-irũ

Kikuyu

Etymology

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

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ìɾóꜜ/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 3 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩhaato, mbembe, kiugo, and so on.

Adjective

-irũ

  1. black
  2. dark-colored

Inflection
agreement of -irũ
Singular Plural
Class 1, Class 2 mũirũ airũ
Class 3, Class 4 mũirũ mĩirũ
Class 5, Class 6 rĩirũ mairũ
Class 7, Class 8 kĩirũ njirũ
Class 9, Class 10 njirũ njirũ
Class 11, Class 10 rũirũ njirũ
Class 12, Class 13 kairũ tũirũ
Class 14, Class 6 mũirũ mairũ
Class 15, Class 6 kũirũ mairũ
Class 16 hairũ -

Derived terms

(Nouns)

  • mũirũ class 3
  • ũirũ class 14
  • mũtĩ-mũirũ class 3

(Verbs)

References
  1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 8–9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • “-irũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 190. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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