| Variants |
NGASA, SHAKA, ONGG’AMONI, ONGG’AMO |
| Language affiliation |
Nilo-Saharan |
| Language affiliation (details) |
Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Nilotic, Eastern, Lotuxo-Teso, Lotuxo-Maa, Ongamo-Maa. |
| Geographic locations |
Tanzania and Kenya, North-eastern slopes of Kilimanjaro in the three localities Ubetu, Reha and Kahe between the valleys Makuku and Machima near the Kenyan/Tanzanian border. |
| Language situation |
Moribund language: only a few elderly speakers are left |
| General presentation of the language |
Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, 59% with Samburu, 58% with Chamus. |
| Number of speakers |
200 to 300 people of about 2,500 members of the ethnic group (1983) |
| Socio-linguistic context – description |
The Ongamo language which is spoken in the region near to Mount Kilimanjaro in Northern Tanzania is only a dominant tongue for a few elderly individuals. The younger generation speaks mainly Chagga. The ethnic group of the Ongamo is known as ‘Ngasa’ to neighbouring people. Nowadays the Ongamo language is no longer an intrinsic part of Ongamo ethnic identity. The only elderly speakers left are bilingual in Chagga. The language vitality began to diminish in the 1950s. |
| ISO standard codes (639-2 / 639-3) |
[NSG] |
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| Unicode support |
Yes |
