mũthũa
Kikuyu
Etymology
Hinde (1904) records muthua as an equivalent of English ant (white) in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Swahili mchwa as its equivalent[1].
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mòðò(w)á/
- As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 4 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩng'ang'i, ngũkũ, kĩeha, and so on.
- (Kiambu) As for tonal class, Yukawa (1981, 1985) classifies this term into a group including kĩng'ang'i, mũrũarũ, nyenje, icembe, mũhikania, and so on.[2][3]
Noun
mũthũa class 3 (plural mĩthũa)
- termite, white ant[4]
- Hyponym: nguya
Derived terms
(Nouns)
- mũrema-mũthũa class 3
See also
- thigiriri, thuraku
References
- Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 4–5. 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.
- Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1985). "A Second Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 29, 190–231.
- Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, p. 10.
- “mũthũa” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 534. Oxford: Clarendon Press.