Surmic language spoken in Ethiopia and South Sudan
"Balesi language" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Bhalesi language of India.
"Ngaalam language" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Ngalum language of New Guinea.
Baale
Balesi
Kacipo
Native to
South Sudan, Ethiopia
Region
Ethiopian–South Sudanese border, Boma Plateau in South Sudan
Ethnicity
Zilmamo, Kichepo
Native speakers
9,000 (2000–2010)[1] (5,000 in South Sudan, 2010; 4,100 in Ethiopia, 2000)
Language family
Nilo-Saharan?
Eastern Sudanic?
Kir–Abbaian?
Surmic
South
Southwest
Baale
Dialects
Kacipo
Zilmamu
Balesi
Olam (Ngaalam)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
koe
Glottolog
baal1234
ELP
Baale
The Baale language, Baleesi or Baalesi is a Surmic language spoken by the Baale or Zilmamo people of Ethiopia, and by the Kachepo of South Sudan.[2] It is a member of the southwest branch of the Surmic cluster;[3] the self-name of the language and the community is Suri, which is the same as that of the Suri language,[4] evoking an ethnonym that embraces the Tirma, Chai (or T'id), and Baale communities, although linguistically the languages of these communities are different.[2][5] There are currently 9,000 native speakers of Baleesi, 5,000 in South Sudan and 4,100 in Ethiopia; almost all of these are monolingual.[1]
Yigezu (2005)[6] notes that although Baale is genetically a Southwest Surmic language, it has taken on many features of Southeast Surmic languages due to heavy contact.
^ abBaale at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ abDimmendaal, Gerrit. 2002. "Sociolinguistic Survey Report on Tirma, Chai, Baale, and Mursi" SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-033.
^Unseth, Peter. 1988. The Validity and Unity of the Southeast Surma Language Grouping. Northeast African Studies 10.2/3:151-163.
^Unseth, Peter. 1997. Disentangling the Two Languages Called “Suri”. Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages 7:49-69.
^Möller, Mirjam. 2009. Vowel Harmony in Bale - A Study of ATR Harmony in a Surmic Language of Ethiopia. BA thesis. University of Stockholm. Online access
^Yigezu, Moges. 2005. “Convergence of Baale: A Southwest Surmic Language to the Southeast Surmic group, lexical evidence.” APAL (Annual Publication in African Linguistics) 3: 49-66.
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