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). 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.

Phonology

{| class="wikitable"

|+Consonant phonemes

! colspan="2" |

!<small>Labial</small>

!<small>Alveolar</small>

!<small>Palatal</small>

!<small>Velar</small>

!<small>Glottal</small>

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! colspan="2" |Explosives

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! colspan="2" |Implosives

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! colspan="2" |Nasals

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! colspan="2" |Fricatives

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! colspan="2" |Laterals

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! colspan="2" |Flaps

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! colspan="2" |Trills

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! rowspan="2" |<small>Semivowels</small>

!<small>Weak</small>

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!<small>Strong</small>

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References

Further reading

  • Rainer Vossen. The Eastern Nilotes: Linguistic and Historical Reconstructions. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag 1982. .
  • Maa Language Project
  • Embuku E Sayiata Too Ltung'ana Pooki Maasai-Samburu Anglican Prayer Book (1967), digitized by Richard Mammana