rũhiũ

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records roihiyu as an equivalent of English knife in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba kabiu and “Nganyawa dialect” (spoken then in Kitui District) of Kamba kaviu as its equivalents.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɾòhiǒ/

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 monosyllabic stem, together with mũtĩ, and so on.

(Kiambu)

(Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including kahiũ, mũtĩ, rũhĩa (pl. hĩa), and so on.^[3]

Noun

rũhiũ class 11 (plural hiũ)

knife
rũhiũ rwa njora - sword

Related terms

(Nouns)

kahiũ class 12

Proverbs

References

^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 34–35. 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.

“rũhiũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 153. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

[hh1904-1] Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 34–35. 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.

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