nyoni

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records nyoni as an equivalent of English bird in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Swahili nyuni etc. as its equivalent.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɲɔ̀nìꜜ/

As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 1 with a disyllabic stem, together with ndaka, and so on.

(Kiambu)

(Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including cindano, huko, iburi, igego, igoti, ini (pl. mani), inooro, irigũ, irũa, iturubarĩ (pl. maturubarĩ), kĩbaata, kĩmũrĩ, kũgũrũ, mũciĩ, mũgeni, mũgũrũki, mũmbirarũ, mũndũ, mũri, mũthuuri, mwaki (“fire”), mwario (“way of speaking”), mbogoro, nda, ndaka, ndigiri, ngo, njagathi, njogu, nyondo (“breast(s)”), and so on.^[2]

Noun

nyoni class 9/10 (plural nyoni) (diminutive kanyoni)^[3]

bird

Derived terms

(Proverbs)

gũtirĩ nyoni njega mwere-inĩ
nyoni yakaga na mũtheece ũmwe

References

↑ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
↑ 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.
↑ “nyoni” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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[hh1904-1] Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[yy1981-2] 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.

[3] “nyoni” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.