rũhĩ

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records ruhi as an equivalent of English hand in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɾòhěꜜ/

As for Tonal Class, Armstrong (1940) classifies this term into ɲamo class which includes nyamũ, gũtũ, guka, mũguĩ, mũgwacĩ, mũtwe, rũkũ, ũta, taata (“my aunt”), Kariũki (“man's name”), etc.^[2]

• (Kiambu)
  • (Limuru) As for Tonal Class, Yukawa (1981) classifies this term into a group including baba, guka, gũtũ, mũguĩ, mũtwe, nyamũ, ruo, rũhĩ (pl. hĩ), rũkũ (pl. ngũ), taata (“my aunt”), ũta (pl. mota), ũthiũ (pl. mothiũ), and so on.^[3]

Noun

rũhĩ class 11 (plural hĩ)

1. palm of the hand^[4]

   Holonym: guoko

2. hand^[2]

   Synonym: njara

References

1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 30–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University 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.
4. Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa Ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, p. 11.