Originally published in 1940, this book was the result of 3 years' worth of phonetic research and analysis with the aim of laying foudnations for improved methods of teaching and ascertaining the most scientific basis for current orthography of the Kikuyu language of Kenya.

Part 1: The Sounds and Tones of Southern Kikuyu 1. The Vowel Phonemes 2. Length of Vowels 3. Vowel Sequence 4. The Consonant Phonemes 5. Consonant Laws 6. The tones (Introductory) 7. Tonal Classes of Verbs 8. Tonal Conjugation of Verbs (Introductory) 9. Tonal Conjugation of Class I Verbs 10. Tonal Conjugation of Class II Verbs 11. Tonal Conjugation of Class III Verbs 12. Tonal conjugation of Class IV Verbs 13. Tonal Conjugation of Class V Verbs 14. The Use of ne Forms of Verbs 15. Tonal Classes of Nouns (Introductory) 16. Tonal Forms of the moondo Tonal Class and Their Usage 17. Tonal Forms of the moto Tonal Class Their Usage 18.Tonal Forms of the ¿goko Tonal Class and Their Usage 19. Tones of Nouns of the moondo, mote and ¿goko Tonal Classes Used in Questions, Requests, Address 20. Tones of Request and Implication forms of Verbs 21. Tonal Forms of Other Nouns 22. Tonal Forms of Adjectives 23. Stress 24. Emphasis Part 2: Texts With Translations and Notes 25. Text No. 1 A Story 26. Text No. 2 A Conversation Between Two Men 27. Text No. 3 A Conversation Between Women and Children 28. Text No. 4 Dialogue 29. Text No. 5 Dialogue Appendix: A Suggested Orthography for Kikuyu. Glossary of Nouns, Proper Names & Verbs.