nyoni
Fanagalo edit
Etymology edit
From Zulu inyoni, from Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀nì.
Noun edit
nyoni
Kikuyu edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀nì. Hinde (1904) records nyoni as an equivalent of English bird in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Swahili nyuni etc. as its equivalent.[1]
Pronunciation edit
- As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 1 with a disyllabic stem, together with ndaka, and so on.
- (Kiambu)
- (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including cindano, huko, iburi, igego, igoti, ini (pl. mani), inooro, irigũ, irũa, iturubarĩ (pl. maturubarĩ), kĩbaata, kĩmũrĩ, kũgũrũ, mũciĩ, mũgeni, mũgũrũki, mũmbirarũ, mũndũ, mũri, mũthuuri, mwaki (“fire”), mwario (“way of speaking”), mbogoro, nda, ndaka, ndigiri, ngo, njagathi, njogu, nyondo (“breast(s)”), and so on.[2]
Audio (file)
Noun edit
nyoni class 9/10 (plural nyoni) (diminutive kanyoni)[3]
Derived terms edit
(Nouns)
- muoria-nyoni class 3
(Proverbs)
References edit
- ^ Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 6–7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ 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.
- ^ “nyoni” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 349. Oxford: Clarendon Press.