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:
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),van Otterloo, Roger. 1979. A Kalenjin dialect study. (Language Data Africa Series, 18.) Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. and Proto-Southern Nilotic from Rottland (1982):Rottland, Franz. 1982. Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
Language eye ear nose tooth tongue mouth blood bone tree water to eat name Proto-Southern Nilotic , Nandi Kipsigis Terik Keiyo South Tugen North Tugen Kony-Sabaot Cherang'any Talai Endo East Pokot
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 Dictionary
Phonology of Endo - a Kalenjin language