Kalenjin languages

The Kalenjin languages are a family of a dozen Southern Nilotic languages spoken in Kenya, eastern Uganda and northern Tanzania. The term Kalenjin comes from an expression meaning 'I say (to you)' or 'I have told you' (present participle tense). Kalenjin in this broad linguistic sense should not be confused with Kalenjin as a term for the common identity the Nandi-speaking peoples of Kenya assumed halfway through the twentieth century; see Kalenjin people and Kalenjin language.

Branches

The Kalenjin languages are classified within the Glottolog database as follows:^[1]

• Kalenjin
  • Central Kalenjin
    • Kipsigis
    • Plateau Central Kalenjin
      • Tugen
      • Western Plateau Central Kalenjin
        • Keiyo
        • Nandi
        • Terik
  • Elgon–Mau Kalenjin
    • Kupsabiny
    • Sabaot
  • Northern Kalenjin
    • Markweeta
    • Pökoot
  • Okiek–Akie
    • Akie
    • Okiek

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary of Kalenjin languages from van Otterloo (1979),^[2] and Proto-Southern Nilotic from Rottland (1982):^[3]

Footnotes

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2024-03-11). "Glottolog 5.0 - Lwoo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2024-05-06. Retrieved 2024-05-06.
2. van Otterloo, Roger. 1979. A Kalenjin dialect study. (Language Data Africa Series, 18.) Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
3. Rottland, Franz. 1982. Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

References

• https://www.amazon.de/Kalenjin-Grammar-Beginners-Complete-Textbook-ebook/dp/B09VLL15M7
• Distefano, John Albert. 1985. The precolonial history of the Kalenjin of Kenya: a methodological comparison of linguistic and oral traditional evidence. Doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles.
• Rottland, Franz (1982) Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. (See esp. map 1 on p. 31, and the 'Sprachbeschreibung' of the Kalenjin languages on pp. 69–143.)
• van Otterloo, Roger. 1979. A Kalenjin dialect study. (Language Data Africa Series, 18.) Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

External links

• Kalenjin–English Dictionary
• A Kalenjin website
• Phonology of Endo - a Kalenjin language