kĩratũ

Kikuyu

Alternative forms

• kĩraatũ

Etymology

Cognate to Kamba kĩatũ.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kèɾáːtǒꜜ/^[1]

This a is pronounced long.^[2]

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into ðiimbo class which includes thimbũ, thani, gĩthitũ, itũũra (pl. matũũra), mũbira, mwatũka, etc.^[3] Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 8 with a disyllabic stem, together with matũũra, thani, kiuga, and so on.

• (Kiambu)

• (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including buubu, gĩthitũ, itũũra (pl. matũũra), mũbira, mwera,nyanya (“tomato”), thani, thimbũ, and so on.^[4]

Noun

kĩratũ class 7 (plural iratũ)

1. shoe

References

1. Clements, George N. and Kevin C. Ford (1979). "Kikuyu Tone Shift and Its Synchronic Consequences", p. 196. In Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 179–210.
2. “kĩratũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 372. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
3. Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).
4. 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.