Kikuyu

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Etymology

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A diminutive of mũromo (mouth). Hinde (1904) records kiromo (pl. iromo) as an equivalent of English lips in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba kilomo (pl. ilomo), “Nganyawa dialect” (spoken then in Kitui District) of Kamba moomo and Swahili mdomo (pl. midomo) as its equivalents.[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)

Noun

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kĩromo class 7 (plural iromo)

  1. lip[3]

Holonyms

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(Nouns)

References

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  1. ^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 36–37. 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. ^ Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa Ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, pp. 11, 34.
  • romo” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 403. Oxford: Clarendon Press.