Keiyo (''Elgeyo'') is a

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 ...

spoken in western

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, in the southern part of the district of

Elgeyo-Marakwet Elgeyo-Marakwet County is one of Kenya's 47 counties. Elgeyo Marakwet County is located in the former Rift Valley Province. Its capital and largest town is Iten. It borders the counties of West Pokot to the north, Baringo County to the east, s ...

The Elgeyo

The

Elgeyo :''Keiyo may also refer to Keiyo, a district in Kenya, ''Keiyo Line'' a railway line in Japan or Elgeyo escarpment'' The Elgeyo (also known as Keiyo) are an ethnic group who are part of the larger Kalenjin ethnic group of Nilotic origin. They ...

refer to themselves by the name /kéyaːt/ or /kéyêːk/, or in the singular, /kéyo/ or /kéyaː/. The term /kéyo/ also applies to the language.

Classification

Keiyo is one of the languages spoken by the

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 desig ...

, and is part of a sub-group that also includes

Nandi Nandi may refer to: People * Nandy (surname), Indian surname * Nandi (mother of Shaka) (1760–1827), daughter of Bhebe of the Langeni tribe * Onandi Lowe (born 1974), Jamaican footballer nicknamed Nandi * Nandi Bushell (born 2010), South Afric ...

, Markweta and

Kipsigis Kipsigis may refer to: *the Kipsigis people of Kenya *Kipsigis language Kipsigis (or Kipsikii, Kipsikiis) is part of the Kenyan Kalenjin dialect cluster, It is spoken mainly in Kericho and Bomet counties in Kenya. The Kipsigis people are the m ...

. These languages and dialects form, along with Datooga and

Omotik Omotik (Sawas) is a moribund Nilotic language of Kenya. It is spoken by the hunter-gatherer Omotik people of the Great Rift Valley among the Maasai; most of the Omotik population has shifted to the Maasai language Maasai (previously sp ...

, the

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 ...

sub-group of the

Nilotic languages The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples. Etymology The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile River or to the Nile region of Africa. Dem ...

Phonology

The tables below present the vowels and consonants of Keiyo.

Vowels

There are, additionally, ten long counterparts of each vowel. Keiyo differentiates its vowels according to their place of articulation. They are either pronounced with the root of the tongue advanced, or with the root of the tongue retracted. The vowels with the root of the tongue advanced are as well as their long counterparts. The vowels with the root of the tongue contracted are � � � � � as well as their long counterparts.

Consonants

Tone

Keiyo is a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

References

* Kalenjin languages {{ns-lang-stub