Kipsigis language

Kipsigis (or Kipsikii, Kipsikiis) is part of the Kenyan Kalenjin dialect cluster, It is spoken mainly in the Kericho district of the Rift Valley Province in Kenya. The Kipsigis people are the most numerous tribe of the Kalenjin in Kenya, accounting for 60% of all Kalenjin speakers. Kipsigis is closely related to Nandi, Keiyo (Keyo, Elgeyo), South Tugen (Tuken), and Cherangany.

Kipsigis
Native toKenya
EthnicityKipsigis
Native speakers
1.9 million (2009 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3sgc
Glottologkips1239[2]

The Kipsigis territory is bordered to the south and southeast by the Maasai. To the west, Gusii (a Bantu language) is spoken. To the north-east, other Kalenjin people are found, mainly the Nandi. East from the Kipsigis, in the Mau forests, live some Okiek speaking tribes.

The Kipsigis language has two lengths of vowel sounds. When spoken, a single vowel has a short sound of that vowel whereas the duplication of a vowel indicates an elongated sound of that vowel. Most common nouns in the Kipsigis language end with a consonant when a common noun ends with a vowel, it will either be an 'a' or an 'o'. Proper nouns like name of places and people can end in any vowel.

See also

Notes
  1. ^ See Kalenjin languages and Nandi–Markweta languages for a clarification of the Nandi/Kalenjin nomenclature.

References
  1. Kipsigis at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kipsigis". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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