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How to Read and Speak Kikuyu Language and Fasten Learning
Rating: 4.3 out of 5(16 ratings)
67 students

How to Read and Speak Kikuyu Language and Fasten Learning

All the reading and speaking basics you need to start your journey to native Kikuyu fluency
Created byBoniface Ndirangu
Last updated 7/2021
English

What you'll learn

  • Understand a brief background of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya- and the world over
  • Learn the correct Kikuyu alphabet
  • Categorize Kikuyu syllables
  • Learn how to correctly pronounce the Kikuyu vowels a e i o u ĩ ũ
  • Learn how simple Kikuyu words are created
  • Learn to read Kikuyu words and basic sentences
  • Be able to answer quiz questions regarding words in the V and CV categories

Course content

3 sections • 22 lectures • 54m total length

  • Brief Kikuyu People Background1:26
  • The Kikuyu Alphabet5:45

    Introduction to the Course

    In this introductory lecture, we get to learn how to write down the correct Kikuyu alphabet. I'll help you compare it with the English one, and note the similarities and differences.

    Welcome!

  • The Kikuyu Vowels a e i o u ĩ ũ5:28

    There are seven Kikuyu vowels. The regular five in English, plus two more. The extra two are ĩ and ũ.  In this course, we have placed them at the end of the Kikuyu alphabet. This is the most convenient arrangement for any beginner. It ensures that you easily identify them.

    In some other texts, you might encounter a different arrangement of these vowels as follows: a e i ĩ o u ũ. It is the same thing only that it's arranged differently.

    Try singing the vowel songs I've created in the video. This might sound awkward or funny or foolish. But it is not. Those songs are meant to retrain your brain to interpret these vowels in a new way whenever it encounters them. This speeds up the learning curve.

    It is easier to sing them out rather than to try to memorize how they sound. In a music class for vocals, they always tell you to sing "a a a a a" until you correctly sing all your possible key range. Think of this as you would a vocals class and you will be fine!

  • Crucial Notes about the Kikuyu Vowels0:48
  • The Kikuyu Syllable Categories- V and CV Types2:50

    Syllables are what makes the basics of any language. They are very important to learn. In Kikuyu, all syllables must end with a vowel. There can never be a syllable that ends with a consonant- unless it is a proper noun- like the name of a person or place.

    Regular Kikuyu words will always indicate for you the end of one syllable and the beginning of the next. Vowels always do that trick. Whenever you see a vowel, you have just seen the end of a syllable.

    There are, at least for the purposes of this course, four different syllable possibilities in the Kikuyu language. These are:

    • Vowel (V)- an example is, o, which means "they".

    • Consonant + vowel (CV)- an example is, ma, which means "truth".

    • Consonant + consonant + vowel (CCV)- an example is, tha, which means "mercy".

    • Consonant + consonant + consonant + vowel (CCCV)- an example is, ngwa, which means "thunder".

  • Crucial Notes about the Kikuyu Syllable Categories0:43

Requirements

  • Interest in learning Kikuyu language by first learning how to read it

Description

Reading and speaking with understanding of the very roots of what makes up Kikuyu language is the greatest piece you have been missing in your Kikuyu language learning puzzle. You’ve probably tried reading Kikuyu grammar books, or listening/watching Kikuyu language channels but your language skills are not improving. This is because no one is helping you learn the core structure of the Kikuyu language.

In this course, I address this gap for you. I help you understand how Kikuyu vowels sound, how simple syllables are made using single consonants, how those syllable sounds make simple words, and how those words make sentences.

As I do so, I’ll also be building up a vocabulary of over 200 commonly used Kikuyu words, and a further 56 common male and female Gĩkũyũ names. This is extremely crucial and surpasses most other online Kikuyu tutorials that you might have come across.

Of all the said vocabulary words, I’ve ensured that I read aloud each one of them in a slow way and a native speaker’s speed mode. This will help you in transiting from a hesitant approach to a more confident Kikuyu speaker.

I’ve gone ahead and created a pdf resource with a list of translations of all those words for ease of reference in case you get stuck or are curious about an interesting Kikuyu word encountered in the course.

All the best as you go through this basic course. Repeat the individual lectures not less than ten times until you are quite confident with replicating my pronunciation before proceeding to the lectures that follow. In the end, you’ll find that you have a mental picture and memory of most of the words used. When you encounter them in other texts elsewhere or hear them spoken out by others, you’ll easily identify them and start using them, too.

This is the first guide of its kind. Use it well to start mastering the Kikuyu language from today!

Who this course is for:

  • Beginner online Kikuyu learners
  • Kenyan Diaspora citizens

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