kĩgwa

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records kigŏă as an equivalent of English sugar cane in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Kamba iwa as its equivalent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kèɣwǎ/, /kèɣoǎ/

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into mote class which includes mũtĩ, gĩkwa (pl. ikwa), gĩthaka, kĩnya, kĩrũũmi, mũcinga, mũgate, mũhaka, mũrũthi, njagĩ, njohi, nyũmba, etc. Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 2 with a monosyllabic stem, together with mũtĩ, and so on.

• (Kiambu)

• (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including gĩkwa (pl. ikwa), ithangũ (pl. mathangũ), kiugũ, kĩboko, kĩgunyũ, kĩnya, kĩroboto, kĩrũũmi, mbogo, mũcinga, mũgate, mũhaka, mũrangi, mũrũthi, ndaraca, ndirica, njohi, nyũmba, thĩ, and so on.

Noun

kĩgwa class 7 (plural igwa)

1. sugar cane; Kikuyu people use its juice for making alcoholic drink (njohi)

Hyponyms

• (kĩgwa kĩa) nyamũirũ

See also

• cukari

References

• “kĩgwa” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Anagrams

• gĩkwa