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:

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary of Kalenjin languages from van Otterloo (1979), and Proto-Southern Nilotic from Rottland (1982):

Footnotes