njũkĩ

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Kikuyu[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Hinde (1904) records njuki as an equivalent of English bee in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba nsuki etc., “Nganyawa dialect” (spoken then in Kitui District) of Kamba nzuki and Swahili nyuki as its equivalents.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into mbori class which includes mbũri, ikinya (pl. makinya), itimũ, kĩhaato, maguta, mbembe, mũgeka, mũrata, nyaga, ũhoro, riitho, riũa, rũrĩmĩ, Kamau (man's name), etc.[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 3 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩhaato, mbembe, kiugo, and so on.[3]
  • (Kiambu)

Noun[edit]

njũkĩ class 9/10 (plural njũkĩ)

  1. bee[2][5]
    mwatũ wa njũkĩ - beehive

Related terms[edit]

(Nouns)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).
  3. ^ “njũkĩ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  4. ^ Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1981). "A Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns: A Study of Limuru Dialect." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 22, 75–123.
  5. ^ Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa Ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, pp. 10, 32.