Sabaot language

Sabaot (Sebei) is a Kalenjin language of Kenya. The Sabaot people live around Mount Elgon in both Kenya and Uganda. The hills of their homeland gradually rise from an elevation of 5,000 to 14,000 feet (1,500 to 4,300 m). The KenyaUganda border goes straight through the mountain-top, cutting the Sabaot homeland into two halves.

Grammar

Typical of Nilotic languages, Sabaot uses advanced tongue root (ATR) to express some morphological operations:

DIR:directional

kɔ̀ɔmnyɔɔnɔɔté

ka-

PAST-

a-

1SG-

mnyaan

be.sick

-aa

-STAT

-tɛ

-DIR

-ATR

-IMPERF

ka- a- mnyaan -aa -tɛ-ATR

PAST- 1SG- be.sick -STAT -DIR -IMPERF

'I went being sick (but I am not sick now).'

káámnyáánáátɛ́

ka-

PAST-

a-

1SG-

mnyaan

be.sick

-aa

-STAT

-tɛ

-DIR

ka- a- mnyaan -aa -tɛ

PAST- 1SG- be.sick -STAT -DIR

'I became sick while going away (and I'm still sick)'.

References

Sabaot SIDO Website:

Uses material from the Wikipedia article Sabaot language, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.