Some useful discussion has been going on at Gotabgaa involving the respected Egyptologist, radio personality and author Dr Kipkoeech araap Sambu. Dr Sambu, an oldboy of Kapsabet Boys High in the 1970s is the author of the must read book:
The Kalenjiin people's Egypt origin legend revisited: was Isis Asiis? ; A study in comparative religion (ISBN: 9966499199) by Dr Kipkoeech araap Sambu. - Nairobi: Longhorn Publishers., 2007 . - VII, 256 S.
Herebelow is the reproduced contribution by Dr Sambu on some terms in our language.
1) Yi/iy is in most Kalenjiin dialects confined to animals, dogs and cats included. But during my research my field informants, who were Nyoongi and Maiina mostly, would say: ki-yi Turugat Kimnyoolei, ko-yi Kimnyoolei Koilegen, ak Koitaleel. Ko-yi Koitaleel Parserioon.. .. This was the common format over Kipsigiisland and Nandi, so it was clear that when we mean to say so and so begat so and so, the word is yi. This word is well rooted in ancient Egyptian and Coptic. The two languages are dead, replaced by Arabic. However when the Copts are consumed by the sense of holiness they slip into their ancient language, much as the Catholics resort to Latin. Then is when God, the Father becomes Paiyoot. Jesus then becomes Sheeri (derived from ancient Egyptian cherd, still retained in Kalenjiin as cherereet).
2) Chek. This one sounds to me like a rude way of implying that the animals concerned give birth as if pouring out grain or something plentiful! It implies speed and quantity with regard to the removal of things from a container.
3) Seseet and ng'ookto. I find seseet in more ancient records where the dog-headed evil "god" was called Set or actually seset as a European colonial officer in Baringo, Keiyo and Marakwet, Hennings, discovered the connection and pointed out as much in his book. So I am not the first to discover that this word, seseet, was ancient Egyptian. Hennings went on to say in his book published in 1951, that the ancestors of the Kalenjiin and the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians were the same because "their language stems from a similar root (Hennings, 1951:11)." he goes on "for instance, some have seen in their word for 'dog', seset, the name of Set, the dog-headed God of Darkness of the Pharaohs."? The dog may have earned the name ng'ookto because of its association with the evil "god" the god of sin and darkness as Hennings puts it here. Ng'og in Kalenjiin is something evil, as in ng'oogi, ng'oogis.
4) Sich where sigiik is derived from is as ancient as they come. Sich is to find as well as to give birth to. Some Copts will swear to you that Moses is an ancient Egyptian name and that it comes from "born, or found, in water" mou-sich where mou is the Coptic/ancient Egyptian word for "water." And, of course, Af-sich Isuus Maria: "and Maria gave birth to Jesus." Sich is common in ancient Egyptian King names: born of this "god" or that "god."
5) Iy-wooget is a cow that has calved and may not be applied to humans although I cannot swear that it may never have done that in more ancient times.
6) "Portion" as the etymological source of posho and hence pusyeek has been well supported by your source, namely Encarta Dictionary. If it is true then it is confounding indeed. It is found in Ekegusii o-posi and in many other African languages in central and southern Africa - although pap from Africaans seems to have overtaken it lately. How it appears in Holis' Nandi glossary, 1904-1908, surprises me: there were no rations given to anyone by that time. And would the word not have been ration rather than portion? Anyway, the point was to demonstrate something to those who said pusyeek was anathema to the Nandi: namely that this is recent deterioration and it is not steeped further in Nandi dialect's history.
Having said that we also need to examine kimyo, ancient Egyptian for loaf, or lump of bread, represented in writing by a kiisyet (kerebeet). This is Kalenjiin Kimyo, kimyeet. But how does it enter Ekegusii as obo-kima, Gikuyu as ngima and many others as sima?
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