Wiktionary

ndũiga

Kikuyu

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Bantu *ntʊ̀ìgà (“giraffe”). Hinde (1904) records ndwiga as an equivalent of English giraffe in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Kamba ndia and Swahili twiga as its equivalents.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ndũiga class 9/10 (plural ndũiga)

  1. giraffe[2]

Usage notes

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Recently njirabu, a loanword of English origin, is more common and the native ndũiga is rarely used.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 26–27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. ^ Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa Ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, p. 10.
  3. ^ Njagi, James Kinyua. (2016). Lexical Borrowing and Semantic Change: A Case of English and Gĩkũyũ Contact, p. 50.
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