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Zaramo Language
[edit]Zaramo is the former primary language of the Zaramo people of eastern Tanzania. [1] Zaramo is also known as Zalamo, Kizaramo, Dzalamo, Zaramu, Saramo and, Myagatwa. The language is critically endangered. The ethnic population of the Zaramo people reaches about 200,000, yet there are only a few elderly speakers remaining.[2]
These speakers are mostly located in the villages surrounding the city of Dar es Salaam. Zaramo is passed down matrilineally to the children in these villages, while it remains critically endangered in the city.[3]
There are very few translations of the language in existence except for a few native speakers' documented translations, and the publication of the New Testament from 1975.
Classification
[edit]Zaramo is genetically tied to the Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, G, and Zigula-Zaramo classifications. (G.33)[4]
History
[edit]Zaramo is the official language of a Bantu tribe located in the coastal area surrounding the capital city of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. Linguistic evidence supports the theory that Zaramo originated from the Luguru tribe. A migration of the Zaramo people eastward from their original location in Tanzania has been the source of slight changes in their cultural language.
The Zaramo as they are known today are made up of clans that migrated from the Kutu and the Luguru around 1700. Their common ancestry with the Luguru is substantiated, in that they have the same common language with only slight dialectal variations. The language of the Zaramo is mutually intelligible with those of the Jutu, the Luguru, the Kwere, and the Kami. Most Zaramo people of today chose to speak the lingua franca of Tanzania.
While the ethnic population of the Zaramo people reaches about 200,000, today there are only a few elderly speakers of Zaramo language. Most Zaramo people speak Swahili as their first language today and have adopted Swahili-Arabic names. They favor the Swahili over their endangered dialect for its broad use in communication and trade.
Geographic Distribution
[edit]Official Status
[edit]Zaramo is not the official language of any country or region. Currently, the only locations where Zaramo still exists is Pwani region of eastern Tanzania. This area is located between too cities: Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam. The rural, costal area is home to the Zaramo people who are the only ethnic group to speak the language.
Dialects Varieties
[edit]There are no known dialects of Zaramo. It shares a lexical similarity: 68% with Kutu [kdc], 65% with Kami [kcu], 61% with Kwere [cwe] and Doe [doe].[5] This connection is substantiated by the historical relationship between the tribes.
Examples
[edit]There are very few examples of Zaramo language available. A list of words and phrases was provided by a native speaker to the author of Short Specimens of the Vocabularies of Three Unpublished African Languages: Gindo, Zaramo, and Angazidja.[6]
| English word or phrase | Zaramo translation |
|---|---|
| Basket | Mgelo |
| Chair | Kigoda |
| Friend | Mbwiga |
| House | Ng'anda |
| Town | Kayi |
| I do not know | Sitangile |
| What is your name? | Tagwa lako nani? |
Writing System
[edit]The Zaramo language uses latin script for its writing system.[7] Latin script is the most widely used writing system in the world. Some languages adapted the alphabet by the addition of entirely new letters such Zaramo, and other languages from the Niger-Congro orthographies.[8]
See Also
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References
[edit]- ^ "Zaramo people". Wikipedia. 2016-11-14.
- ^ "Did you know Zaramo is critically endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
- ^ "OLAC resources in and about the Zaramo language". www.language-archives.org. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
- ^ "Zaramo". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
- ^ "Zaramo". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
- ^ Steere, Edward (1859-01-01). Short Specimens of the Vocabularies of Three Unpublished African Languages: Gindo, Zaramo, and Angazidja. C. Cull.
- ^ "ScriptSource - Latin". scriptsource.org. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
- ^ "Latin script". Wikipedia. 2017-04-02.
Bibliography
[edit]1. "Zaramo." Glottolog 2.7. Accessed March 10, 2017. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/zara1247.
"The Glottolog page for Zaramo language provides a detailed classification for the language. It also includes list of alternative names and other helpful links with more information on the language.
2. Zaramo. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.ethnologue.com/language/zaj
"The Ethnologue page from Zaramo language provides a lot of information about its dialects, classifications, and location among many other important facts that will be useful in my final project."
3. Moseley, C. (Ed.). (2010). Atlas of the world's languages in danger. Paris: Unesco.
"Portions of the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger provide information as to what caused the endangerment of Zaramo as a language mostly citing the increased popularity of Swahili among the people in the region."
4. Project, J. (n.d.). Zaramo in Tanzania. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/16090/TZ
"This website provided a great deal of information about the people who speak Zaramo, their religion and their cultural beliefs."
5. Zaramo language. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2017, from http://globalrecordings.net/en/language/995
"This website includes a sample of Zaramo spoken language which is interesting telling a biblical story, again citing the religious ties of the language."
6. University of Iowa: Museum of Art. (n.d.). Zaramo. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/peoples/show/Zaramo
"This article by the University of Iowa's museum of Art provides more information about the people who speak Zamaro focusing on their history, art, politics, and religion."
7. Osier, M., & Kidd, K. K. (n.d.). ALFRED: allele frequency database. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://alfred.med.yale.edu/alfred/sampleDescrip.asp?sampleID=%272586%27%29
"This website compares the Zamaro people and language to others in the region, through means of their genetic distinctions and similarities. This information is backed by historical fact and may prove useful in understanding the developments of the language and its speakers."
8. Mous, M. (2003). Loss of linguistic diversity in Africa. Language Death and Language Maintenance Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 157-170. doi:10.1075/cilt.240.10mou
"This journal by Maarten Mous of Leiden University is focused on the loss of linguistic diversity in Africa and focuses on the Bantu languages; Zamaro is specifically noted as a a subset."
9. Gregersen, E. A., & Polome, E. C. (1968). Swahili Language Handbook. Language,44(4), 877. doi:10.2307/411908
"This is a journal that focuses on the Swahili Language. There are certain sections dedicatedR to distinuishing Swahili dialects from Bantu dialects including Zamaro."