Kikuyu

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Etymology

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Benson (1964) suspects relevance with Maasai olporror (male age set).[1]

Hinde (1904) records fururi as an equivalent of English country in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu.[2]

Pronunciation

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As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 2 with a trisyllabic stem, together with mũrĩmĩre, and so on.
  • (Kiambu)
  • (Limuru) IPA(key): /βòɾòɾíꜜ/
As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including bũrũri (pl. mabũrũri), ikara, ikinya, itimũ, kanitha (pl. makanitha), kiugo, kĩhaato, maguta, mũgeka, mũkonyo, mũrata, mwana, mbembe, mbũri, nyaga, riitho, riũa, rũrĩmĩ (pl. nĩmĩ), ũhoro (pl. mohoro), and so on.[3]

Noun

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bũrũri class 14 (plural mabũrũri)

  1. country, region

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ “bũrũri” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 40. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. ^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 14–15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  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.