nyoni

Fanagalo

Etymology

From Zulu inyoni, from Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀nì.

Noun

nyoni

  1. bird

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)
  • (file)

Noun

nyoni class 9/10 (plural nyoni) (diminutive kanyoni)[3]

  1. bird

Derived terms

(Nouns)

  • muoria-nyoni class 3

(Proverbs)

  • gũtirĩ nyoni njega mwere-inĩ
  • nyoni yakaga na mũtheece ũmwe

References

  1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  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, 75123.
  3. “nyoni” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 349. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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