kĩara

See also: Kiara

Kikuyu

FWOTD – 15 November 2021

Etymology 1

From a verb kwara.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keàɾàꜜ/

As for Tonal Class, 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, irũa, 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.^[2]

Noun

kĩara class 7 (plural ciara)

1. dunghill, midden, compost pit

See also

• mborera

Etymology 2

From a verb kwara.^[1]

Hinde (1904) records kiarra as an equivalent of English finger in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu.^[3]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keàɾáꜜ/

As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 3 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩhaato, mbembe, kiugo, and so on.

• (Kiambu)

• (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including bũrũri (pl. mabũrũri), ikara, ikinya, itimũ, kanitha (pl. makanitha), kiugo, kĩhaato, maguta, mũgeka, mũkonyo, mũrata, mwana, mbembe, mbũri, nyaga, riitho, riũa, rũrĩmĩ (pl. nĩmĩ), ũhoro (pl. mohoro), and so on.^[2]

Noun

kĩara class 7 (plural ciara) (diminutive kaara^[4])

1. finger

Meronyms

• rwara

Holonyms

• mwĩrĩ^[5]
  • guoko^[5]
    • njara^[5]

Derived terms

(Proverbs)

• kĩara kĩmwe gĩtiũragaga ndaa

References

1. “kĩara” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 14. Oxford: Clarendon 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. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 24–25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Stump, Gregory T. (2005). "Word-formation and inflectional morphology", p. 64. In Pavol Štekauer and Rochelle Lieber (eds.) Handbook of Word-Formation, pp. 49–72. Dordrecht: Springer. →ISBN
5. Gathara, Janeesther Wanjiru (2015). A cognitive approach to Gikuyu polysemy, pp. 23–24.