nyoni

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Fanagalo

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Etymology

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From Zulu inyoni, from Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀nì.

Noun

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nyoni

  1. bird

Kikuyu

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Etymology

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From Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀nì. 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

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

Noun

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

  1. bird

Derived terms

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(Nouns)

(Proverbs)

References

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  1. ^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  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, p. 349. Oxford: Clarendon Press.