Samburu is a Maa language dialect spoken by Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya. The Samburu number about 128,000 (or 147,000 including the Camus/Chamus).[when?] The Samburu dialect is closely related to the Camus dialect (88% to 94% lexical similarity) and to the South Maasai dialects (77% to 89% lexical similarity). The word "Samburu" itself may derive from the Maa word saamburr for a leather bag the Samburu use.
| Samburu | |
|---|---|
| Sampur, ɔl Maa | |
| Native to | Kenya |
| Region | Samburu district of Rift Valley Province |
| Ethnicity | Samburu |
Native speakers | 240,000 (2009 census)[1] (including Camus) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | saq |
| Glottolog | samb1315 |
References
edit- ^ Samburu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Further reading
edit- Rainer Vossen. The Eastern Nilotes: Linguistic and Historical Reconstructions. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag 1982. ISBN 3-496-00698-6.
External links
edit- Maa Language Project
- Embuku E Sayiata Too Ltung'ana Pooki Maasai-Samburu Anglican Prayer Book (1967), digitized by Richard Mammana