nyoni
Fanagalo
Etymology
From Zulu inyoni, from Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀nì.
Noun
nyoni
Kikuyu
Etymology
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
- IPA(key): /ɲɔ̀nì(ꜜ)/
- 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
nyoni class 9/10 (plural nyoni) (diminutive kanyoni)[3]
Derived terms
(Nouns)
- muoria-nyoni class 3
(Proverbs)
- gũtirĩ nyoni njega mwere-inĩ
- nyoni yakaga na mũtheece ũmwe
References
- ^ 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.