kĩrĩma

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records kirima as an equivalent of English hill and mountain in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also “Ulu dialect” (spoken then from Machakos to coastal area) of Kamba kiima (“hill, mountain”) and “Nganyawa dialect” (spoken then in Kitui District) of Kamba nikima (“hill”) and kilima kinene (“mountain”), and Swahili kilima (“hill”) (pl. vilima) and mlima (“mountain”) (pl. milima) as its equivalents.[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /kèɾèmà(ꜜ)/

As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 1 with a disyllabic stem, together with ndaka, and so on.

(Kiambu) IPA^(key): /kèɾèmá/

(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.[2]

Noun

kĩrĩma class 7 (plural irĩma)

hill, mountain

Related terms

(Nouns)

karĩma class 12
mũrĩma class 3

References

Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 32–33, 40–41. 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.

“kĩrĩma” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 399. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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[hh1904-1] Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 32–33, 40–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[yy1981-2] 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.