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Jouni F. Maho
Södra Anneberg 12
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Bantu languages

Map showing the distribution of Bantu language groups
click for full size image

There are anywhere between 400 and 500 known Bantu languages. Over time, several subclassifications have been presented, none of which has proven to be very stable. Thus the Bantu languages are here grouped according to a referential classification originally devised by Malcolm Guthrie in the 1940s (cfr Guthrie 1971, Maho 2003, 2006), in which the Bantu languages are grouped into 15 geographical zones labelled with letters from the Latin alphabet. To these 15 zones, I have added a 16th, i.e. Tervuren's J Zone, comprising languages re-grouped from zones D and E.

  • Zone A -- some 50-70 languages, incl. Fang, Ewondo, Duala
  • Zone B -- up to 50 languages, incl. Teke, Nzebi
  • Zone C -- some 70-80 languages, incl. Teteta, Lingala, Mongo-Nkundo
  • Zone D -- some 30-40 languages, incl. Lega, Bembe
  • Zone E -- less than 20 languages, incl. Kikuyu, Kamba
  • Zone F -- some 10 languages, incl. Sukuma, Nyamwezi
  • Zone G -- some 20-30 languages, incl. Swahili, Gogo, Comorian
  • Zone H -- some 10 languages, incl. Kikongo
  • Zone J -- some 60 languages, incl. Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Luhiya, Nkore-Kiga
  • Zone K -- less than 30 languages, incl. Ciokwe, Lozi
  • Zone L -- some 20 languages, incl. Luba
  • Zone M -- some 30 languages, incl. Bemba, Tonga
  • Zone N -- some 10-20 languages, incl. Nyanja/Chewa
  • Zone P -- some 10-20 languages, incl. Makhuwa (Makua)
  • Zone R -- less than 10 languages, incl. Umbundu, Wambo, Herero
  • Zone S -- some 20-30 languages, incl. Zulu, Xhosa, Shona, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho

A SELECTION OF PRINTED LITERATURE

Bastin, Yvonne; Coupez, Andre; Mann, Michael. 1999. Continuity and divergence in the Bantu languages: perspectives from a lexicostatistic study. Annalen van het Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, menselijke wetenschappen, n 162. Tervuren.

Ehret, Christopher. 2001. Bantu expansions: re-envisioning a central problem of early African history. International journal of African historical studies, v 34, p 1-41 (plus comments-cum-reply on p 43-87).

Guthrie, Malcolm. 1967/71. Comparative Bantu, 4 vols. Gregg International.

Hinnebusch, Thomas J. 1989. Bantu. In: The Niger-Congo languages (ed. by John Theodor Bendor-Samuel), p 450-473. University Press of America and Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).

Maho, Jouni Filip. 2003. A classification of the Bantu languages: an update of Guthrie's referential system. In: The Bantu languages (ed. by Derek Nurse & Gerard Philippson), p 639-651. Routledge.

Meeussen, Achille Emille. 1967. Bantu grammatical reconstructions. In: Africana linguistica 3 (= Annalen van het Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, menselijke wetenschappen, n 61), p 79-121. Tervuren.

Nurse, Derek. 1994/95. "Historical" classifications of the Bantu languages. Azania, 29/30, p 65-81.

Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gerard. (Eds.) 2003. The Bantu languages. Routledge language family series, v 4. Routledge.

Language surveys, classifications, general resources back to top »

Jouni Filip Maho
A referential classification of the Bantu languages: keeping Malcolm Guthrie's system updated (PDF).
goto.glocalnet.net/maho/downloads/NUGL2.pdf

Jouni Filip Maho, 2001
The Bantu area: (towards clearing up) a mess (PDF). Africa & Asia: Göteborg working papers on Asian and African languages and literatures, v 1, p 40-49.
www.african.gu.se/aa/downloads/aa01040.pdf

Jouni Filip Maho, 2002
Bantu line-up: comparative overview of three Bantu classifications (PDF). Dept of Oriental and African Languages, Göteborg University. Pp 59.
www.african.gu.se/maho/downloads/bantulineup.pdf

Jacky Maniacky
Bantu languages / Les langues bantu.
www.bantu-languages.com

Lutz Marten
Bantu classification, Bantu trees, and phylogenetic methods (PDF). From: Phylogenetic methods and the prehistory of languages. Edited by Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew. MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/lm5/Bantu_Trees.pdf

Salikoko S. Mufwene
Contact languages in the Bantu area. Dept of Linguistics, University of Chicago.
humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene/mufw_bantucon.html

Derek Nurse, 2001
A survey report for the Bantu languages. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-016.
www.sil.org/silesr/2002/016/SILESR2002-016.htm

Proto-Bantu, historical linguistics back to top »

Comparative Bantu On-Line Dictionary (CBOLD).
www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr

Yvonne Bastin, André Coupez, Evariste Mumba, Thilo C. Schadeberg
Bantu lexical reconstructions 3 (BLR3). Tervuren & Leiden.
linguistics.africamuseum.be/BLR3.html

Roger M. Blench, 1989
New developments in the classification of Bantu languages and their historical implications (PDF). From: Datation et chronologie dans le bassin du lac Tchad. Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d'Outre-Mer (ORSTOM).
www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_6/colloques2/38088.pdf

Koen Bostoen, 2004
Linguistics for the use of African history and the comparative study of Bantu pottery vocabulary (PDF). Antwerp papers in linguistics, v 106, p 131-154.
webhost.ua.ac.be/apil/apil106/index.htm

Annelies Bulkens, 1997
Some nominal stems for "canoe" in Bantu languages (PDF).
eric.ed.gov (ERIC# ED416681)

Malcolm Guthrie, 1967
Guthrie's Proto-Bantu recontructions (2,200 items). Hosted at the CBOLD site.
www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr

Malcolm Guthrie, 1967
Guthrie's Common Bantu roots (5,500 items). Hosted at the CBOLD site.
www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr

Jean-Marie Hombert, François Nsuka-Nkutsi, Gilbert Puech, 1987
Quelques perspectives pour la linguistique historique bantu (PDF). Pholia, v 2, p 99-102.
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/divers/Download/Pholia/Pholia_N-2.pdf (whole issue)

Larry M. Hyman, 2000
Proto-Grassfields-Bantu recontructions (450 items). Hosted at the CBOLD site.
www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr

Larry M. Hyman, 2003
Sound change, misanalysis, and analogy in the Bantu causative (PDF). Journal of African languages and linguistics, v 24, p 55-90.
linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/Causative_Analogy_Paper_rev.pdf

Larry M. Hyman, Gérard Philippson, Lolke van der Veen, Jacky Maniacky, Jeffrey Good
Bantu Retention and Innovation Questionnaire (BRIQ).
www.bantu-languages.com/questionnaires/briq/index.html

André Jacquot, 1991
Le nom de la houe dans les langues bantoues du nord-ouest: implications historiques (PDF). Cahiers des sciences humaines, v 27, p 561-576.
www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_4/sci_hum/35828.pdf

Jouni Filip Maho, 2005
Draft bibliography for comparative Bantu studies (PDF).
goto.glocalnet.net/maho/downloads/bantubiblio.pdf

Achille E. Meeussen, 1967
Meeussen's Proto-Bantu reconstructions (1,950 items). Hosted at the CBOLD site.
www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr

Gérard Philippson, 1991
Tons et accent dans les langues bantu d'Afrique orientale (PDF). Thèse d'état. Université René Descartes (Paris 5).
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/PDF/philippson/these.pdf

Gérard Philippson, 1998
Evolution des systèmes prosodiques dans les langues bantu: de la typologie à la diachronie (PDF). From: Les langues d'Afrique subsaharienne. Edited by Susanne Platiel and Raphael Kaboré. Editions Ophrys.
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/PDF/Philippson/Philippson_1998b.pdf

Gérard Philippson, 1998
Tone reduction vs metrical attraction in the evolution of Eastern Bantu tone systems (PDF). From: Theoretical aspects of Bantu tone. Edited by Larry M. Hyman and Charles W. Kisseberth. CSLI Stanford University.
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/PDF/Philippson/Philippson_1998a.pdf

CORR Gisèle Teil-Dautrey, 2004
Lexiques proto-bantous: étude des cooccurences segmentales et supra-segmentales. (Also PDF.) Thèse de doctorat. Université Lumière (Lyon 2).
demeter.univ-lyon2.fr:8080/sdx/theses/lyon2/2004/teil-dautrey_g
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/PDF/Teil-Dautrey/Teil-Dautrey_2004_thËse.pdf

Lolke J. van der Veen, 2001
Contribution à l'étude des langues bantoues et des peuples bantouophones: approche linguistique, approche génétique (PDF). Revue gabonaise des sciences du langage, v 2, p 79-94.
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/PDF/Van%20Der%20Veen/Van%20der%20Veen_2001.pdf

Structural linguistics, descriptive linguistics, comparative studies back to top »

Serge Bahuchet, Gérard Philippson, 1998
Les plantes d'origine américaine en Afrique bantoue: une approche linguistique (PDF). From: Plantes et paysages d'Afrique. Edited by G. Chastanet. Editions Karthala.
www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/PDF/Philippson/Bahuchet_1998.pdf

Lee S. Bickmore
Bantu tone spreading and displacement as alignment and minimal misalignement (PDF). Rutgers Optimal Archive 161-1196.
roa.rutgers.edu/index.php3?id=173

Katherine Demuth, 2000
Bantu noun class systems: loan word and acquisition evidence of semantic productivity (PDF). From: Classification systems. Edited by Günter Senft. Cambridge University Press.
www.cog.brown.edu/People/demuth/articles/2000%20Demuth.pdf

Katherine Demuth, 2003
The acquisition of Bantu languages (PDF). From: The Bantu languages. Edited by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson. Routledge.
www.cog.brown.edu/People/demuth/articles/2003%20Demuth.pdf

Katherine Demuth, Carolyn Harford, 1999
Verb raising and subject inversion in comparative Bantu (PDF). Journal of African languages and linguistics, v 20, p 41-61.
www.cog.brown.edu/People/demuth/articles/1999%20Demuth&Harford.pdf

Mark Dingemanse, 2006
The semantics of Bantu noun classification: a review and comparison of three approaches (PDF). University of Leiden.
markdingemanse.nl/linguistics

Laura J. Downing, 2001
Tone (non-)transfer in Bantu verbal reduplication (PDF). Paper presented at TAPS (Typology of African Prosodic Systems), University of Bielefeld, May 2001.
www.spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de/TAPS/Downing.pdf

Laura J. Downing, 2005
On the ambiguous segmental status of nasals in homroganic NC sequences (PDF). From: The internal organization of phonological segments. Edited by M. van Oostendorp and J. M. van de Weijer. Mouton de Gruyter.
www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/home/downing/preNC2.pdf

Carolyn Harford, Katherine Demuth, 1999
Prosody outranks syntax: an Optimality approach to subject inversion in Bantu relatices (PDF). Linguistic analysis, v 29.
www.cog.brown.edu/People/demuth/articles/1999%20Harford&Demuth.pdf

Brent Henderson, 2004
Evidence for Rizzi's left periphery: Bantu relative clauses (PDF). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/bhendrsn/Left%20Periphery%20Bantu.pdf

Brent Henderson, 2004
Head movement in syntax and at PF (PDF). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/bhendrsn/Henderson-Head%20movement.pdf

Brent Henderson, 2005
Multiple agreement, concord, and case checking in Bantu: a reply to Carstens (PDF). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/bhendrsn/a%20reply%20to%20carstensII.pdf

Brent Henderson, 2005
Agreement and inversion in Bantu relatives: typology and syntax (PDF). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/bhendrsn/Bantu%20that-rels.pdf

Larry M. Hyman
Suffix ordering in Bantu: a morphocentric approach (PDF). Rutgers Optimal Archive 437-0601.
roa.rutgers.edu/index.php3?id=633

Larry M. Hyman, 2001
Privative tone in Bantu (PDF). From: Cross-linguistic studies of tonal phenomena. Edited by Shigeki Kaji. ILCAA Tokyo.
linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/Privative_Tone_Tokyo_A4.pdf

Larry M. Hyman, 2001
Cyclicity and base non-identity (PDF). From: Sounds and systems. Edited by David Restle & Dietmar Zaefferer. Mouton de Gruyter.
linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/Cyclic_Non-Identity,_novenn.pdf

Larry M. Hyman, 2003
Segmental phonology (PDF). From: The Bantu languages. Edited by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson. Routledge.
linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/Bantu_segmental.pdf

Larry M. Hyman, Sharon Inkelas, Galen Sibanda, 1998
Morphosyntactic correspondence in Bantu reduplication (PDF). Publ. 2003 in: The nature of the word. Edited by K. Hanson & S. Inkelas. MIT Press.
linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/Ndebele_Redup_final_rev.pdf

Michael Key
Headed spans and Bantu tonology (PDF). Rutgers Optimal Archives ROA-809-0306.
roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?id=1114

John G. Kiango, 2005
Problems of citation form in dictionaries of Bantu languages (PDF). Nordic journal of African studies, v 14 (3), p 255-273.
www.njas.helsinki.fi

Nancy Chongo Kula, 2004
On word-order restrictions in Bantu relative clauses (PDF). Paper presented at the 4th Bantu Grammar Meeting, Leiden.
mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/lm5/BantuProjectPapers/KulaRelativesExtendedHO-Nov04.PDF

Nancy Chongo Kula, 2004
Licensing saturation and co-occurence restrictions in structure: on Meinhof's Law in Bantu (PDF). From: Linguistics analysis, v 32.
www.nancykula.net/Kula%20-LA-2004.pdf

Jouni Filip Maho, 2003
Remarks on a few "polyplural" classes in Bantu (PDF). Africa & Asia: Göteborg working papers on Asian and African languages and literatures, v 3, p 161-184.
www.african.gu.se/aa/downloads/aa03161.pdf

Lutz Marten, 2004
Focus positions in Bantu (PDF). Paper presented at the 4th Bantu Grammar Meeting, Leiden.
mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/lm5/BantuProjectPapers/MartenBantuFocusOct2004.pdf

Lutz Marten
Focus strategies and the incremental development of semantic representations: evidence from Bantu (PDF). From: Focus strategies. Edited by Enoch Aboh, Katharina Hartmann and Malte Zimmermann. Mouton de Gruyter.
mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/lm5/LutzFocusStrategies8Apr2006.pdf

Lutz Marten, Ruth Kempson
Pronouns, agreement, and the dynamic construction of verb phrase interpretation: a Dynamic Syntax approach to Bantu clause structure (PDF). Linguistic analysis, v 32, p 471-504.
mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/lm5/LAMartenKempson8Apr2006.pdf

Lutz Marten, Nancy Kula, Nhlanhla Thwala, 2005
Parameters of morphosyntactic variation in Bantu (PDF). Paper presented at the 5th Bantu Grammar Meeting, London.
mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/lm5/BantuProjectPapers/Marten_Kula_Thwala_Bantu_London_Meeting.pdf

Francis Matambirofa, 2000
Some aspects of the arhcitecture of the possessive noun phrase in Bantu (PDF). Zambezia, v 27.1, p 93-102.
digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/index.cfm

Yukiko Morimoto, 2002
Prominence mismatches and differential object marking in Bantu (PDF). Proceedings of the LFG02 conference. CSLI Publications Online.
csli-publications.stanford.edu/LFG/7/lfg02morimoto.pdf

Derek Nurse, 2006
Focus in Bantu: verbal morphology and function (PDF). ZAS papers in linguistics, n 43, p 189-208.
www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/index.html?publications_zaspil

Daniël J. Prinsloo, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, 2001
Taking dictionaries for Bantu languages into the new millennium, with special reference to Kiswahili, Sepedi and isiZulu (PDF). From: Makala ya kongamano la kimataifa Kiswahili 2000 (Proceedings). Edited by J. S. Mdee & H. J. M. Mwansoko. Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam.
tshwanedje.com/publications/kiswahili2000bantu.pdf

Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, 2003
Online dictionaries on the Internet: an overview for the African languages (PDF). Lexikos, v 13, p 1-20.
tshwanedje.com/publications/OBDs.pdf

Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Daniël J. Prinsloo, 2001
Towards a sound lemmatisation strategy for the Bantu verb through the use of frequency-based tail slots, with special reference to Cilubà, Sepedi and Kiswahili (PDF). From: Makala ya kongamano la kimataifa Kiswahili 2000 (Proceedings). Edited by J. S. Mdee & H. J. M. Mwansoko. Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam.
tshwanedje.com/publications/kiswahili2000fbts.pdf

Nhlanhla Thwala, 2006
Parameters of variation and complement licensing in Bantu (PDF). ZAS papers in linguistics, n 43, p 209-232.
www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/index.html?publications_zaspil

Ellen Woolford, 1994
Why passive can block object marking (PDF).
eric.ed.gov (ERIC# ED373563)

Miscellaneous, unsorted back to top »

Malin Petzell, 2003
Swedish contributions to African linguistics, with a focus on Bantu languages (PDF). Africa & Asia: Göteborg working papers on Asian and African languages and literatures, v 3, p 41-52.
www.african.gu.se/aa/downloads/aa03041.pdf

Hans-Ingo Weier
Bantu studies, personal homepage.
www.bantuistik.de (frames: click on Bantu)

Alice Werner, 1933
Myths and legends of the Bantu. Originally published by Harrap in London. Webbaccess by the Internet Sacred Text Archive.
www.sacred-texts.com/afr/mlb/index.htm

Web sources for individual languages back to top »

See: Zone A
Zone B
Zone C
Zone D
Zone E
Zone F
Zone G
Zone H
Zone J
Zone K
Zone L
Zone M
Zone N
Zone P
Zone R
Zone S
    Map showing the distribution of Bantu language groups
click for full size image

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