Talk:Mount Kenya

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Contents

[edit] Link

The link at the end of the main article to: Mount Kenya Trust page Appears to have nothing to do with the mountain. It is all about credit cards and credit history. Maybe it should be removed.

This seems to have been removed at some point. --Mehmet Karatay 11:53, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More pictures?

There is another picture of Mount Kenya available on Commons, Image:Mount Kenya.jpg. Would it fit in this article?--ZorroIII 21:28, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Teleki

As I know Hungarin explorer Sámuel Teleki was the first European who stepped on Mount Kenya. --Korovioff 20:19, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Improvement ideas

I've started improving this article in recent times. Just for the record the plan is to eventually have the following: geological history, naming of the peaks, history and current state of the glaciers, exploration/mountaineering history and a table of the major lines up the majority of the peaks. Any comments or suggestions? --Mehmet Karatay 11:53, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

We are hoping to find the editions of The Times which reported Shipton and Mackinder's expeditions. If anyone has any idea please let us know. Mehmet Karatay 10:46, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
The entire The Times digital archive can be accessed at the National Library of Scotland. It is a searchable database which makes finding entries very easy. Mehmet Karatay 18:07, 2 June 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Long article

I know this article is getting long. I'm trying to get the information into it before starting to split it up. If you have any concerns about this please leave a comment here. Mehmet Karatay 19:51, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

  • Mehmet: I think you are right, it is a bit long. However, I would accept your plan to fill in more information before splitting it up (just some mutual encouragement here, after the help on my article!)—GRM 20:44, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

An Update: We have started working on separate sections (especially ecology) and once these are presentable the article will be split. The geology and climate sections will be added as separate articles soon. After those three our plan is to make the exploration section into its own article. Mehmet Karatay 17:25, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

When we make Mount Kenya into a proper summary article we are planning on having the following sub-articles:

  • History of Mount Kenya (including the exploration, the first two ascents, the role in the Mau Mau events and anything else notable)
  • Geology of Mount Kenya (including formation of mountain and current distribution of rocks)
  • Mountaineering on Mount Kenya (notable first ascents, walking routes, climbing routes, huts, altitude problems etc.)
  • Climate of Mount Kenya (past, current, influences and effects)
  • Ecology of Mount Kenya (ecology of forest zone, moorland zone, alpine zone, etc.)
  • Geography of Mount Kenya (Peaks, Glaciers including history, Rivers, Lakes, streams etc.)
  • Culture/People of Mount Kenya (local community interactions past and present).

We also want to have the following lists: Names on the Mountain (why named and by whom), Vertebrate Fauna (maybe with a sub-list for birds). You can see the progress for these articles on our user page. Mehmet Karatay 18:07, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Progress on the summary style articles is going well. The navigation bar under this message links to sandboxes where the current status of the articles can be seen. The main progress so far has been on climate, ecology and the names list.
v • d • e
Mount Kenya

History • Geology • Mountaineering • Climate • Ecology • Geography • People • Names list
Mehmet Karatay 16:16, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Naming of Mount Kenya

I think the following section is interesting and important but I do not have proper references for parts of it except word of mouth and random webpages. I'll keep looking. These sections lacking references have been made bold. In the meantime if anyone knows of decent references then we can move it to the main page.

Y Done This task has been completed. Mehmet Karatay 22:00, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Mount Kenya got its current name through a series of convolutions since Krapf sited it in 1849. Various tribes have different names for the mountain. The Kĩkũyũ call it Kirinyaga, which means white or bright mountain. The Embu call it Kirenia, or mountain of whiteness. The Maasai call it Ol Donyo Eibor or Ol Donyo Egere, which mean the White mountain or the speckled mountain respectively.[1] The Wakamba call it Kiinyaa, or the mountain of the ostrich. The male ostrich has speckled tail feathers, which look similar to the speckled rock and ice on the mountain.[2][3]

Krapf was staying in a Wakamba village when he first saw the mountain[4] and so settled on the name Kenia (pronounced Keen-ya), a corruption of the Wakamba Kiinyaa.[5] Krapf spelt this as both Kenia and Kegnia.[4][6] It is important to note that at the time this referred to the mountain without having to include mountain in the name. The current name Mt Kenya was used by some as early as 1894,[7] but this was not a regular occurrence until 1920 when Kenya Colony was established. The name Mount Kenya was not the only English one for the mountain as shown in Dutton's 1929 book Kenya Mountain.[8] The spelling had modernised but the pronunciation was still keen-ya.[9] Before 1920 the area now known as Kenya was known as the British East Africa Protectorate and so there was no need to mention mount when referring to the mountain.

Kenya was given its Independence in 1963 and Jomo Kenyatta was elected as the first president. The coincidence of the spelling of his surname meant that pronunciation of Kenya changed to reflect the pronunciation of Kenyatta.[5] The country was named after colony which in turn was named after the mountain as it is a very significant landmark.[10] To distinguish easily between the country and the mountain, the mountain became known as Mount Kenya with the current pronunciation ken-ya .

Mehmet Karatay 08:21, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

This website mentions that Kenya Colony was named after the mountain but doesn't give a reference.

  • I e-mailed History World and they very quickly replied to me with their reference. I will now have to find a 1972 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica as the 1974 edition seems to miss out that fact. Either that or I was being blind.

We need proper references for:

  • Kenya colony being named after Mount Kenya
    • Found this in the 1972 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica
  • The pronunciation of Kenyatta altering the pronunciation of Kenya from Keen-ya to Ken-ya
    • Found this in the Bradt Kenya travel guide, wouldn't mind a primary reference
  • More detail on how the early European explorers settled on the name Kenya i.e. the pronunciation difficulties of the local names
    • It wasn't pronunciation diffuculties, it was the fact that Krapf had Akamba porters who call the mountain kiinyaa
    • We now have a reference for the spelling changing from Kenia to Kenya

Any advice for places to look welcome. Mehmet Karatay 21:31, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

I've made a few more changes to the passage above, and updated the status of the missing references. We're almost there now. Mehmet Karatay 11:06, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

  1. ^ Thomson, Joseph [1885] (1968). Through Masai Land, 3, London: Frank Cass & Co Ltd. 
  2. ^ Burns, Cameron (1998). Kilimanjaro & Mount Kenya; A Climbing and Trekking Guide. Leicester: Cordee. ISBN 1-871890-98-5. 
  3. ^ Kenya Wildlife Service, Mount Kenya Official Guidebook, Kenya Wildlife Service, 2006.
  4. ^ a b Krapf, Johann Ludwig (13th May 1850). "Extract from Krapf's diary" (in English). Church Missionary Intelligencer i: 452. 
  5. ^ a b Foottit, Claire [2004] (2006). Kenya, The Brade Travel Guide. Bradt Travel Guides Ltd. ISBN 1-84162-066-1. 
  6. ^ Krapf, Johann Ludwig (1860). Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours in Eastern Africa. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. 
  7. ^ Gregory, J. W. (1894). "Contributions to the Geology of British East Africa.--Part I. The Glacial Geology of Mount Kenya". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 50: 515-530. Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1894.050.01-04.36. 
  8. ^ Dutton, E.A.T. (1929). Kenya Mountain. London: Charles Whittingham and Griggs. 
  9. ^ J.H. Reynolds. "The spelling of Kenya" (Letters to the editor). The Times. Mon, Feb 08 1932. Issue 46051, col B, pg. 8.
  10. ^ "Kenya". Encyclopedia Britannica (1972) 13. 304, section II, subsection 5. 

There are several logical errors above. There doesn't seem to be any reason for Krapf to spell Kenia if he was trying to record the Wakamba Kiinyaa. As this explains, Krapf was most surely trying to use a fairly phonetic spelling for /kenia/. --Espoo (talk) 15:40, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for tidying that up. I think it reads much better now and is more informative and neutral. Mehmet Karatay (talk) 09:53, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Native pronunciation

The article says "original native pronunciation, the current /ˈkɛnjə/", but, as far as I know, in Swahili (and several other African languages) ny is pronounced as /ɲ/, not /nj/, and Kenya is pronounced as /ˈkɛɲə/. --81.38.179.185 (talk) 20:59, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, this should be fixed/improved. And also noted that the /'kiːɲə/ pronunciation is still frequently heard in English. Maybe I'll find someone a bit better than I with IPA to add it to wikt:Kenya and then we can improve it here. Robert Ullmann (talk) 11:33, 3 June 2008 (UTC)