mwene

Kikuyu

Etymology

From Proto-Bantu *mʊ̀jéné (“owner, chief, master”). Possible cognates outside Bantu include Akan *-hene (“chief”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /moɛ̀nɛ́/
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)

Noun

mwene class 1 (plural eene)

  1. owner

Derived terms

(Proper nouns)

  • Mwene-nyaga (alternative name for Ngai; literally means “owner of brightness”)[2]

(Proverbs)

  • kanyĩrĩ kainagio nĩ mwene
  • kĩongo kĩenjagwo mwene oiga
  • kĩongo kĩenjithagio nĩ mwene
  • kĩronda kĩa mwene gĩtimũiragia ngoro
  • kĩronda kĩa mwene gĩtinungaga
  • ngumo ndĩigana mwene
  • nyenje ĩ(r)ĩ gũtũ ĩhũ(ũ)gagia mwene
  • nyũmba ĩkĩhĩa mwene nĩotaga
  • ya mwene ndĩrĩ njereri

(Adjectives)

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ ben-Jochannan, Yosef A. A. (1991). Africa Origins of the Major "Western Religions", p. 42. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press. →ISBN
  • “mwene” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 88. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.