Gusii language

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Bantu language spoken in western Kenya

title: "Gusii language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["kisii", "great-lakes-bantu-languages", "languages-of-kenya"] description: "Bantu language spoken in western Kenya" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusii_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Bantu language spoken in western Kenya ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Gusii
nativename	Ekegusii
states	Kenya
region	Nyanza Kenya, Kisii County & Nyamira County, Southern Rift Valley, parts of Kericho County & Bomet County
ethnicity	Abagusii
speakers	L1: 2.2 million
date	2009 census
ref	e22
speakers2	L2: 500,000
familycolor	Niger-Congo
fam2	Atlantic-Congo
fam3	Volta-Congo
fam4	Benue–Congo
fam5	Bantoid
fam6	Southern Bantoid
fam7	Bantu
fam8	Northeast Bantu
fam9	Great Lakes Bantu
fam10	East Nyanza
fam11	Nyanza Mara
fam12	North Mara
dia1	Ekegusii Proper
dia2	Bogirango Maate
script	Latin (after European contact)
iso3	guz
glotto	gusi1247
glottorefname	Gusii
guthrie	JE.42
notice	IPA
::

The Gusii language (also known as Ekegusii) is a Bantu language spoken in Kisii and Nyamira counties in Nyanza Province, 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.

Sounds

Vowels

Gusii has seven vowels. Vowel length is contrastive, i.e. the words 'bóra' to miss and 'bóóra' to say are distinguished by vowel length only.

::data[format=table title="Phonetic inventory of vowels in Gusii"]

Front	Central	Back
Close	i
Close-mid	e
Open-mid	ɛ
Open		a
::

Consonants

In the table below, orthographic symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the IPA symbols. Note especially the use of ‘y’ for IPA , common in African orthographies. When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.

::data[format=table title="Phonemic inventory of consonants in Gusii"]

labial	alveolar	palatal	velar
	t		k
		tʃ
β	s		ɣ
m	n	ɲ	ŋ
	ɾ
w		j
::

::data[format=table title="Phonetic inventory of consonants in Gusii"]

labial	alveolar	palatal	velar
p b	t d		k ɡ
		tʃ
β	s		ɣ
m	n	ɲ	ŋ
	ɾ
w		j
::

The following morphophonological alternations occur:

n+r =
n+b =
n+g =
n+k =
n+c =
n+s =
n+m =

The Gusii language has the consonant 'b' not realized as the bilabial stop as in 'bat' but as bilabial fricative as in words like baba, baminto, abana.

Ekegusii language Alphabet

::data[format=table]

Ekegusii alphabet (Kenya)	Ekegusii Alphabet	Ekegusii Consonants
A	B	C
Mb	Bw	mbw
::

Ekegusii Noun Classes

Samples 1

::data[format=table]

Ekegusii Noun Class	Class	Singular	Gloss	Plural	Gloss
1	omo-aba	omonto	person/human	abanto	people/humans
2	omo-eme	omotwe	head	emetwe	head
3	e-ch	eng'ombe	cow	chiombe	cows
4	ege-ebi	egekombe	cup	ebikombe	cups
5	ri-ama	ritunda	fruit	amatunda	fruits
6	o-o	obwoba	cowardness	obwoba	cowardness
7	e-e	ekegusii	ekegusii	-----------	-----------
8	ama-ama	amabere	milk	amabere	milk
9	omo-i-seke	omoiseke	girl	aba-i-seke	girls
10				--------------	------------
::

Ekegusii Numeral System

Sample 2

::data[format=table]

Ekegusii Numeral System	Number	Reading	Meaning	Number	Reading
1	eyemo	1	11	ikomi nemo	10+1
2	ibere	2	12	ikomi na ibere	10+2
3	isato	3	13	ikomi na isato	10+3
4	inye	4	14	ikomi na inye	10+4
5	isano	5	15	ikomi na isano	10+5
6	isano nemo	5+1	16	ikomi na isano nemo	10+5+1
7	isano na ibere	5+2	17	ikomi na isano na ibere	10+5+2
8	isano na isato	5+3	18	ikomi na isano na isato	10+5+3
9	kianda	9	19	ikomi na kianda	10+9
10	ikomi	10	20	emerongo ebere	20
::

Sample phrases

::data[format=table]

English	Ekegusii
Good Morning	Bwakire buya
Good night	Obotuko obuya
Head	omotwe
Ear	ogoto
Water	amache
evening	mogoroba
grandfather	sokoro
to know	komanya
to milk	gokama
donkey	etigere/ebunda
Earth	ense
Dwell	menya
Homeland	inka
Today	rero
Sun	risase/omobaso
Dog	esese
Stand	-tenena
Know	-manya
See	-rora
Upperside/Hillside	rogoro
Lake/Sea	enyancha
Desert	eroro
Fighter	omorwani
Roll Over	-garagara
Milk	amabere
She goat	esibeni
Cowdung	esike
Lady	omosubati
Harvest (verb/noun)	gesa/rigesa
Cry	rera
Walk	tara
Look	Rigereria
Tomorrow	mambia
::

Bibliography

Bickmore, Lee

1. Problems in constraining High tone spread in Ekegusii. Lingua, vol. 102, pp. 265–290.
1. Metathesis and Dahl’s Law in Ekegusii. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, vol. 28:2, pp. 149–168.
1. High Tone Spreading in Ekegusii Revisited: An Optimality Theoretic Account. Lingua, vol. 109, pp. 109–153.

Cammenga, Jelle

2002 Phonology and morphology of Ekegusii: a Bantu language of Kenya. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

Mreta, Abel Y.

1. Kisimbiti: Msamiati wa Kisimbiti-Kiingereza-Kiswahili na Kiingereza-Kisimbiti-Kiswahili / Simbiti-English-Swahili and English-Simbiti-Swahili Lexicon. Languages of Tanzania Project, LOT Publications Lexicon Series 7, 106 pp., .

Nash, Carlos M.

1. Tone in Ekegusii: A Description of Nominal And Verbal Tonology. University of California, Santa Barbara.

Nyauncho, Osinde K.

1. Ekegusii morphophonology: an analysis of the major consonantal processes. University of Nairobi.

Whiteley, Wilfred H.

1956 A practical introduction to Gusii. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi/Kampala: East African Literature Bureau. Available Here
1960 The tense system of Gusii. Kampala: East African Institute of Social Research.
1974 Language in Kenya. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.

Omonyi, Moses Mark.

2020 Local languages-Ekegusii. Kibabii University

References

Rhonda L. Hartell, ed. 1993. The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and Summer Institute of Linguistics
Nyauma, Shem. (2014). "A Phonological Reconstruction Of Ekegusii And Egekuria Nouns: A Comparative Analysis". Masters Thesis, University of Nairobi.
(1993). "Alphabets of Africa". UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar (BREDA).

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::