The Systematic Phonological Realization in Keiyo Language as Spoken by the Keiyo Community in Kenya
Chelimo Andrew Kiprop, Randich Judith Chepkirui

Abstract
This paper gives a brief phonological system of Keiyo Language. It not only discusses the vowel and consonant inventories and their realizations, but also the diphthongs, syllable structure and the phonotactic possibilities. It analyzes the phonological and prosodic processes that Keiyo nouns (both definite and indefinite) undergo when inflected for number. The author is a native speaker of the language and generated the data, and later subjected it to four adult native speakers drawn from Tambach Division of Keiyo District in Rift Valley Province. Like the other Kalenjin languages, the vowel system of Keiyo is based on the five basic vowel qualities a, e, i, o, u. Beyond this basic level, these vowels are also distinguishable within the phonological supra segmental level of tongue root position - the retracted (RTR) versus (ATR) and length. The Keiyo phonemic inventory has a total of ten diphthongs [ai,ei,oi,ui,au,eu,ou,ia,ua,ao]. The language has a limited inventory of its consonants and this could be attributed to the fact that, voicing is not actually a distinctive feature.

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