1 Lexicon for Ki-Bajuni = Ki-Gunya = Ki-Thikhuu 8 July 2010

This started as a Nurse & Philippson 1000-word list recorded by (?) on the northern Kenya coast (?) in the 1970’s. Supplemented by material collected by Nurse in the late 1970’s (Nurse 1982), also from northern Kenya, supplemented by material from Grottanelli (1955) and from Sacleux (1939), collected in the late 19th century (ca 1880), then by a limited amount of material heard in the early 21th century. Where Sacleux obtained his material is not clear. It does not include all the mass of Bajuni material in Sacleux. List here was compiled in 2009 from all sources. The lexical material therefore covers some 120-130 years of development and may include terms no longer familiar to Bajunis. Some items have been replaced by Standard Swahili. The limited grammatical material reflects Nurse 1982, an account of speech heard on the northern Kenya coast in the 1970’s. Grammatical loss can also be seen, e.g. in class 5, where traditional /i- / is being lost. After centuries of existence, the Bajuni communities in Somalia and Kenya, and their language are currently disappearing, the result of the genocide at the hands of ethnic Somalis that started in Somalia 1991, and in Kenya as the result of educational, economic, and social. It seemed urgent to record this material. Comments, corrections, additions, improvements from interested and informed parties are welcome