Ekegusii

Ekegusii is a Bantu language spoken by the Abagusii (translated as people of Gusii) who reside in Kisii and Nyamira counties (see e.g. Nash, 2011; Omoke 2012; Basweti et. al. 2015). According to the 2019 National Census, Ekegusii has an estimated number of native speakers totaling 2.7 million. The Abagusii are believed to have migrated from the Congo forest through Uganda entering Kenya through the Western part of the country. In Gusii folklore, their people’s origin is from a place called ‘Misiri,’ Egypt. The Abagusii community is bordered to the East by the Kipsigis, to the West by the Luo, and to the South by the Maasai, all of whom are Nilotic speakers. They do not neighbor any Bantu speakers.

Contributor: Peter Nyansera Otieno

Kisii University, Keny

nyanseraotieno@gmail.com

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Yasmine Beale-Rivaya

Project Director/Coordinator

yb10@txstate.edu

Guthrie, (1971) in his zonal classification of languages classifies Ekegusii as a central Bantu language part of the sub-family of the Kuria language labeled E. 42 (Maho, 2003). He relates it to other languages including Lulogooli, Ameru (Kenya) Kuria (Kenya and Tanzania) Ware, Ikizu, Ikoma, and Sanjo (Tanzania). Just like the majority of Bantu languages, Ekegusii is a tone language. The following map situates Kisii and Nyamira counties of Kenya, where Ekegusii is predomintly spoken.

Bosire (1993:1), Mecha (2006:4), and Otieno and Mecha, (2019) classify Ekegusii into two dialects, the Rogoro, and the Maate dialect. The main difference between these two dialects is in vocabulary and pronunciation (Otieno, 2020). The Rogoro dialect is mainly spoken in the northern parts of Gusiiland while the Maate dialect is mainly spoken in the southern parts of Gusiiland. The Rogoro dialect is considered to be the standard form because it is the one used in print, and used in a news broadcast in Ekegusii.