lingvoj.orgLinked Languages ResourcesA contribution to the Web of Databy Bernard Vatant, Mondeca |
Temi |
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Sonjo is a Bantu language spoken in northern Tanzania, 30–40 miles west of Lake Natron. Ethnolinguistically, it is a displaced
member of Guthrie’s E50 group, most other members of which are found in Central Kenya. Within that group, it is most closely
related to Gikuyu. The Sonjo people number about 30,000 (2002 SIL); many of them are bilingual in Swahili, the local language
of education. Sonjo is largely undescribed. The Sonjo have lived for centuries as an isolated enclave in Maasai territory.
They are known for their use of irrigation systems in agriculture, a rare trait which causes some historians to link them
to the hitherto unexplained ruined irrigation systems of Engaruka, 60 miles to the southeast. The term Sonjo is the name given
to the people by the Maasai; they call themselves ba-temi and their language ke-temi or gi-temi. Apart from inevitable Maasai
influence, Sonjo shows influence from Chaga (Bantu E40), various Southern Cushitic languages, and from Southern Nilotic. The
Southern Cushitic influence has been attributed to an ancestral Ma'a or Dahalo community, while the Southern Nilotic traits
most probably come from Datooga. |
Names (more)[en] Sonjo language[sw] Kitemi |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Temi. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : sozLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/sozhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:soz More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: sozFreebase ISO 639-3 : soz GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |