irũa

Kikuyu

Etymology

Cf. Swahili barua^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ìɾò(w)à(ꜜ)/

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into moondo class which includes mũndũ, huko, igego, igoti, inooro, irigũ, kĩbaata, kĩmũrĩ, kũgũrũ, mũciĩ, mũgeni, mũri, mwaki (“fire”), ndaka, ndigiri, njagathi, njogu, Mũrĩmi (“man's name”), etc.^[2] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 1 with a disyllabic stem, together with ndaka, and so on.

• (Kiambu)
  • (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including cindano, huko, iburi, igego, igoti, ini (pl. mani), inooro, irigũ, iturubarĩ (pl. maturubarĩ), kĩbaata, kĩmũrĩ, kũgũrũ, mũciĩ, mũgeni, mũgũrũki, mũmbirarũ, mũndũ, mũri, mũthuuri, mwaki (“fire”), mwario (“way of speaking”), mbogoro, nda, ndaka, ndigiri, ngo, njagathi, njogu, nyondo (“breast(s)”), and so on.^[3]

Noun

irũa class 5 (plural marũa) (diminutive karũa)

1. piece of paper, sheet of paper^[2][1]
2. letter^[1][3]

References

1. “irũa” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 415. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2. Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).
3. 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.