Kikuyu

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Etymology

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Derived from kũrĩma (to cultivate).[1]

Pronunciation

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As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into moondo class which includes mũndũ, huko, igego, igoti, inooro, irigũ, irũa, kĩbaata, kĩmũrĩ, kũgũrũ, mũciĩ, mũgeni, mũri, mwaki (fire), ndaka, ndigiri, njagathi, njogu, Mũrĩmi (man's name), etc.[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 1 with a disyllabic stem, together with ndaka, and so on.

Noun

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mũrĩmi class 1 (plural arĩmi)

  1. farmer, cultivator[2][1]
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(Nouns)

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 rĩmi” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 399. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).