| Asa | |
| Nativename: | Aasá |
| Region: | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity: | Asa |
| Extinct: | 1952–1956 |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam1: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Cushitic |
| Fam3: | South? |
| Fam4: | Rift? |
| Fam5: | East |
| Iso3: | aas |
| Linglist: | aas.html |
| Glotto: | aasa1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Aasax |
The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax (also rendered as Aasá, Aasáx, Aramanik, Asak, Asax, Assa, Asá[1]), is an extinct Afroasiatic language formerly spoken by the Asa people of Tanzania. The language is extinct; ethnic Assa in northern Tanzania remember only a few words they overheard their elders use, and none ever used it themselves. Little is known of the language; what is recorded was probably Aasa lexical words used in a register of Maasai, similar to the mixed language Mbugu.
Asa is usually classified as Cushitic, most closely related to Kw'adza. However, it might have retained a non-Cushitic layer from an earlier language shift.
The Aramanik (Laramanik) people once spoke Asa, but shifted to Nandi (as opposed to Maasai).
Asa is known from three primary sources: two vocabulary lists from 1904 and 1928, and a collection by W. C. Winter from 1974.
The following are some example words of Asa, together with probable cognates identified in Kw'adza and Iraqw:
Some loanwords in Asa from other languages are known:
. 1980. The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic phonology and vocabulary. Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik. 5. Dietrich Reimer. Christopher Ehret.