TerraverbaAn atlas of the world’s languages 简体中文 Open the atlas

Zaramo

Zaramo is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Tanzania. Glottolog rates it nearly extinct.

See it on the globeOpen in the family tree

Zaramo · 6.9°S 38.9°E

Zaramo is a Niger-Congo language, formerly primary language of the Zaramo people of eastern Tanzania. Zaramo is also known as Zalamo, Kizaramo, Dzalamo, Zaramu, Saramo and, Myagatwa. The language is critically endangered. The ethnic population of the Zaramo people reaches about 200,000, yet there are only a few elderly speakers remaining.

These speakers are mostly located in the villages surrounding the city of Dar es Salaam. Zaramo is thought to be passed down matrilineally to the children in these villages, while it remains critically endangered in the city.

There are very few translations of the language in existence except for a few native speakers' documented translations, and the publication of the New Testament from 1975.

From Wikipedia · Zaramo language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Zaramo

MeaningWordRomanization
personmuhnu*
nametagwa*
eyesiso*
eargutwi*
nosehula*
toothcino*
tonguelulimi*
blooddamu*
bonefupa*
kneevindi*
breasttombo*
liverini*
waterlenga*
firemoto*
sunzua*
starhnondo*
stonejiwe*
mountainlima*
treebiki*
leaftepo*
nightkilo*
dogbwa*
fishsomba*
lousehani*
twobili*
Inie*
yougwewe*
wetweye*
drinkngwa*
seelola*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

Nearby languages

Elsewhere

Something wrong here? Tell us

Glottolog · zara1247 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · zaj