a- (ka/bu) small stone, pebble, plur. obuyinja, small stones; sidewalk, cf. ejjinja.
e- plur. amayinja (li/ma) rock; stone; colloq. phonograph record, ejjinja ery'omu- wendo, precious stone, jewel, okuyimbisa amayinja, to play phonograph records, kussaako jjinja, to start a conversation. cf. akayinja.
for which see the grammars. One usage which presents serious difficulties to the users of the dictionary must be mentioned here. ka- is the prefix for singular nouns of the ka/bu class. This class contains not only nouns proper to it, but in addition most other nouns can be converted to this class; in the latter case the resultant noun is a diminutive. In many cases sound changes obscure the relationship between the original noun and the diminutive: ente, cow; akate, small cow. ejjinja, rock; akayinja, stone, endabirwamu, mirror; akalabirwamu, small mirror.
akayinja.
rock-s. In cases of this sort the stem begins with y- as do other derivatives: -yinja, kayinja, guyinja, etc.