-nini

See also: Nini and nini

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records kanyinyi as an equivalent of English small in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba kanini and “Nganyawa dialect” (spoken then in Kitui District) of Kamba kinini as its equivalents.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /nini/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 10 with a disyllabic stem, together with nyanya (“tomato”), and so on.

Adjective

-nini

  1. little, small[2]
    Antonym: -nene

Inflection
agreement of -nini
Singular Plural
Class 1, Class 2 mũnini anini
Class 3, Class 4 mũnini mĩnini
Class 5, Class 6 rĩnini manini
Class 7, Class 8 kĩnini nini
Class 9, Class 10 nini nini
Class 11, Class 10 rũnini nini
Class 12, Class 13 kanini tũnini
Class 14, Class 6 mũnini manini
Class 15, Class 6 kũnini manini
Class 16 hanini -

See also
  • -nyinyi

References
  1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904) Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa‎, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pages –
  2. “-nini” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 282. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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