itumbĩ

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records itumbi (pl. matumbi) as an equivalent of English egg in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Kamba itumbi (pl. matumbi) as its equivalent.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ì.tù.ᵐbé/

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into ŋgoko class which includes ngũkũ, hiti, icembe, igoko (pl. magoko), ihĩtia (pl. mahĩtia), kĩng'ang'i, maitũ (“my mother”), mbogo, mũkanda, mũthĩgi, nduka, ngingo, rũthanju, Wambũgũ (“man's name”), etc.^[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 4 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩng'ang'i, ngũkũ, kĩeha, and so on.

(Kiambu)

(Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including hiti, icembe, igoko (pl. magoko), ihĩtia (pl. mahĩtia), itumbĩ (pl. matumbĩ), kĩeha, kĩng'ang'i, mũhikania, mũhũmũ, mũkanda, mbica, nduka, ngingo, ngũkũ, rũthanju, tombo, and so on.^[3]

Audio: (file)

Noun

itumbĩ class 5 (plural matumbĩ)

egg

References

^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 20–21. 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.

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

[hh1904-1] Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 20–21. 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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