Sabaot language

Sabaot
Sebei
Native to	Kenya/Uganda
Region	Mount Elgon
Ethnicity	Sabaot people/Sebei people
Native speakers	240,000 (2009 census)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Nilotic Southern Nilotic Kalenjin Elgon Sabaot
Dialects	Bong’omeek (Bong’om) Koony (Kony) Book (Pok) Sapiiny (Sapiny)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	spy
Glottolog	saba1262

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 Kenya–Uganda border goes straight through the mountain-top, cutting the Sabaot homeland into two halves.^[2]

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)'.^[3]

References

Sabaot SIDO Website:^[4]

1. Sabaot at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "The Sabaot of Kenya" (PDF). Joshua Project. 1991. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 July 2019.
3. Payne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge University Press. p. 29.
4. "Home". sabaots.com.