njagĩ

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records njagi as an equivalent of English zebra in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba nzaii as its equivalent.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ᶮdʑàɣě/

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into mote class which includes mũtĩ, gĩkwa (pl. ikwa), gĩthaka, kĩnya, kĩrũũmi, mũcinga, mũgate, mũhaka, mũrũthi, njohi, nyũmba, etc.^[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 2 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩgunyũ, kiugũ, and so on.

Noun

njagĩ class 9/10 (plural njagĩ)

zebra

References

^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 68–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^ Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).

“njagĩ” 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. 68–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[lea1940-2] Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).

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