This holiday I have bumped into a varied crowd from the usual. I am a Igembe Meru-ian and we have a very laid back accent if you ask me. So I was talking to some guy from Tigania or Tharaka (don’t remember where he said he is from) and his accent sounds like he was balancing hot water in his mouth…very choppy and aggresive, staccato like, the vocabulary is also different.
Then I bumped into a guy from Runyenjez…funniest accent ever with words like vava (baba) and viral(file) i.e. “F ni V and V ni F” .
This made me realize that from the deepest,driest part of Tharaka, hadi makutano junction huko mwea sijui Kiambere kuna dialect kama kumi+ don’t know if the ones close to mwea would be considered kikuyu dialects.
Kikuyu najua ni mingi. For example the word ‘cucu’ is said differently depeding which kikuyuland you’re in. In my opinion Nyeri accent will crack your ribs any day. Kagumo lapper…Kagumo lapper.
Which makes me wonder, watu wa rift valley (kimaasai, kikale), western na nyanza…mnakuwanga na dialects?
Wadathaya mukurukuthu… My current language. In mwea dialect is subdivided by villages. If you have a little knowledge of how mwea scheme came into existence, you will then understand why anyone language is different from the other. Mweans are settlers and traditions in this part of mumbi empire are a myth. Trust me, you can even marry a donkey if you wish.
Back to dialect.
We are so used to this that when i visit my cousins on the slopes and start making fun of my kirinyaga dialect, it pisses me of.
uncle @kah tony you have come a long way to morph from a ugandan to a mu-Igembe…just had to confirm your very first post titled tagged.cm…nimefurahia vile wanakijiji walikuchangamkia…
Pia kiswahili ni hivo hivo, swahili ya old town is very different from the one in changamwe and jomvu, na pia lamu wana lahaja yao pia, sisi wabara ata tujaribu vipi hatuwezani na hizo dialects
Luos from siaya have a different lahaja drom the other luos. Eg door other luos call it dhot but siaya guys- thigo, mtoto: Siaya-mihia Others- nyathi n others though not all words. Pia they talk in a way we South Nyanzanians consider funny
Kikuyu is not a homogenous tribe. It’s an amalgamation of many tribes eg. the extinct: the Ngumba, the Athi, the Dorobo etc that were basically hunter-gatherer communities. Others include the Maa speaking people, tharaka, mbeere, chuka, embu, kamba.
About the Kisiis, there is this theory by historians linking them to the Mt Kenya tribes esp the Meru. They argue that the Gusii found fertile land and settled in the western part of Kenya as their brothers moved on. Interesting to note that some Mt. Kenya names are found in Gusiiland with the slight variation of an ‘o’ instead of ‘U’ eg Moturi, Mogambi, Moraro
[also from wazua]
Gusii found fertile land and settled in the western part of Kenya as their brothers moved on… Sidhani if this is true. The gusii initially settled on what is Kano area but were driven away by the Luo before they settled on the current gusii Highlands
Lakini pia gikuyu talk about gikuyu na mumbi having 9 daughters who got married to men hence forming the gikuyu community. Its a gikuyu myth Lakini even if its a myth then if these men were from different communities then gikuyu are made from those