Kikuyu is an agglutinative language and has complex morphology with regard to noun class. Except where otherwise noted, all data, examples, and morphological analysis in this article come from this sketch grammar, which is licensed under Creative Commons. Some data were unavailable and hence were modified from existing data assuming the morphemes behave regularly; when this happens, it is noted.

Nouns

Plurals

Kikuyu plurals denote that there is more than one of a noun. There is only a distinction between one of something and more than one of something. The morphology of the plural must agree with the noun class of the noun. Sometimes there is no way to distinguish the singular from the plural.

The tag for a noun is <n>, the tag for singular is <sg>, and the tag for plural is <pl>. The tag <sp> denotes that the form can be singular or plural.

It is simplest to consider a singular morpheme and a plural morpheme separately, so there is a root not marked for number (which cannot appear without the singular or plural) and then it takes one of the singular and plural prefixes..

Regular Singular and Plural

Regular singulars and plurals are formed from the addition of prefix, based on noun class.

Nouns in <cl1> take mũ- for the singular and a- for the plural:
- ndũ<n><cl1><sg> ↔ mũndũ (person)
- ndũ<n><cl1><pl> ↔ andũ (people)
Nouns in <cl3> take mũ- for the singular and mĩ- for the plural:
- aki<n><cl3><sg> ↔ mũaki (fire)
- aki<n><cl3><pl> ↔ mĩaki (fires)
Nouns in <cl5> take rĩ- or i- for the singular and ma- for the plural:
- hũa<n><cl5><sg> ↔ ihũa (flower)
- hũa<n><cl5><pl> ↔ mahũa (flowers)
Nouns in <cl7> take kĩ- or gĩ- for the singular, depending on the next consonant, and ci- or i- for the plural:
- rĩma<n><cl7><sg> ↔ kĩrĩma (mountain)
- rĩma<n><cl7><pl> ↔ irĩma (mountains)
Nouns in <cl9p10> are not marked differently for singular and plural, always taking a nasal prefix which agrees in place of articulation with the next consonant, roughly:
- bata<n><cl9p10><sg> ↔ mbata (duck)
- bata<n><cl9p10><pl> ↔ mbata (ducks)
Nouns in <cl11p10> take rũ- for the singular and the nasal prefix for the plural. If the stem already begins with rũ-, it apperas one of the rũ- is deleted in theh singular:
- rũigi<n><cl11p10><sg> ↔ rũigi (eagle)
- rũigi<n><cl11p10><pl> ↔ ndũigi (eagles)
Nouns in <cl11p6> take rũ- for the singular and ma- (or sometimes marũ-, without obvious pattern) for the plural:
- guoya<n><cl11p6><sg> ↔ rũguoya (fur)
- guoya<n><cl11p6><pl> ↔ maguoya (furs)
Nouns in <cl12p13> take ka- or ga- for the singular, depending on the next consonant, and tũ- for the plural:
- nua<n><cl12p13><sg> ↔ kanua (mouth)
- nua<n><cl12p13><pl> ↔ tũnua (mouths)
Nouns in <cl14> take no prefix for the singular and ma- for the plural:
- wendi<n><cl14><sg> ↔ wendi (wish)
- wendi<n><cl14><pl> ↔ mawendi (wishes)
Nouns in <cl15> take gũ- or kũ- for the singular and ma- for the plural:
- tũ<n><cl15><sg> ↔ gũtũ (ear)
- tũ<n><cl15><pl> ↔ matũ (ears)

Multiple Singular/Plural Morphemes

Some noun classes, like <cl5>, have multiple possibilities for marking the singular and the plural.

In <cl5>, the singular morpheme can be either rĩ- or i-. If the stem is vowel-initial, rĩ- is used; otherwise, i- is used. When rĩ is used and the root begins with ĩ, only one ĩ is written:
- inabu<n><cl5><sg> ↔ rĩinabu (pineapple)
- ĩciria<n><cl5><sg> ↔ rĩciria (thought)
- hũa<n><cl5><sg> ↔ ihũa (flower)
In <cl7>, the singular morpheme can be either kĩ- or gĩ-; this alternation depends on the next consonant. (All alternations between a prefix beginning with k- and the same prefix with g- seem to follow the same pattern.) If the next consonant is t, k, c, or th, it is gĩ-; otherwise it is kĩ-. The ci- to i- alternation for the plural depends on whether the root is consonant initial; the morpeheme is ci- if the root is consonant initial and i- otherwise. Two i in a row will turn into one:
- imba<n><cl7><pl> ↔ cimba (corpses)
- boko<n><cl7><pl> ↔ iboko (whips)
The nasal prefix in both the singular and plural in <cl9p10> and <cl11p10> exhibits complicated behavior. It matches the place of articulation of the following consonant, but if the following consonant does not have a corresponding nasal, it does not surface at all; it also does not surface when the root begins with a nasal. Sometimes it fully replaces the first consonant, replacing r- for example with nd-. There is not time to go into the full details of this prefix here. Some examples follow:
- bakũri<n><cl9p10><sg> ↔ mbakũri (bowl)
- dahi<n><cl9p10><sg> ↔ ndahi (grasshopper)
- nyamũ<n><cl9p10><sg> ↔ nyamũ (animal)
- thia<n><cl9p10><sg> ↔ thia (antelope)
It appears that before o the prefixes ending with ũ or ĩ sometimes end with u or i instead; it is not clear why:
- oko<n><cl15><sg> ↔ guoko (arm)

Irregular Singular and Plural

In <cl1>}, sometimes the prefix mũ- can surface as mw- instead before a:
- arĩ<n><cl1><sg> ↔ mwari (daughter)
Some members of <cl1> do not take any singular or plural morpheme. They are generally kinship terms. They are known to fall into <cl1> because they induce the same type of agreement on verbs as other elements of <cl1>:
- wagui<n><cl1><sg> ↔ wagui (grandfather)
- wagui<n><cl1><pl> ↔ wagui (grandfathers)
Some members of <cl9p10> do not get any singular or plural prefix. These are mostly loan words:
- batĩ<n><cl9p10><sg> ↔ batĩ (party)
There is some complicated variation in <cl15>, such as where the ma- prefix surfaces just as m-; it is unclear if these are systematic so they are included here as irregulars:
- oko<n><cl15><pl> ↔ moko (arms)
The irregular noun ndũ meaning 'place' has no singular and plural (or at least no marking of singular and plural), but has morphology for a definite and indefinite. The definite form is handũ and the indefinite is kũndũ. All agreement morphemes with this word take the form of ha- or kũa-, roughly, on adjectives, associatives, and verbs.

Adjectives

Adjective Agreement

Adjectives must agree with class and number of the noun they modify. Many of the agreement morphemes, but not all, are similar to the singular and plural morphemes themselves. All the examples use the root adjective nene meaning 'big' for consistency. These forms are assuming nene is entirely regular, which is not known.

Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl1> take mũ- for the singular and a- for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl1><sg> ↔ mũnene (big)
- nene<adj><cl1><pl> ↔ anene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl3> take mũ- for the singular and mĩ- for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl3><sg> ↔ mũnene (big)
- nene<adj><cl3><pl> ↔ mĩnene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl5> take rĩ- or i- for the singular and ma- for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl5><sg> ↔ inene (big)
- nene<adj><cl5><pl> ↔ manene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl7> take kĩ- or gĩ- for the singular, depending on the next consonant, and the nasal prefix for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl7><sg> ↔ kĩnene (big)
- nene<adj><cl7><pl> ↔ nene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl9p10> are not marked differently for singular and plural, always taking a nasal prefix which agrees in place of articulation with the next consonant, roughly:
- nene<adj><cl9p10><sg> ↔ nene (big)
- nene<adj><cl9p10><pl> ↔ nene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl11p10> take rũ- for the singular and the nasal prefix for the plural. If the stem already begins with rũ-, it apperas one of the rũ- is deleted in theh singular:
- nene<adj><cl11p10><sg> ↔ rũnene (big)
- nene<adj><cl11p10><pl> ↔ nene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl11p6> take rũ- for the singular and ma- (or sometimes marũ-, without obvious pattern) for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl11p6><sg> ↔ rũnene (big)
- nene<adj><cl11p6><pl> ↔ manene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl12p13> take ka- or ga- for the singular, depending on the next consonant, and tũ- for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl12p13><sg> ↔ kanene (big)
- nene<adj><cl12p13><pl> ↔ tũnene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl14> take mũ for the singular and ma- for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl14><sg> ↔ mũnene (big)
- nene<adj><cl14><pl> ↔ manene (big)
Adjectives modifying nouns in <cl15> take gũ- or kũ- for the singular and ma- for the plural:
- nene<adj><cl15><sg> ↔ gũtũ (big)
- nene<adj><cl15><pl> ↔ matũ (big)

Verbs

Verbal Subject Agreement

Verbs must agree with their subjects. They agree with the person and number of their subject, and if their subject is third person, its noun class as well. Once again, the verbal subject agreement morphemes are extremely similar, but not identical, to the singular/plural morphemes, the adjective agreement morphemes, and the associative agreement morphemes, as well as the third person pronouns.

All Kikuyu verbs have an assortment of morphology which is mandatorily on the verb; most of this is irrelevant to the subject agreement, so it will be ignored here. Not all noun classes are described here; in particular, those whose agreement morphemes match the singular/plural morphemes on nouns are ignored. The tag <prog> indicates the progressive, <hab> the habitual, <fut> the future and <pres> indicates the present. Some tags which may relate to temporal interpretation are omitted here, as they are not relevant.

The first person singular agreement is the nasal prefix, and the first person plural agreement is tũ. The following data are assuming the verb ũr meaning run is regular:
- ũr<v><pres><prog><p1><sg> ↔ nĩndĩrora (I am running away)
- ũr<v><pres><prog><p1><pl> ↔ nĩtũdĩrora (We are running away)
The second person singular agreement is the prefix ũ-, and the plural is mũ-; the examples are constructed assuming thi meaning 'go' is regular:
- thi<v><hab><p2><sg> ↔ ũthiaga (You(sg) go (habitually))
- thi<v><hab><p2><pl> ↔ mũthiaga (You(pl) go (habitually))
In <cl1>, the singular agreement is a- and the plural agreement is ma-:
- rĩm<v><hab><p3><sg><cl1> ↔ arĩmaga (He/she cultivated)
- thom<v><fut><p3><sg><cl1> ↔ nĩmakũthoma (They will read)
In <cl3>, the singular agreement is ũ- and the plural agreement is ĩ-.
In <cl4>, the singular agreement is ĩ- and the plural agreement is rĩ-.
In <cl9p10>, the singular agreement is ĩ- and the plural agreement is ci-.

Negatives

The negative markers in Kikuyu change not only form but order with respect to other morphemes on the verb depending on the form of the subject agreement morpheme.

If the subject agreement morpheme is a single vowel and nothing else, the negative morpheme is nd-, and it precedes the subject agreement morpheme:
- thi<v><hab><p2><sg><neg> ↔ ndũthiaga (You(sg) don't go (habitually))
- ũk<v><pres><p3><sg><cl1><neg> ↔ ndaroka (He/she is not coming (now))
- thi<v><fut><p1><sg><neg> ↔ ndgũthiĩ (I won't go (today))
- gũ<v><past><p3><pl><neg> ↔ ndĩagũire ((Something(sg)) did not fall (before yesterday))
If the subject agreement morpheme has a CV structure, the negative morpheme is ti, and appears after the subject agreement morpheme:
- gũ<v><past><p3><sg><cl5><neg> ↔ rĩtiagũire ((Something(sg)) did not fall (before yesterday))
- gũ<v><past><p3><pl><cl5><neg> ↔ matiagũire ((Something(pl)) did not fall (before yesterday))

Tense, Aspect, and Remoteness

Temporal information on the verb in Kikuyu is encoded in several different ways. In addition to tense, Kikuyu also marks remoteness, that is, distance of an event from the present, and aspect.

Tense and Remoteness

Tense and remoteness are marked with a prefix on the verb, which appears just before the stem. The possible tense and remoteness combinations are the remote, near, and current past, the current present, and the current, near, and remote future. Above, the temporal tags were simplified; here the tags are expanded to include <rempast>, <nearpast>, <currpast>, <pres>, <currfut>, <nearfut>, and <remfut>, for these tense and remoteness combinations respectively.

Information about person and aspect is suppressed in the tags here to focus on tense and remoteness.

The remote past is marked with the prefix a-:
- kũr<v><rempast> ↔ nĩciakũrire ((Something) grew (before yesterday))
The near past is marked with the prefix ra-, which sometimes surfaces with other vowels like ro- from combining with existing vowels in the root:
- ũk<v><nearpast> ↔ nĩarokire (He/she came (yesterday))
The current past is marked with the prefix a-, kũ/gũ, or nothing:
- in<v><currpast> ↔ nĩanire (He/she sang (an hour ago))
- thi<v><currpast> ↔ nĩagũthiĩte (He/she had gone (today))
The present is marked with the prefix ka-, raa- (sometimes combining with other vowels to make ro-, etc.), or nothing:
- ũk<v><pres> ↔ nĩndĩroka (I am coming)
The current future is marked with the prefix kũ-:
- thom<v><currfut> ↔ nĩmagũthoma (They will read (something) (today))
The near future is marked with the prefix rĩĩ- or rĩ-. For some reason the sketch grammar being used includes only a single instance of the near future; it may be very rare. Some other sources make no mention of it while discussing remoteness in Kikuyu, but the sketch grammar gives an example:
- thi<v><nearfut> ↔ ũrĩthiĩ (You will go)
The remote future is marked with the prefix ka- or nothing. The following example sentence comes from this other source, a paper on remoteness in Kikuyu by Seth Cable:
- in<v><remfut> ↔ nĩakaina (He/she will dance)

Aspect

In addition to the tense and remoteness markers, there exist suffixes after the verb stem in Kikuyu which encode other relevant temporal information, namely, aspect.

It is worth noting that not all aspects can pair with all tense and remoteness possibilities.

The processual aspect <proc> apparently only applies to verbs whose events have been occurring from the past up to the time of speaking, and is marked with the marker -ĩr:
- thamb<v><pres><proc> ↔ nĩndĩrathambĩra (I am swimming)
The imperfective or habitual aspect <hab>, which denotes events which are not complete within the reference time, such as habitual events, is marked with -ag:
- rĩm<v><hab> ↔ arĩmaga (He/she grew (something) (before yesterday))
The perfect aspect <perf> is used to describe the result state of an event, and is marked with the suffix -ĩt:
- thi<v><currpast><perf> ↔ nagũthiĩte (He/she had gone (today))
The completive aspect <compl> is used to mark that an action has been completed, and is marked with -ir:
- in<v><currpast><compl> ↔ nĩanire (He/she sang (an hour ago))
The progressive aspect <prog> is marked with an silent morpheme in Kikuyu, and indicates that an event is ongoing:
- in<v><pres><prog> ↔ nĩmaraina (They are singing (now))

The Sequential

Kikuyu has a morpheme kĩ- which seems to be in complementary distribution with both tense, often occurs without aspect and appears before the verb. It is not entirely clear what it is. The sketch grammar glosses it as the "sequential aspect", meaning something like "and then". It will be denoted with the tag <seq>.

The sequential aspect appears without any other apparent tense, and sometimes without aspect:
- haic<v><seq> ↔ akĩhaica (And then he/she climbed)
- on<v><seq> ↔ akona (And then he/she sees)
- humb<v><refl><seq> ↔ gakĩĩhumbĩra (He/she covered him/herself)
- ror<v><refl><seq> ↔ gakĩĩrorera (He/she observed for him/herself)
- thi<v><refl><proc><seq> ↔ gagĩthiĩra (He/she went on his/her way)

Reflexive

Kikuyu has a reflexive morpheme ĩ- which does not vary, except in cases of coalescence with another vowel. It appears after the tense prefix and before the verb stem.

In the absence of coalescence, the reflexive morpheme appears as ĩ-, and does not need to agree with anything:
- humb<v><refl><seq> ↔ gakĩĩhumbĩra (He/she covered him/herself)
- ror<v><refl><seq> ↔ gakĩĩrorera (He/she observed for him/herself)
- thi<v><refl><proc><seq> ↔ gagĩthiĩra (He/she went on his/her way)
The reflexive morpheme can coalesce with other vowels; for example, a + ĩ can become e:
- thamb<v><currpast><compl><refl> ↔ nĩathambirie (He/she washed him/herself (today))
- hith<v><nearpast><compl><refl> ↔ nĩarehithire (He/she hid him/herself (yesterday))

Final Vowel

All verbs in Kikuyu end with an apparently meaningless final vowel.

In most cases, the final vowel is a:
- haic<v> ↔ akĩhaica (climb)
- in<v><hab> ↔ nĩainga (sing)
- gũ<v> ↔ nĩkagwa (fall)
However, when the aspect is completive <compl> or perfect <perf>, or when the mood is subjunctive, the final vowel becomes e:
- thamb<v><currpast><compl><ref> ↔ nĩethambire (wash)
- ũm<v><pst><perf> ↔ nĩwomĩte (dry)
Sometimes the final vowel is ĩ; the sketch grammar does not explicitly discuss when this is the case, or if it is predictable. It appears to be very rare:
- thi<v><currfut><neg> ↔ ndigũthiĩ (go(negative))
- thi<v><imp> ↔ thiĩ (go(imperative))

Other

Associative Construction

Two arbitrary nouns or noun phrases can be linked in Kikuyu with the associative linker a, which takes an agreement prefix. The associative serves many functions, indicating possession, location, and allowing one noun to function basically as an adjective for the other. The special tag <assoc> is used to apply to this word alone. The associative agrees with the noun before it in the construction.

- a<assoc><cl1><sg> ↔ wa
- a<assoc><cl1><pl> ↔ a
- a<assoc><cl3><sg> ↔ wa
- a<assoc><cl3><pl> ↔ ya
- a<assoc><cl5><sg> ↔ rĩa
- a<assoc><cl5><pl> ↔ ma
- a<assoc><cl7><sg> ↔ kĩa
- a<assoc><cl7><pl> ↔ cia
- a<assoc><cl9p10><sg> ↔ ya
- a<assoc><cl9p10><pl> ↔ cia
- a<assoc><cl11p10><sg> ↔ rũa
- a<assoc><cl11p10><pl> ↔ cia
- a<assoc><cl11p6><sg> ↔ rũa
- a<assoc><cl11p6><pl> ↔ ma
- a<assoc><cl12p13><sg> ↔ ka
- a<assoc><cl12p13><pl> ↔ tũa
- a<assoc><cl14><sg> ↔ wa
- a<assoc><cl14><pl> ↔ ma
- a<assoc><cl15><sg> ↔ kũa
- a<assoc><cl15><pl> ↔ ma

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are marked for person and number, and if they are third person they are marked also for noun class. However, third person pronouns outside of <cl1> are used only in the response to a question. The root third person pronoun is o, and most of the third person pronouns are o with an appropriate noun class and number prefix, once again similar but not identical to the singular/plural markers and the adjective agreement prefix.

First and second person pronouns are marked for person and number. Some pronouns have multiple options; it is not clear why, so they are listed as separate entries:
- <pro><p1><sg> ↔ niĩ
- <pro><p1><sg> ↔ niũ
- <pro><p1><pl> ↔ ithuĩ
- <pro><p2><sg> ↔ wee
- <pro><p2><sg> ↔ weũ
- <pro><p2><pl> ↔ inyuĩ
- <pro><p2><pl> ↔ inyuũ
Third person pronouns are marked for person, number, and noun class:
- o<pro><p3><cl1><sg> ↔ we
- o<pro><p3><cl1><pl> ↔ o
- o<pro><p3><cl1><pl> ↔ mo
- o<pro><p3><cl3><sg> ↔ guo
- o<pro><p3><cl3><pl> ↔ yo
- o<pro><p3><cl5><sg> ↔ rĩo
- o<pro><p3><cl5><pl> ↔ mo
- o<pro><p3><cl7><sg> ↔ kĩo
- o<pro><p3><cl7><pl> ↔ cio
- o<pro><p3><cl9p10><sg> ↔ yo
- o<pro><p3><cl9p10><pl> ↔ cio
- o<pro><p3><cl11p10><sg> ↔ ruo
- o<pro><p3><cl11p10><pl> ↔ cio
- o<pro><p3><cl11p6><sg> ↔ ruo
- o<pro><p3><cl11p6><pl> ↔ mo
- o<pro><p3><cl12p13><sg> ↔ ko
- o<pro><p3><cl12p13><pl> ↔ tuo
- o<pro><p3><cl14><sg> ↔ guo
- o<pro><p3><cl14><pl> ↔ mo
- o<pro><p3><cl15><sg> ↔ kuo
- o<pro><p3><cl15><pl> ↔ mo

{{Category:Grammar documentation}

Kikuyu/Grammar

Contents

Categories

Nouns

Plurals

Regular Singular and Plural

Multiple Singular/Plural Morphemes

Irregular Singular and Plural

Adjectives

Adjective Agreement

Verbs

Verbal Subject Agreement

Negatives

Tense, Aspect, and Remoteness

Tense and Remoteness

Aspect

The Sequential

Reflexive

Final Vowel

Other

Associative Construction

Personal Pronouns

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