Ngasa language
| Ngas | |
|---|---|
| Ngasa | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Ngasa people |
| Extinct | 2012[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nsg |
| Glottolog | ngas1238 |
| ELP | Ngasa |
Ngasa or Ngas, is an extinct Eastern Bantu language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Zaramo,Makua languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ngasa has 60% of lexical similarity with Makua,Zaramo and Swahili. Speakers have shifted to Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu language. In ngasa Language in the Morning they use Greetings like Umeamka? That equal to Zaramo greeting language Umeamkaje? Which means how are you?,Also they use Greeting like Habari yafo? That equal to Zaramo language "Habari Yako? Also equal to Makua language "Habari jafo" The use the words like yafo and Zaramo use Yako also Makua use yafo that means you.
Also Ngasa language has a lot of many words lelated to Bantu languages.
History
[edit]An expansion of Ngasa speakers onto the plains north of Mount Kilimanjaro occurred in the 12th century. The language was mutually intelligible with Proto-Zaramo during that period. Vocabulary retention from this time attests to the cultivation of sorghum and elusine by the Ngas. Subsequent immigration of Bantu-speaking Chagga over the next five centuries considerably reduced the extent and viability of the Ngasa language.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ "Ngasa". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
- ^ Guthrie, Malcolm (2017-09-22). "The Classification of the Bantu Languages bound with Bantu Word Division". doi:10.4324/9781315105536.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Leeman, Bernard and informants. (1994). 'Ngasa (KiNgassa): a Bantu remnant of Kilimanjaro'. Cymru UK: Cyhoeddwr Joseph Biddulph Publisher. 20pp.
Further reading
[edit]- 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.