Gikuyu or
Kikuyu is a language of the
BantuThe Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
family spoken primarily by the Kikuyu people of
KenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. Numbering about 6 million (22% of Kenya's population), they are the largest
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
in Kenya. Gikuyu is spoken in the area between
NyeriNyeri is a town in situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya Kenya, which was the administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province...
and
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
. Gikuyu is one of the five languages of the Thagichu subgroup of the
Bantu languagesThe Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, which stretches from
KenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
to
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. The Gikuyu people usually identify their lands by the surrounding mountain ranges in Central
KenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
which they call
Kirinyaga.
Gikuyu has four main mutually intelligible dialects. The
Central ProvinceKenya's Central Province covers an area of 13,191 km² and is located to north of Nairobi and west of Mt. Kenya. The province had 4,383,743 inhabitants according to the 2009 census...
districts are divided along the traditional boundaries of these dialects, which are
KirinyagaKirinyaga may refer to:*Mount Kenya*Kirinyaga District in Kenya*Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick...
, Muranga [Maragua],
NyeriNyeri is a town in situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya Kenya, which was the administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province...
and
KiambuKiambu is a town in Central Province, Kenya. It is located at around , in the elevation of about 1,720 m. It has an urban population of 13,814. It is the capital of the Kiambu District, which bounds the northern border of Nairobi...
. The Gikuyu from Kirinyaga are composed of two main sub-dialects - the Ndia and Gichũgũ who speak the dialect Kĩ-Ndia and Gĩ-gĩcũgũ. The Gĩcũgũs and the Ndias do not have the "ch" or "sh" sound, and will use the "s" sound instead, hence the pronunciation of "Gĩcũgũ" as opposed to "Gĩchũgũ". To hear Ndia being spoken, one needs to be in
KerugoyaKerugoya is a town in Kenya. It is the capital of Kirinyaga District of Central Province. Kerugoya is located 10 kilometres east of Karatina and 40 kilometres west of Embu....
the largest town in Kirinyaga. Other home towns for the Ndia, where purer forms of the dialect are spoken will be in the tea growing areas of
KagumoKagumo is a settlement in Kenya's Central Province.Kagumo in Kirinyaga is the place where villagers, fed up with the extortionist ways of Mungiki, took on the dreaded criminal gang in a bloody war and won. It all started when the sects followers invaded the county and established bases around...
, and the cool Kangaita hills. Lower down the slopes is Kutus, which is a bustling dusty town with too many influences from the other dialects to be able to differentiate.
The unmistakable sing-song Gichugu dialect (which sounds like
EmbuKîembu is a Bantu language of Kenya and spoken by the Aembu or Embu people. ISO 639-3 code is ebu....
, a sister language to Gikuyu) can be heard in the coffee growing areas of Kĩanyaga, Gĩthũre, Kathũngũri, Marigiti. The Gichugu switch easily to the other plainer Kikuyu dialects in conversation with the rest of the Gikuyu.
The Mwea division, which is part of the
Kirinyaga DistrictKirinyaga District is an administrative district in the Central Province of Kenya. Its capital town is Kerugoya. The district has a population of 457,105 and an area of 1,478 km² .The district has four constituencies:*Mwea Constituency...
, is an amalgam of Gikuyu, mostly from Kirinyaga, settled in the mid to late 1960s, soon after independence, by displaced Gikuyu whose lands had been taken by the colonialists.
Vowels
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Front A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
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Central A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...
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Back A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
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| High |
i |
|
u |
| Mid-high |
e (ĩ) |
|
o (ũ) |
| Mid-low |
ɛ (e) |
|
ɔ (o) |
| Low |
|
a |
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Consonants
BilabialIn phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
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Dental/
AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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PalatalPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
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VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
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GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
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| Plosive |
Voiceless |
|
t (t) |
|
k (k) |
|
| Voiced prenasalized |
ᵐb (mb) |
ⁿd (nd) |
|
ᵑɡ (ng) |
|
| Affricate Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
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ᶮdʒ (nj) |
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| Nasal A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
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m (m) |
n (n) |
ɲ (ny) |
ŋ (ng') |
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| Fricative Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
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Voiceless |
|
|
ʃ (c) |
|
h (h) |
| Voiced |
β (b) |
ð (th) |
|
ɣ (g) |
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| Liquid In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...
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ɾ (r) |
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| Approximant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...
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j (y) |
w (w) |
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The nasal sounds indicated by the raised letters are often not pronounced, so that /ⁿd/ is heard as [d], etc.
Grammar
The canonical word order of Kikuyu is SVO (subject–verb–object). It uses prepositions rather than postpostions, and
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s follow
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s.
Alphabet
Gikuyu is written with a modified Latin alphabet. Compared with English:
- It does not use the following letters: f l p q s v x z
- It denotes seven vowel sounds with an i-tilde and u-tilde in addition to a e i o u
The alphabet letters then are:
a b c d e g h i ĩ j k m n o r t u ũ w y
Some sounds are represented by digraph combinations such as
ng for the velar n (ŋ).
Sample phrases
| English | gĩkũyũ |
| How are you |
Ũhoro waku |
| Give me water |
He maĩ |
| I am hungry |
Ndĩ mũhũtu |
| Help me |
Ndeithia |
| I am good |
Ndĩ mwega |
| Are you a friend? |
Wĩ mũrata? |
| I love you |
Nĩngwendete. |
| Come here |
Ũka haha |
The full alphabet is shown in a
tableau here.
Literature
There is a notable literature written in the Gikuyu language. For instance, author and professor
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author, formerly working in English and now working in Gĩkũyũ. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature...
's
Mũrogi wa Kagogo (
Wizard of the Crow) is the longest book written in a sub-Saharan African language. Other authors writing in Gikuyu include Mwangi wa Mutahi and Gatua wa Mbugwa.
External links