In Kenya, where speakers make up 18% of the population, the name Kalenjin, an Elgeyo expression meaning "I say (to you)", gained prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when several Kalenjin-speaking peoples united under it.
The Kenyan conception of Kalenjin is an inclusive term for different dialects spoken in the north Rift region of Kenya.
Kalenjin has a simple five-vowel inventory {a, e, i, o, u}, which is then expanded by the presence of a contrastive [+/-ATR feature], as well as a phonemic vowel length distinction.
The neutralization of the [+/-ATR] contrast for this specific vowel is common in other Nilotic languages of the region, such as Maasai of Kenya and Didinga of South Sudan.
[1][2] Kalenjin, like many other African languages, exhibits Advanced Tongue Root harmony.
For example, perfect aspect in the past is signaled through lengthening of the vowel of the subject agreement prefix.
Therefore, the only difference between simple and perfect aspect in the past is that the subject agreement prefix is short in the former, but long in the latter.
Case is tonal and is very regular, while number formation is quite irregular, with plural being signaled in a variety of different ways, including various plural suffixes, changes in the [ATR] specification of the vowels of the stem, or changes in the tonal pattern of the stem.
The language has no overt articles and it seems like these two forms are related to definiteness and/or specificity in some way.
Derivational and inflectional affixes associated with nouns are always suffixes, with the exception of the prefixes kip – and che:p -, which denote male and female gender respectively.
In the non-past only, the perfect aspect also shows a distinction for simultaneous versus non-simultaneous actions.
The order of morphemes is that of tense – subject agreement – (aspect) – stem – (aspect), with a lot of aspectual work being done by changes in the tonal pattern and/or vowels of the subject agreement prefix and/or the verbal stem.
Finally, there is a series of suffixes that can be attached to the verb to change its argument structure or add extra meaning.
Finally, Kalenjin is unusual among verb-initial languages, in expressing possession with a transitive verb HAVE.
Amemutech ole mi yomset, ago soruech eng' yaityo.