The Kalenjin languages are a family of a dozen
Southern Nilotic languages
The Southern Nilotic languages are spoken mainly in western Kenya and northern Tanzania (with one of them, Kupsabiny or Sapiny, being spoken on the Ugandan side of Mount Elgon). They form a division of the larger Nilotic language family, along ...
spoken in
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
, eastern
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
and northern
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
. 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
The Kalenjin are a group of tribes designated as Highland Nilotes and are descended from Maliri people ''(thus related to Daasanach of Ethiopia.)'' The Kalenjin are cousins with Datooga people of Tanzania and Malawi. In contrast, their desi ...
and
Kalenjin language Kalenjin may refer to:
* Kalenjin people of Kenya
** keiyo people
** Kipsigis people
** Marakwet people
** Nandi people
** Pokot people
** Terik people
** Tugen people
** Sebei people
* Kalenjin language
* Kalenjin languages
The Kalenjin lan ...
.
Branches
The Kalenjin languages are generally distinguished into four branches. There is less certainty regarding internal relationships within these.
*
Elgon
Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda. (Sebei)
*
Nandi–Markweta (Kalenjin)
*
Okiek Okiek or Ogiek may refer to:
*the Okiek people
The Okiek ( Ogiek: ), sometimes called the Ogiek or Akiek (although the term Akiek sometimes refers to a distinct subgroup), are a Southern Nilotic ethnic group native to Tanzania and Southern Kenya ...
–
Mosiro
*
Kipsigis
*
Pökoot
Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary of Kalenjin languages from van Otterloo (1979), and Proto-
Southern Nilotic
The Southern Nilotic languages are spoken mainly in western Kenya and northern Tanzania (with one of them, Kupsabiny language, Kupsabiny or Sapiny, being spoken on the Ugandan side of Mount Elgon). They form a division of the larger Nilotic langu ...
from Rottland (1982):
[Rottland, Franz. 1982. ''Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion'' (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.]
Footnotes
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 DictionaryA Kalenjin websitePhonology of Endo - a Kalenjin language
{{Authority control
Languages of Kenya