Suri language explained

Suri
Nativename:	Surma
States:	Ethiopia
Region:	West Omo Zone
Ethnicity:	Suri, Tirma
Date:	2007 census
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Nilo-Saharan
Fam2:	Eastern Sudanic?
Fam3:	Kir–Abbaian?
Fam4:	Surmic
Fam5:	South Surmic
Fam6:	Southeast Surmic
Fam7:	Pastoral Surmic
Fam8:	Tirma–Chai–Mursi
Dia1:	Tirma
Dia2:	Chai
Iso3:	suq
Glotto:	suri1267
Glottorefname:	Tirma-Chai
Script:	Latin

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. 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 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		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)
	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Fricative		pronounced as /link/
Nasal	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Flap/Trill		pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/
Lateral		pronounced as /link/
Approximant	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/

/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.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Close-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Open-mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Open		pronounced as /link/

/i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables.

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 . University of Texas, Arlington.
Book: Last . Marco . Deborah . Lucassen . 1998 . A Grammatical Sketch on Chai, a Southeastern Surmic Language . Dimmendaal, Gerrit . Last, Marco . Surmic Languages and Cultures . Rüdiger Köppe Verlag . Köln . 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.

External links

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/5057 Endangered Languages Project -- Suri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbW27YvlpU Surma People
Suri basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

Notes and References

http://www.csa.gov.et/index.php?option=com_rubberdoc&view=doc&id=264&format=raw&Itemid=521 Ethiopia 2007 Census