Mursi language

Mursi is classified as belonging to the Southeast Surmic languages, to which the following other languages also belong: Suri, Me'en and Kwegu.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|pp=36 f}}{{cite book |last1=Dimmendaal |first1=Gerrit J. |editor1-last=Dimmendaal |editor1-first=Gerrit J. |editor2-last=Last |editor2-first=Marco |title=Surmic Languages and Cultures |date=1998 |publisher=Rüdiger Köppe Verlag |location=Cologne |pages=35–81 |chapter=Surmic Languages and Cultures: an Introduction}} As such, Mursi is also part of the superordinate Eastern Sudanic family of the Nilo-Saharan languages.

The vowel and consonant inventory of Mursi is similar to those of other Southeast Surmic languages, except for the lack of ejectives, the labial fricative /{{IPA|f}}/ and the voiceless stop /{{IPA|p}}/.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=45}}

• Except for the hesitant inclusion of the glottal stop /ʔ/ by Firew, both Mütze and Firew agree on the consonant inventory. The layout mostly follows Mütze. The characters in angled brackets are the ones used by Firew, where they differ from Mütze.
• Mütze rejects the phonemic status of the glottal stop [{{IPA link|ʔ}}], claiming that it is phonetically inserted to break up vowel sequences.{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|pp=26 f}} Firew discusses this and leaves the question undecided, but includes the sound in the phoneme chart.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|pp=46 f}}
• Firew classifies the alveolar implosive /{{IPA link|ɗ}}/ as postalveolar, without giving reasons.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|pp=46, 49 f|loc=he even several times calls it velar}}

• Both Mütze and Firew agree on the vowel inventory and on the chosen transcription, as shown above.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=59}}
• Even though vowel length appears phonetically in Mursi, it can be explained by the elision of weak consonants between identical vowels.{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|p=39}}

Both Mütze{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|p=42}} and Firew{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=86}} agree that there are only two underlying tone levels in Mursi, as opposed to larger inventories proposed by Turton and Bender{{sfnp|Turton|Bender|1976|p=559}} and Moges.{{cite book |last1=Moges Yigezu |title=A Comparative Study of the Phonetics and Phonology of Surmic Languages |date=2001 |publisher=Université Libre de Bruxelles |location=Brussels}}

The Mursi grammar makes use of the following parts of speech: nouns,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=102}} verbs,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=128}} adjectives,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=130}} pronouns,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=132}} adverbs,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=143}} adpositions,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=151}} question words,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=154}} quantifiers,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=151}} connectors,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=161}} discourse particles,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=163}} interjections,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=168}} ideophones,{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=151}} and expressives.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|p=151}}

Nouns can be inflected for number and case.{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|p=47}} The number marking system is very complex, using suffixation, suppletion or tone to either mark plurals from singular bases, or singulatives from plural bases.{{sfnp|Worku|2021|loc=ch. 6.2}}

Mursi preverbal subjects and all objects are unmarked,{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|p=53}} whereas postverbal subjects are marked by a nominative case. Further cases are the oblique case and the genitive case.{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|p=53}}

Modified nouns receive a special morphological marking called construct form by Mütze.{{sfnp|Mütze|2014|p=62}}

{{reflist|20em}}

• {{Cite thesis

|first=Firew Girma |last=Worku

|date=2021

|title=A Grammar of Mursi: A Nilo-Saharan Language of Ethiopia

|publisher=Brill: Leiden.

|url=https://brill.com/view/title/59339?language=en

|doi=10.1163/9789004449916

|url-access=subscription

}}

• {{cite journal

|last1=Yigezu |first1=Moges

|last2=Turton |first2=David

|date=2005

|title=Latin Based Mursi Orthography

|journal=ELRC Working Papers

|volume=1

|issue=2

|pages=242–57

|url=http://www.mursi.org/documents-and-texts/published-articles/moges-yigezu-david-turton-et-al/mursi-orthography/view

|access-date=9 July 2021

|publisher=Ethiopian Languages Research Center

|location=Addis Ababa

}}

• {{Cite thesis

|last=Mütze |first=Bettina

|date=2014

|title=A Sketch of the Mursi Language

|degree=MA

|publisher=Redcliff College, University of Gloucestershire

|place=Gloucester

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Turton |first1=David

|last2=Bender |first2=M. Lionel

|date=1976

|editor1-last=Bender |editor1-first=M. Lionel

|title=The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia

|publisher=African Studies Center, Michigan State University

|location=East Lansing

|pages=533–561

|chapter=Mursi

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Turton |first1=David

|last2=Moges Yigezu |last3=Oliserali Olibui

|date=2008

|title=Mursi-English-Amharic Dictionary

|publisher=Culture and Arts Society of Ethiopia

|location=Addis Ababa

|url=https://www.mursi.org/pdf/dictionary.pdf/view

}}

• [http://www.mursi.org/ Mursi Online], University of Oxford
• [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\esu\srm&first=0 Mursi basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database]
• World Atlas of Language Structures information on [http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_mur Mursi]

{{Languages of Ethiopia}}

{{Eastern Sudanic languages}}

Category:Languages of Ethiopia

Category:Surmic languages