Suri language

Suri (Churi, Dhuri, Shuri, Shuro), is a Surmic language spoken in the West Omo Zone of the South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region in Ethiopia, to the South Sudan border by the Suri. The language has over 80% lexical similarity to Mursi.[3] The language is often referred to by another form of its name, Surma, after which the Surmic branch of Eastern Sudanic is named, but that form is frequently used for the three related languages spoken by the Surma people: Suri, Mursi, and Me'en.

Suri
Surma
Native toEthiopia
RegionWest Omo Zone
EthnicitySuri, Tirma
Native speakers
27,000 (2007 census)[1]
Nilo-Saharan?
Dialects
  • Tirma
  • Chai
Latin[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3suq
Glottologsuri1267
ELPSuri

Suri is spoken in two dialect by two nationalities, the Tirma (Tirmaga, Cirma, Dirma, Terema, Terna, Tid, Tirima, Tirmagi) and the Chai (Caci, Cai).

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless t c k (ʔ)
voiced b d ɟ g
implosive ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ h
voiced z
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Flap/Trill ɾ ~ r
Lateral l
Approximant w j
  • /ɗ/ may also be heard as a retroflex implosive [ᶑ] among the Chai dialect.
  • /ʃ/ variant of [c] among speakers in the Tirmaga dialect. In the Chai dialect, it is heard as a separate phoneme.
  • /ɾ/ can be heard as a trill [r] in word-final positions.
  • /b, ɡ/ can be heard as [β, ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
  • Implosives /ɓ, ɗ/ are heard as plosive sounds [p, t] in pre-consonantal and word-final positions.
  • Sounds /b, ɟ, ɡ/ are devoiced as [p, c, k] pre-consonantal word-final.
  • Some speakers of the Chai dialect may pronounce /s, z/ as dental fricatives [θ, ð].
  • /j/ can be heard as a fricative [ð] among older speakers in different positions.
  • A glottal stop [ʔ] may be heard in word-final position in connected speech.[4]

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
  • /i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables.[5]

References
  1. Ethiopia 2007 Census
  2. Suri language at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021) closed access
  3. Suri language at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021) closed access
  4. Last & Lucassen 1998.
  5. Bryant 1999.

Bibliography
  • Abbink, Jon, Michael Bryant & Daniel Bambu. 2013. Suri Orature: An Introduction to the Society, Language and Oral Culture of the Suri People (Southwest Ethiopia). Cologne: R. Köppe Publishers, 203 pp..
  • Bryant, Mike and Bargola Olekibo, compilers. 1997. Surichen ko aranjacan ko golacan (Suri–English–Amharic dictionary). 2nd ed. S.l.: Surma Translation Project. 65 p.
  • Bryant, Michael G. 1999. Aspects of Tirmaga Grammar. MA thesis. University of Texas, Arlington.
  • Last, Marco and Deborah Lucassen. 1998. "A Grammatical Sketch on Chai, a Southeastern Surmic Language". in: Dimmendaal, Gerrit and Marco Last (eds.) Surmic Languages and Cultures. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln. pp. 375–436.
  • Unseth, Peter. 1997. "Disentangling the Two Languages Called 'Suri'". Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages 7: 49-69.
  • Last, Marco and Deborah Lucassen. 1998. "Violence and Political Discourse Among the Chai Suri". in: Dimmendaal, Gerrit and Marco Last (eds.) Surmic Languages and Cultures. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln. pp. 323.


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