Meru is aBantu language spoken by theMeru people (Ameru) who live on the Eastern and Northern slopes ofMount Kenya and on the Nyambene ranges. They settled in this area after centuries ofmigration from the north.

The Meru people are a fairly homogeneous community and all share a commonancestry. They speak the same language,Kimeru, with slight regional differences in accent and local words. The community comprises the following subdivisions, from the north to south:

• Igembe
• Tigania (Tiania) (culture close to neighbouringCushitic andNilotic communities)
• Imenti
• Tharaka (Saraka)
• Igoji
• Mwimbi–Muthambi
• Chuka (Gicuka)

As the Meru language is similar to its surrounding neighbors, theKikuyu andEmbu could have possibly adopted parts of Meru.

I want a cassava||Ndũmia mũanga/mĩanga

Kimeru has seven main mutually intelligible dialects. The dialects include Kiimenti widely used by the Imenti section of the Ameru, Tiania/gitiania used by the Tigania, kiigembe used by the Igembe, Kimwimbi used by the Mwïmbï, Kïmüthambï used by the Müthambï, Gicuka used by the Chuka and Kitharaka used by the Tharaka.

It is the commonly used dialect in Meru. The dialect acts as the lingua franca between all the nine subtribes of Meru. It is the official dialect used in the Kimeru Bible translations. It is commonly used in Nkubu, Timau, Kibirichia, Meru town and Ruiri areas of Meru County.

The dialects are more related to Gikuyu and Meru proper, and are common in Igoji, Chogoria and Chuka regions of Meru County and Tharaka Nithi County.

The dialects are mostly spoken in Miraa or Khat growing areas of Muthara, Karama, Kangeta, Maua, Laare and Mutuati in Meru County.

The dialect is more closely related to the Kamba and Tigania dialects. It is most common in Tharaka areas of Tharaka Nithi County.

Prenasalized sounds may also occur in word-medial and word-initial positions.

Fricatives [β, ɣ] occur mostly as allophones of stops /b, d/ in intervocalic positions.

/d/ may also be heard as [ɾ] in intervocalic positions.

Kimeru is written in a Latin alphabet. It does not use the lettersf p q s v x z, and adds the lettersĩ andũ.^[4]The Kimeru alphabet is:

Noun Classes

Kimeru has sixteen noun classes as tabulated below. the classes are grammatical and represent how words fit into sentences. Of the noun classes, classes 1, 3, 4, 9 and ten are irregular while the rest are regular. This implies that verbal, adjectival and conjunction concords are not the same.

Example class 1 verses class 2. class 1- Muntũ ũjũ mũraja auma Nairobi. class 2- Antũ baba baraja bauma Nairobi.

Class 1-This tall person has come from Nairobi. Class 2. These tall people have come from Nairobi. In class 1 demonstrative 'this' is ũjũ, with ũ as its concord. The adjective -raja has mũ as its concord and the verb uma has a as its concord hence 'auma'. On the other hand in class two each of the above cases have ba as a concord. The difference is only in ũjũ and baba as demonstratives is that all strong classes use double concords as demonstratives.

Kimeru follows Dahl's law thus a "K" syllable cannot follow a "K' syllable.

A Kenyan musical group known as High Pitch Band Afrika based inMeru County has done a cover of theLuis Fonsi's popular hit singleDespacito in Kimeru language. The Kimeru cover was uploaded on YouTube on July 10, 2017, and has generated over 500,000 views since then.

In Media the Kimeru language is used as the primary broadcast language of several Radio and TV stations in Kenya. Some include: Meru Fm, Muuga Fm, Weru Fm, Weru TV, Baite TV, Thiiri Fm among many others.

• Meru dictionary
• PanAfrican L10n page on Meru
• "page on Meru History

• Meru
• Northeast Bantu languages
• Languages of Kenya

• Language articles citing Ethnologue 26
• CS1 maint: location
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