-erũ

Kikuyu

Etymology

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

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɛ̀ɾóꜜ/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 3 with a disyllabic stem, together with kĩhaato, mbembe, kiugo, and so on.

Adjective

-erũ

  1. white
  2. light-colored

Inflection
agreement of -erũ
Singular Plural
Class 1, Class 2 mwerũ erũ
Class 3, Class 4 mwerũ mĩerũ
Class 5, Class 6 rĩerũ meerũ
Class 7, Class 8 kĩerũ njerũ
Class 9, Class 10 njerũ njerũ
Class 11, Class 10 rwerũ njerũ
Class 12, Class 13 kerũ twerũ
Class 14, Class 6 mwerũ meerũ
Class 15, Class 6 kwerũ meerũ
Class 16 herũ -

Derived terms

(Nouns)

  • werũ class 14

(Proverbs)

(Verbs)

  • kwerũha

References
  1. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 66–7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • “-erũ” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 95. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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