Grammatical gender as it features in dp syntax is primarily a categorizing fea ture that. The bantu migrations agriculture, ironworking technology spread throughout africa because of migration number of groups in africa spoke related languages originated from language called protobantu developed in what is now cameroon, nigeria over time more than 2,000 bantu languages developed. First, it is a form which the user will first look up in the dictionary before reading other phonological, morphological, syntactic. New developments in the classification of bantu languages and. A brief summary of the bantu acquisition literature by language is provided below. Most attested sevenvowel languages usually show the midvowels splitting, and there is plenty of evidence that this is the common outcome of vowel merger in non bantu ninevowel languages. Bantu is the name of a large category of african languages.
All members of a given class share the same prefix. Grammatical and lexical comparison of the greater ruvu bantu. This chapter provides an overview of the common syntactic features as well as the syntactic microvariation found in the bantu languages. It is probably the origin of rap and has its own origin in the. One such phenomenon is vowel harmony, where suffixes typically alternate in height depending on the preceding vowel. They then combine many of these to form 26 intermediate groupings of which about half are controversial. West african languages present numerous challenges to the researcher, both technological and not, some language specifi c and some common to the region. Abstract the mara region of tanzania is a densely populated area that contains at least 22 bantu speech varieties in addition to the nilotic languages luo and taturu hill et al. Meeussen 1967 was particularly instrumental in reconstructing what is thought to be the noun class system of protobantu see also guthrie 196771 and welmers 1973. Yet these languages are spoken by over 100 million people spread over most of subsaharan africa. Although these sounds are less frequent in bantu languages, they do occur in northwest bantu as well as in east bantu, both on the northeastern coast and. The timne and cognate languages of sierra leone and the north guinea coast use pronominal prefixes and a system of concord, the employment of the latter being precisely similar to the same practice in the bantu languages.
Other semantic types of coordination commonly mentioned in grammars. Complex phonology and morphology bantu verb serialization kwa complex pronoun systems yoruba. In the case of most bantu languages these resources are not available now, and are unlikely to become available in the near future. The homogeneity of this family is so striking, as compared with the inexplicable confusion of tongues which reigns in africa north of the bantu borderland, that the close relationships of these dialects. Students of bantu languages have a great deal of material to work with, since the family is so large and speakers are widely scattered across africa. The 2016 revision key findings and advance tables pdf. Semitic, hamitic, sudanic, bantu and bushman newman 1995. Pdf study of bantu languages morphology of lingala. The southern bantu languages are a large group of bantu languages, largely validated in janson 199192.
By theend of thecourse you willbe able to think of a lot of other syntactic and morphological commonalities on your own. Bantu speakers, although diverse in culture and lifestyle, seem to share a common origin. Middle passage bantu languages slang black english africanamerican vernacular english play the dozens. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation. It is difficult to present a concise and comprehensive summary of the features that are likely to be found in a group of languages as large and as totally unrelated as are the one to two thousand languages found on the continent of africa. There is no mistaking a bantu language, which perhaps is what renders the study of this group so interesting and encouraging. Historical linguistics and the comparative study of. That is, nearly a third of all africans speak a bantu language as their native.
The linguistic features have little genetic validity, which was as he. Mwenyi k352 yukawa 1987b, use a high amount of initial markers, while languages of the northwest and central north, e. They include all of the major bantu languages of south africa, botswana, lesotho, swaziland, and mozambique, with outliers such as lozi in zambia. The word bantu mainly refers to the linguistic classification of more than 200 different african languages. Proto bantu is the reconstructed common ancestor of the bantu languages, a subgroup of the benuecongo family.
Most bantu languages have tones which serve to make lexical andor grammatical distinctions. A common characteristic of bantu languages is that they use words such as muntu or mutu for human being or. The somali bantu lutheran family services rocky mountains. Guthrie 1967, 1970a, 1970b, 1971 subdivided the bantu languages into 15 distinct zones on the basis of a set of typological and geographical criteria.
Central east tanzanians and the world they created, c. The common feature of this body of work is that the classifications are. From sequence frequencies to conditions in bantu vowel. Many of the african peoples who became participants in the slave trade shared a common cultural bond in their linguistic origins. Above is a map of the many banturelated language families. The homogeneity of this family is so striking, as compared with the inexplicable confusion of tongues which reigns in africa north of the bantu borderland, that the close relationships of these dialects have perhaps been a little exaggerated by earlier writers. On the basis of common phonological or morphological innovations and relying on the intuition of other linguists, nurse and philippson propose to bundle the bantu languages in some 80 mostly uncontroversial local groupings. Today the speakers of the hundreds of banturelated languages include many different ethnic groups, though they share a number of cultural characteristics or features. Zones k and r are also included in this group on most trees. The acquisition of bantu languages katherine demuth brown. Today the speakers of the hundreds of bantu related languages include many different ethnic groups, though they share a number of cultural characteristics or features. The linear ordering of tamneg markers in the bantu. It particularly highlights the importance of information structure for the analysis of morphosyntax in this language family. Dimmendaal discusses typology as a tool to learn about innovations and changes that may be common to unrelated languages.
Each word must end in a vowel though in some modern dialects in eastern equatorial, west and south africa the terminal vowel may be elided in rapid pronunciation, or be dropped, or absorbed in the terminal. It also is used as a general label for over 400 ethnic groups in subsaharan africa, from cameroon across central africa and eastern africa to southern africa. The bantu languages are spoken in a very large area, including most of africa from southern cameroon eastward to kenya and southward to the southernmost tip of the continent. In this section, we present the bantu height harmony pattern and the analytic hypothesis that together form the basis of our study. From a comparative perspective, it is in fact the medial. Protobantu is the reconstructed common ancestor of the bantu languages, a subgroup of the benuecongo family. There are over 650 different bantu languages and dialects.
Over 500 languages are classified in this family, including swahili, xhosa, and zulu. The student will describe the diverse cultures of the. The bantu people are found throughout subsaharan africa. The bantoid languages are a body of some 150 to 200 languages positioned. Revising the bantu tree american museum of natural history. Media in category bantu languages the following 24 files are in this category, out of 24 total.
Although tanda is a common verb in zulu, it has not in zulu all these variations, and in some other language where it may by chance exhibit all the variations its own form is changed to londa or randa. Grammatical and lexical comparison of the greater ruvu. Approximately 30004000 years ago, it split off from other southern bantoid languages when the bantu expansion began to the south and east. Kiango university of dar es salaam, tanzania abstract the headword of a dictionary entry serves different functions. A survey report for the bantu languages sil international. To appear in the oxford guide to the bantu languages. Case of semantic classification of kiswahili verbs amani lusekelo1a abstract the existing literature on bantu verbal semantics demonstrated that inherent semantic content of verbs pairs directly with the selection ofreceived november 2015 tense, aspect and modality formatives in bantu languages like chasu, lucazi, lusamia, and shiyeyi. The student will describe the diverse cultures of the people.
Multiple tone heights as indicated, most bantu languages have an underlying twoheight system, whether privative or equipollent. This report is an overview of some of the common features of african languages. These languages are clearly related to neighboring language groups also termed bantu, such as jarawan, mamfe, grassfields, and ekoid, and constitute a node on a highly. In languages which have lost the contrast, each tbu is both a syllable and a mora and preconsonantal nasals are typically nonsyllabic. Pagibete c401 reeder 1998, tend to favour final markers. Lexical semantics and selection of tam in bantu languages. Bantu is usually known more as a language than an ethnic group. The principal writers are daniel van lehman and omar eno. Morphologythe most distinctive morphological feature of bantu languages is the grouping of nouns in different classes, marked by a prefix. Document resume ed 357 615 fl 021 163 author scruggs, terri. Bantu words in american english terms you should know for week 11 part 02 are. Bantoid languages commonly have quite large vowel inventories. In addition, many have only h and l in their outputs, e. The bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken primarily in the southern part of africa.
Bantu words in american english montclair state university. There is a high resemblance between all of the eastern bantu languages, which can be explained by a common ancestor and relatively recent splitting up, or to a period of physical contact, or, presumably to both nurse and philippson 1975. There are two key caches of unpublished and mainly electronic data, the files of the. Introduction verb stems in bantu languages may include a number of derivational suffixes called extensions that express various functions, such as causative, applicative, reciprocal or passive. It is thought to have originally been spoken in westcentral africa in the area of what is now cameroon. At the time, african languages were classified into five families. Apparently in the parent language this particle had already these alternative forms, which resemble those in some west african negro languages. All nouns are assigned to a noun class, where the number of noun classes varies between 12 and 20. The bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken by the bantu peoples throughout. The somali bantu iii preface this booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history, and cultures of the somali bantu. Scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common protobantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved.
A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation jochen zeller, university of kwazulunatal, durban. Bantu, aspect, actionality, lexical semantics 1 introduction 1. In this research we note that bantu languages have common logical forms and. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting somali bantu refugees in their new communities in the united states. Medial markers are used by the large majority of bantu languages. Irene tucker sil international 2001 contents on classifying bantu languages general referential classifications historical classifications appendix the bantu languages of africa the bantu languages of africanorthwestern area references on classifying bantu languages general. New developments in the classification of bantu languages. Bantu languages, a group of some 500 languages belonging to the bantoid subgroup of the benuecongo branch of the nigercongo language family. Combinations of nasal plus consonant are also frequently subject to various modifications.
These peoples share a common language family subgroup, the bantu languages. Above is a map of the many bantu related language families. In chapter 14, dimmendaal returns to the topic of mass comparisons, noting that greenbergs. Historical linguistics and the comparative study of african. A survey report for the bantu languages by derek nurse cartographer. Thus, a comparison of the acquisition of bantu languages offers an extremely rich area for research, providing insights not only into how language is learned, but also into the possible impact that language learning may exert on processes of historical change. Thera marie crane and bastian persohn what s in a bantu. The largest group within the west bantu languages includes zones c and h, bira d32 and kumu d37. Given the large number of bantu languages and the vast area they occupy, such a coding system is very useful for comparative purposes since it allows one to situate a bantu language. Introduction the origin of the bantu is one of the most widely debated and controversial questions of african ethnography and has at various times engaged the attention of linguists, archaeologists, historians and anthropologists. The definition of the bantu cornes from a variety of sources, most. Discourse functions of demonstratives in eastern bantu narrative texts 127 referential, and distal. Although these sounds are less frequent in bantu languages, they do occur in northwest bantu as well as in east bantu, both on the northeastern coast and in the southeast maddieson 2003.
Bantu languages root, prefix, prefixes, vowel and language. In bantu languages, gender features determine noun class, and we see that derived nominals like. Bantu is a mixture of nearly 600 different ethnic groups combined. Bantu languages are conventionally classified into zones designated by letters a through s, following criteria and an enumeration of languages in guthrie 196771. From their earliest days, the bantu were known as farmers and animal herders, and they learned ironmaking crafts as well. Classificaiion of bantu languages and their historpcal implications roger blench 1. Problems of citation forms in dictionaries of bantu languages john g. Apr 27, 2020 the bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken primarily in the southern part of africa.
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