Ngasa language
{{Short description|Eastern Nilotic language}}{{Infobox language
|name=Ngas
|altname=Ongamo
|states=Tanzania
|region=
|ethnicity=Ngasa people
|extinct=2012
|familycolor=Nilo-Saharan
|fam1=Nilo-Saharan?
|fam2=Eastern Sudanic?
|fam3=Southern Eastern Sudanic?
|fam4=Nilotic
|fam5=Eastern Nilotic
|fam8=Ongamo-Maa
|iso3=nsg
|glotto=ngas1238
|glottorefname=Ngasa
}}
Ongamo, or Ngas, is an extinct Eastern Nilotic language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Maa languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, Samburu, and Camus. Speakers have shifted to Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu language.
History
An expansion of Ngasa speakers onto the plains north of Mount Kilimanjaro occurred in the 12th century. The language was mutually intelligible with Proto-Maasai during that period. Vocabulary retention from this time attests to the cultivation of sorghum and eleusine by the Ngas. Subsequent immigration of Bantu-speaking Chagga over the next five centuries considerably reduced the extent and viability of the Ngasa language.Leeman, Bernard and informants. (1994). 'Ongamoi (KiNgassa): a Nilotic remnant of Kilimanjaro'. Cymru UK: Cyhoeddwr Joseph Biddulph Publisher. 20pp.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Sommer, Gabriele (1992) 'A Survey on Language Death in Africa', in Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 301–417.
External links
- [http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/nsg Ngasa profile on the Endangered Languages Project]
{{Languages of Tanzania}}
Category:Agglutinative languages
Category:Languages of Tanzania
Category:Eastern Nilotic languages
Category:Endangered languages of Africa
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