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1. Kalenjin Field Materials 
   • Collection identifier: 2019-26
   • Primary contributors: Linus Kipkoech (consultant); Nicholas Kipchumba Koech (consultant); Kiplangat Yegon (consultant); Madeline Bossi (researcher, donor)
   • Additional contributors: Lydia Chebet Bett (consultant, depicted, participant); Sharon Chemtai (consultant); Ezra Cheruiyot (consultant); Robert Langat (consultant); Victor Mutai (consultant); Chepkemoi Ronoh (consultant, depicted); Beatrice Bett (depicted, participant); John Bett (participant); Madeline Bossi (depicted); Linus Kipkoech (depicted, participant)
   • Languages: Kipsigis (sgc); Tugen (tuy)
   • Dates: 2016-
   • Historical information: Kalenjin (iso: kln) is a macro-language encompassing about nine different languages from western Kenya. Determining whether Kalenjin should be viewed as a dialect continuum or a cluster of distinct languages remains an open question. This collection contains materials on Kipsigis (iso: sgc) and Tugen (iso: tuy) specifically.
     Kipsigis is spoken by about 1.9 million people, while Tugen is spoken by about 140,000. Despite these seemingly high speaker numbers, Kipsigis and Tugen are endangered. Both languages are in constant contact with prestige languages, specifically English and Swahili. Swahili is the lingua franca of east Africa, while English offers international mobility. Even in more remote villages, people are exposed to English and Swahili through all Kenyan media sources. Furthermore, within the past several decades, more and more Kenyans have moved from villages to cities; consequently, use of minority languages like Kipsigis and Tugen has declined dramatically. Finally, school is conducted exclusively in Swahili and English, and children are receiving less and less exposure to Kipsigis and Tugen in the home, since parents often prioritize teaching children English at a young age.
     The materials in this collection were developed by Madeline Bossi as part of fieldwork during her time as an undergraduate student at Pomona College and graduate student at UC Berkeley. The orthography used in field notes and transcriptions largely approximates Kalenjin orthography with some notes in IPA transcription (particularly for vowels). Most audio was recorded on a Zoom H4n Pro digital recorder, although some audio and all the video was recorded using Zoom video chat software during the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning with bundle 036, March 28, 2020). Specifically, files with the .wav extension came from the Zoom H4n recorder, while .mp4 and .m4a files were recorded over Zoom video chat. Funding for this research has come from the Lewis & Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research, the UC Berkeley Graduate Research Fund, and two Oswalt Endangered Language Grants (Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, UC Berkeley).
   • Scope and content: Audio and video recordings of elicitation sessions in Kipsigis and Tugen (with some texts in Kipsigis; see 091, 098-101, and 122). File bundles correspond to distinct elicitation sessions. Audio files from sessions found in bundles 004-035 have associated field notes in bundles 001-003 (see descriptions and relations); afterwards, field notes are typed and bundled with their respective video files, with sessions conducted virtually on Zoom. File bundles are generally ordered chronologically, beginning in April 2019, with the exceptions of 001-003 (handwritten field notes April 2019-March 2020), 060-066 (lexical elicitation from September-December 2019), and 098-101 (texts from 2016).
   • Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
   • Suggested citation: Linus Kipkoech, Nicholas Kipchumba Koech, Kiplangat Yegon, and Madeline Bossi. Kalenjin Field Materials, 2019-26, California Language Archive, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2D79918.