Maasai Language Project

There is inevitably an intimate connection between any culture and its associated language:

• Culture is transmitted from one generation to the next via language.
• The lexicon (words) of a language express concepts central to the culture.
• Associations between words often reveal conceptual networks specific to that culture  (often complicating issues in translation from one language to another).

Traditional Maasai life is impacted by major cities like Nairobi, which are located in what was traditional Maasai grazing land, and by tourists, western education, commerce, modern entertainment, national land policies, etc.  Cultural cohesiveness is also affected by geographical distribution of people who speak the Maa language.  The Maa language is spoken in at least two dis-continuous areas of Kenya and Tanzania and the traditional grazing lands of the Maasai are intersected by the international Kenya-Tanzania border.

Altogether, the traditional Maasai lifestyle is under pressure to change rapidly.  As socio-cultural changes occur, the language is also facing the probability of considerable change.  To help document the language and Maasai culture (both traditional and modern), we are working on cross-dialect lexicographic (dictionary) and text data bases of the Maa (Maasai) language.  The lexicography data base currently includes over 3,000 entries.  Funding permitting, we plan to include a minimum of three dialects and about 5,000 entries.

For more information, please visit the Maasai Language Project Website.

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