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Rank: Member Joined: 8/24/2013 Posts: 185 Location: Diaspora
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Edit. I have just seen @MoneyWhisperer's post regarding pronunciation of the 'b' sound. What he has said is absolutely correct.
I think over time the original sound has been modified owing to the influence of other languages which have a softer 'f' like sound.
I also forgot that the 'Z' is absent in Gikuyu alphabet. Thanks @Mtublack. So there are 20 letters.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/18/2011 Posts: 12,069 Location: Kianjokoma
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Mtublack wrote:Lolest! wrote:Money Whisperer wrote:The f in Kikuyu is not pronounced like the normal F. You place your lips as if to say B (a bilabial plosive) but allow air to flow through as you do with fricatives such as f hence baba not fafa. I still remember my Linguistics 101 class makofi kwangu  I dont get it. Kikuyus write baba but then read it as 'fafa' what came first the sounds or the alphabets na hakuna kikuyu its gikuyu(language) and Agikuyu( tribe or community) so don't know where kikuyus came from if you did your Gikuyu lessons well you know there is no F,L Q, S,V X and Z in the written language blame it on the people who introduced the written language some are actually absent from spoken Gikuyu. like V, Z and L!
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 5/11/2010 Posts: 918
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The Clown wrote:I decided to post on this thread when I saw @seppuku parading his ignorance in public.
FYI there IS a Gikuyu alphabet. Just as there are English, French, Mandarin, Maragoli and Nandi ones.
I am one of those who studied in a native tongue in primary school so I happen to know a little about the language.
The language is Gikuyu. Non-Gikuyus will call it Kikuyu and that's due to the influence of Swahili.
An alphabet is about phonetics, reading and writing so you can't pick one one aspect and disregard the others.
Gikuyu alphabet has 21 letters (no f,l,p,q and x). There are also accents which modify the pronunciations of vowels such as 'i', 'o' and 'u'. Because I'm typing from an office keyboard ya wazungu I can't show you the accents here. But I have enabled them on my home computer.
To answer the OP, the 'f' in 'Kifaki' and 'fafa' is represented by the letter 'b' in writing.
'B' appearing alone is always pronounced as 'f'.
The 'b' sound in mboco (beans) is written as 'mb'. In fact, some Gikuyus wazees from Murang'a and Nyeri pronounce the 'm' in 'mb' like mburi, mbembe etc.
In short, Gikuyu differs from Swahili in that the pronunciation of the words is not literal. I believe the same is true of English, French and many other languages. That is just how they developed.
I do not think Gikuyus will be OK revising the alphabet as it will mean having to reprint all written material such as bibles, books and such. @The Clown, I will go ahead and respond to your post in spite of the fact that it smacks of scholarly arrogance, a common disguise for intellectual dwarfism. What you call the Gikuyu alphabet is, even by your own admission, merely a subset of the Latin alphabet. I fail to see how not using some of the letters of someone else's alphabet makes it your own. Most of the other things you say make sense, but I could do with a little less conceit. Learn first to treat your time as you would your money, then treat your money as you do your time.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 5/11/2010 Posts: 918
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Mtublack wrote:Lolest! wrote:Money Whisperer wrote:The f in Kikuyu is not pronounced like the normal F. You place your lips as if to say B (a bilabial plosive) but allow air to flow through as you do with fricatives such as f hence baba not fafa. I still remember my Linguistics 101 class makofi kwangu I dont get it. Kikuyus write baba but then read it as 'fafa' what came first the sounds or the alphabets na hakuna kikuyu its gikuyu(language) and Agikuyu( tribe or community) so don't know where kikuyus came from if you did your Gikuyu lessons well you know there is no F,L Q, S,V X and Z in the written language blame it on the people who introduced the written language To say Kikuyu when speaking English or Swahili isn't any wronger than to say Anglais when speaking French, I think. Learn first to treat your time as you would your money, then treat your money as you do your time.
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Rank: Member Joined: 11/18/2009 Posts: 175
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seppuku wrote:Mtublack wrote:Lolest! wrote:Money Whisperer wrote:The f in Kikuyu is not pronounced like the normal F. You place your lips as if to say B (a bilabial plosive) but allow air to flow through as you do with fricatives such as f hence baba not fafa. I still remember my Linguistics 101 class makofi kwangu I dont get it. Kikuyus write baba but then read it as 'fafa' what came first the sounds or the alphabets na hakuna kikuyu its gikuyu(language) and Agikuyu( tribe or community) so don't know where kikuyus came from if you did your Gikuyu lessons well you know there is no F,L Q, S,V X and Z in the written language blame it on the people who introduced the written language To say Kikuyu when speaking English or Swahili isn't any wronger than to say Anglais when speaking French, I think. am not saying its wrong am just looking at it from the context of the thread where the purpose is to look at the sounds and by extension pronunciation and spellings of Gikuyu words, just wondering where did the word kikuyu came from Some you win some you lose
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Rank: Elder Joined: 6/8/2013 Posts: 2,517
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Kikuyu alphabet is fine just the way it is. It only happens to have 2 extra vowel sounds, the ì and the ù. So the vowelsare a, e,i , o, u, ì, ù. To make it easier for non-kikuyu to pronounce names properly, some kikuyus replace the extra vowels with the "e" for ì and "o" for ù. For sxample, Nderitu for Ndìritù, mureithi for mùrìithi, Thuo for Thuù, etc. There's no "ch", "sh" in kikuyu. Names such as Macharia are supposed to be spelt as macaria, cege for chege, wacira for wachira, etc. This also has got to do with people wanting to simplify pronunciation for non-kikuyu speakers, imagine one pronouncing macaria as makaria, like in kambas kyalo, most non-kambas will say kyalo instead of chalo. "😖😡KQ makes money for everyone except the shareholder 😏😏 " overheard in Wazua
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Rank: Member Joined: 8/24/2013 Posts: 185 Location: Diaspora
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@ seppuku "Most of the other things you say make sense, but I could do with a little less conceit". Yes, YOU certainly could. 
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Rank: Member Joined: 11/18/2009 Posts: 175
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So is it necessary for kids in urban areas to learn their mother tongue Some you win some you lose
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 7/5/2010 Posts: 2,061 Location: Nairobi
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It is Gĩkũyũ, not Gikuyu. The diacritics are critical since we are discussing syntax, form and phonetics. In lower primary where instruction was in mother tongue for us bundus types, we used to call the diacritics "ngobia"; Leaving them out led to the homework getting marked wrong. However, typing those things (they are not on the keyboard and/or Shift+Key arrangements) is hard, so the wrong "Gikuyu" form is tolerated.  Interestingly, this tutelage in mother tongue helps in reading the Gĩkũyũ Bible. For those not practised (like Xmass visitors from town), the fits and starts induce fits of laughter in the country church. Back in the day, I remember being one of only a few people able to read it fluently - and that came with the consequence of not being able to skip church.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 7/11/2012 Posts: 5,222
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Wish I had anything of substance to contribute, sadly I'm 'born town' and speak pidgin Kikuyu. But 'Reminisce' with Mike Murimi(Not pronounced as written) makes for good practice... when they sing 'Gospel' Of interest, is the difference between the pronounciation of 'No' Asha asa. And other similar words. Is it personal differences or is it regional, Kiambu Nyeri?
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