mũthũa

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records muthua as an equivalent of English ant (white) in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Swahili mchwa as its equivalent[1].

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /mòðò(w)á/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 4 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩng'ang'i, ngũkũ, kĩeha, and so on.

Noun

mũthũa class 3 (plural mĩthũa)

  1. termite, white ant[4]
    Hyponym: nguya

Derived terms

(Nouns)

  • mũrema-mũthũa class 3

See also

References
  1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 4–5. 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, 75–123.
  3. Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1985). "A Second Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 29, 190–231.
  4. Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, p. 10.
  • “mũthũa” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 534. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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