karĩgũ
Kikuyu
Alternative forms
- karĩĩgũ
Etymology
Hinde (1904) records karegu as an equivalent of English girl in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kàɾèːɣó/
- This ĩ is pronounced long.[2]
- As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into ŋgoko class which includes ngũkũ, hiti, icembe, igoko (pl. magoko), ihĩtia (pl. mahĩtia), kĩng'ang'i, maitũ (“my mother”), mbogo, mũkanda, mũthĩgi, nduka, ngingo, rũthanju, Wambũgũ (“man's name”), etc.[3] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 4 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩng'ang'i, ngũkũ, kĩeha, and so on.
- (Kiambu)
- (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including hiti, icembe, igoko (pl. magoko), ihĩtia (pl. mahĩtia), itumbĩ (pl. matumbĩ), kĩeha, kĩng'ang'i, mũhikania, mũhũmũ, mũkanda, mbica, nduka, ngingo, ngũkũ, rũthanju, tombo, and so on.[4]
Noun
karĩgũ class 12 (plural tũrĩgũ)
- little girl
Derived terms
(Proverbs)
- wega warĩire karĩgũ
See also
- karĩgũ < kĩrĩgũ < mũirĩtu < mũtumia
References
- Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. –. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- “kĩrĩgũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 396. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).
- 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.