Masaba language

---

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

::summary Bantu language spoken in East Africa ::

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

Field	Value
name	Masaba
nativename	Lumasaba
states	Uganda
region	Eastern Uganda, south of the Kupsabiny, Bugisu Province
ethnicity	Masaba, Luhya
speakers	million
date	2002 & 2009 censuses
ref	e18
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	Masaba–Luhya (J.30)
dia1	Gisu
dia2	Kisu
dia3	Bukusu
dia4	Syan
dia5	Tachoni
dia6	Dadiri
dia7	Buya
lc1	myx
ld1	Masaba (Gisu, Kisu, Dadiri, Buya)
lc2	bxk
ld2	Bukusu (Tachoni)
lc3	lts
ld3	Tachoni
guthrie	JE.31
glotto	masa1299
glottoname	Masaaba
glotto2	buku1249
glottoname2	Bukusu
glotto3	tach1242
glottoname3	Tachoni
::

| name = Masaba | nativename = Lumasaba | states = Uganda | region = Eastern Uganda, south of the Kupsabiny, Bugisu Province | ethnicity = Masaba, Luhya | speakers = million | date = 2002 & 2009 censuses | ref = e18 | 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 = Masaba–Luhya (J.30) | dia1 = Gisu | dia2 = Kisu | dia3 = Bukusu | dia4 = Syan | dia5 = Tachoni | dia6 = Dadiri | dia7 = Buya | lc1 = myx | ld1 = Masaba (Gisu, Kisu, Dadiri, Buya) | lc2 = bxk | ld2 = Bukusu (Tachoni) | lc3 = lts | ld3 = Tachoni | guthrie = JE.31 | glotto = masa1299 | glottoname = Masaaba | glotto2 = buku1249 | glottoname2 = Bukusu | glotto3 = tach1242 | glottoname3 = Tachoni

Masaba (Lumasaaba), sometimes known as Gisu (Lugisu) after one of its dialects, is a Bantu language spoken by more than two million people in East Africa. The Gisu dialect in eastern Uganda is mutually intelligible with Bukusu, spoken by ethnic Luhya in western Kenya. Masaba is the local name of Mount Elgon and the name of the son of the ancestor of the Gisu tribe. Like other Bantu languages, Lumasaba nouns are divided into several sets of noun classes. These are similar to the genders in Germanic and Romance languages, except that instead of the usual two or three, there are around eighteen different noun classes. The language has a quite complex verb morphology.

Varieties

Varieties of Masaba are as follows:

• Gisu (Lugisu)
• Kisu
• Bukusu (Lubukusu; ethnic Luhya)
• Syan
• Tachoni (Lutachoni; ethnic Luhya)
• Dadiri (Ludadiri)
• Buya (Lubuya)

Dadiri is spoken in the north, Gisu in the center, and Buya in the center and south of Masaba territory in Uganda. Bukusu is spoken in Kenya, separated from ethnic Masaba by Nilotic languages on the border.

Phonology

See Bukusu dialect for details of one variety of Masaba.

Consonants

::data[format=table]

Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Nasal	Plosive	voiceless	voiced	Fricative	voiceless	voiced	Approximant
()
::

• Sounds /k, ɡ, ŋ/ when before front vowels /i, e/ are heard as palatal [c, ɟ, ɲ].

• Sounds /i, u/ may be heard as glides [w, j] within initial vowel sequences.

Vowels

Masaba has a basic 5-vowel system consisting of /i, e, a, o, u/.

References

Bibliography

• Brown, Gillian (1972) Phonological Rules and Dialectal Variation: A study of the phonology of Lumasaaba

References

1. Maho (2009)

::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. ::