Kipsigis language

Kipsigis (or Kipsikii, Kipsikiis) is a variety of the Kenyan Kalenjin dialect cluster. It is spoken mainly in Kericho and Bomet counties 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.

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.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p	t	(c)	k
Affricate			tʃ
Fricative		s
Rhotic		r
Lateral		l
Approximant			j	w

/r/ can be heard as either a trill [r] or a tap [ɾ].
/tʃ/ may also be realized as a palatal stop [c].
/k/ may also have a voiced allophone [ɡ], as well as become spirantized as a voiced fricative [ɣ].

Vowels

	+ATR	-ATR
Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː	i̙ i̙ː	u̙ u̙ː
Mid	e eː	o oː	e̙ e̙ː	o̙ o̙ː
Open	a aː	a̙ a̙ː

Double vowels

Usually, the pronunciation of a double vowel does not mean a repetition of that vowel sound but rather an elongation of that particular vowel sound. An exception to that generalization shows up with the double ee.

Normally, the elongated vowel sounds follow the Latin vowel sounds. A few examples are given in the table below

Vowel	As Kipsigis	As in English
aa	Kaap	mama, mark, margin, sharp
ii	Asiis	piece, peace, freeze, sneeze
oo	igoondiit roopta	gone robe
uu	piyuut	root, boot

The sound of the double ee may vary in pronunciation. For example:

As in Kipsigis	As in English
akweet 'flock'	wet
beek 'water'	bake
meet 'death'	for this word, there are two sounds, as in lay-ette

Notes

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