Taita language
Bantu language spoken in Kenya
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taita is a Bantu language spoken in the Taita Hills of Kenya. It is closely related to the Chaga languages of Kenya and Tanzania. The Saghala (Sagala, Sagalla) variety is distinct enough to be considered a language separate from the Dawʼida and Kasigau dialects.[2]
Dawʼida and Saghala contain loanwords from two different South Cushitic languages, called Taita Cushitic, which are now extinct.[3] It is likely that the Cushitic speakers were assimilated fairly recently, since lateral obstruents in the loanwords were still pronounced as such within living memory. However, those consonants have now been replaced by Bantu sounds.[4]
The Taveta language was mistaken for Dawʼida by Jouni Maho in his (2009) classification of Bantu languages. However, it is a distinct language, lexically and grammatically closest to Chasu (Pare).
Phonology
Taita allows a syllabic /m̩/ to occur before any other consonant. Otherwise, the only consonant clusters involve any consonant followed by /w/; and a voiced stop preceded by a homorganic nasal.[6]
There is no phonemic vowel length. However, all possible sequences of two vowels occur across two syllables except for /iu/, /uu/, and /ou/.[6]
Tone
Taita has two tones: high (H) and low (L).[6] An underlying word-final high tone is realized as a low tone unless the previous syllable is also high.[7]
