Some Maasai phrases you might hear include:  the vowels sounds for: a (short a), e (long a),   i (long e), o (long o), u (oo)

            Supa    - The greeting – hello, hi
            Ipa     -  the answer to the greeting
            Jambo - Swahili for “hello”
            Karibuv-Welcome – as in welcome to my house
            Ashe - Thank you
            Ashe oleng - Thank you very much
            Ole Sere - Good-bye
            Simba - Lion – in both languages, Maa and Swahili

Maasai (?l Maa)

The Maasai, Masai or Maa language is a member of the East Niolitic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family spoken by about 900,000 people in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. The term Maasai refers to "one who speaks the Maa language".

Maasai is taught in schools to some extent, though the languages of instruction are Swahili and English. There is a Maasai dictionary, a Maasai translation of the Bible, and a few other publications, but generally the language is not used in writing very much.

Maasai pronunciation

*/ww/ and /yy/ are pronounced fortis.

Tones indication

á rising tone
a level tone
à falling tone
â falling tone

Sample text in Masai

órè dúó apá ánaa enáyyólo naá órè taá, órè taá náají, órè dúó énaa enapákátá earây, náa káytírríshíákì náají ìnè wwéjì amû órè apá, néetây apá, néetây apá oltu?ánì ojî apá Inkimís.

Translation

As far as what I know from a long time ago, like the time there was fighting I can remember a lot about that time because a long time ago, there was...At that time there was a person named Inkimis.