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Date Submitted: 05/10/2014 12:55 AM
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
FACULTY OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGES
MASTER OF ARTS [LINGUISTICS]
PRESENTED TO: DR. MICHIRA
PROF. KITHAKA WA MBERIA
SUBMITTED BY: SOI FANCY CHEPKOECH
REG.NO: C50/75286/2012
COURSE CODE: CLL 606
COURSE TITLE: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
DATE: 6TH MAY 2014
THE FORMS, FUNCTIONS AND PLACE OF KIPSIGIS PROVERBS IN THE CONTEMPORARY KIPSISIGIS SOCIETY: A STYLO-PRAGMATIC STUDY
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.0 Introduction
The Kalenjin people inhabit the Great Rift Valley in Western Kenya. This is a Nilotic ethnic group that comprises of the pastoral people of the Highlands of Western Kenya, the Mt Elgon region of Eastern Uganda and the Highlands of Northern Central Tanzania.
‘Kalenjin’ literally means ‘I tell you.’ Sambu (2011:1) as cited in Koech (2013) asserted that according to one influential source, the term was coined in the mid forties by a group of students of Alliance High School. It is a contracted form of the sentence ‘I tell you’ or ‘I have told you’ (ka-a-lee-nynchi-iin or ka-a-lenj-in or ka-le-ii…)
It is a notable fact that Kalenjin speakers always use the term to get attention from the person he wants to speak to or he is speaking to. Some radio broadcasters and singers from Kalenjin together with the pre-independence Kenya politicians, picked up the coinage and tremendously used it to arouse awareness, a sense of belonging to one family among the kindred people (Sambu 2011:3)
Koech (2013) gives the history of the Kalenjin classification as follows:
First is by Otterloo (1979) who grouped the Kalenjin into 13 dialects; Nandi(NA) Terik (TE), Kipsigis (KI),Keiyo(KE) South Tugen (ST), North Tugen (NT), Cherangany (CH), West Pokot (WP), East Pokot (EP), Endo Marakwet (EM), Talai Marakwet (TM), Sambirir Marakwet (SM) and Saboat (SA)
Next is Toweet (1975) who categorized Kalenjin Language into nine dialects: Nandi, Kipsigis, Keiyo, Tugen, Sabaot, Marakwet, Pokot, Ogiek and Sengwer. This...