980|p=385}}

'three': samak and 'five': mut, from Datooga
'dog': kite, from Chaga

Notes

Literature

{{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Ehret|year=1980|title=The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic phonology and vocabulary|series=Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik|volume=5|publisher=Dietrich Reimer|authorlink=Christopher Ehret}}
{{cite journal|first1=Sara|last1=Petrollino|first2=Maarten|last2=Mous|year=2010|title=Recollecting Words and Expressions in Aasá, a Dead Language in Tanzania|journal=Anthropological Linguistics|volume=52|issue=2|pages=206–216|doi=10.1353/anl.2010.0012 }}
{{cite journal|first=Christopher|last=Winter|year=1979|title=Language Shift among the Aasáx, a Hunter-Gatherer Tribe in Tanzania|journal=Sprache und Geschicte in Afrika|volume=1|pages=175–204}}

External links

[http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\csh\scu&limit=-1&encoding=utf-eng Aasax basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database]

Category:South Cushitic languages

Category:Languages of Tanzania

Category:Unclassified languages of Africa

Category:Mixed languages

Category:Languages extinct in the 1950s

Category:Dorobo