Nandi–Markweta languages
| Elgeyo | |
|---|---|
| Kalenjin | |
| Geographic distribution | East African Rift |
| Ethnicity | Kalenjin people, some Dorobo |
| Linguistic classification | Nilo-Saharan? |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kln |
| Glottolog | cent2293 (Central Kalenjin)mark1255 (Markweeta) |
The Elgeyo language, or Kalenjin proper, are a dialect cluster of the Kalenjin branch of the Nilotic language family.
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. This ethnic consolidation created a major ethnic group in Kenya, and also involved a standardization of the Kenyan Kalenjin dialects. However, since outside Kenya the name Kalenjin has been extended to related languages such as Okiek of Tanzania and Elgon languages of Uganda, it is common in linguistic literature to refer to the languages of the Kenyan Kalenjin peoples as Elgeyo, after the principal variety.