mwatũ

Kikuyu

FWOTD – 24 July 2021

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records mwatu “barrel” and mwātu “honey box” in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Kamba mwatu (“honey box”) as their equivalent.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /moàtǒ/

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.^[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 2 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩgunyũ, njagĩ, kiugũ, and so on.

(Kiambu)

(Limuru) As for Tonal Class, as mũatũ, 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.^[3]

Noun

mwatũ class 3 (plural mĩatũ)

beehive made of tree trunk split in two and hollowed out^[4]
mwatũ wa njũkĩ - hive of bee(s)
cylindrical wooden barrel whose both ends have lids, used for storage in the home^[4]

Derived terms

(Proverbs)

References

^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7, 32–33. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^ Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).
^ 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.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 “mwatũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 18. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

[hh1904-1] Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7, 32–33. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[lea1940-2] Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).

[yy1981-3] 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.

[tgb1964-4] 4.0 ^4.1 “mwatũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 18. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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