Southern bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the. New developments in the classification of bantu languages. A comparative grammar of the south african bantu languages comprising those of zanzibar, mozambique, the zambesi, kafirland, benguela, angola, the congo, the ogowe, the cameroons, the lake region, etc by torrend, j. A comparative grammar of the south african bantu languages. The chapter furthermore shows how bantu languages, despite their shared basic svo word order. The somali bantu also called jareerweyne, jareer, gosha, and mushunguli are a nigercongoorigin ethnic minority group in somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, primarily near the juba and shabelle rivers. This uncertainy can be seen by considering recent estimates of bantu language numbers. Congobrazzaville national languages online dictionary, bantu web site. The bantu languages descend from a common protobantu language, which is believed to have been spoken in what is now cameroon in central africa. The riots, 1976 and later, stem from the black peoples rejection of bantu education.
Some languages have limited syllabic nasals and coda syllable. Sentential negation and verb movement in bantu languages 28. Intensive chichewa pdf files a 1969 grammar published by likuni press of malawi distributed for noncommercial use only. Grammatical and lexical comparison of the greater ruvu. Virtually all grammars of individual bantu languages dedicate one or several sections to a variety of productive extensions found in the language in. List of bantu language names in order by guthrie number.
Tswana aka setswana is a southern bantu language spoken in. 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. Bantu language of northwest cameroon presents a case close to hausa but different in. The data derives chiefly from the published literature on bantu languages and. The bantu languages are a very large group, belonging to the benuecongo family of the nigercongo phylum, which comprises between 250 to 500 members spread over most of subsaharan africa. African linguists have a poor record in distinguishing typological. Her dissertation focussed on definiteness and specificity marking in runyankorerukiga bantu uganda, je 14. This section presents three cases of morphological markings that combine focus and tam in bantu. Pdf sentential negation and verb movement in bantu languages. It has thus been tempting to view the h tone as an additional morpheme, perhaps related to the protobantu h tone vcv augment reconstructed by meeussen 1967.
Guthries divisions of the bantu languages were based on geography, not on language characteristics. Bantu language is a crossword puzzle clue that we have spotted over 20 times. Tanzanian newspapers newspapers in bantu languages on the web. Apr 27, 2020 the bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken primarily in the southern part of africa. Information and translations of bantu in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on. Bantu languages root, prefix, prefixes, vowel and language. This paper explores a wellknown asymmetry between negation marking main clauses and subordinate clauses in bantu languages gilldemann 1999. Introduction this paper investigates the structure of negation in mokpe and two related coastal bantu languages of cameroon. The linear ordering of tamneg markers in the bantu languages. Spirantization and the 7to5 vowel merger in bantu thilo c. Accounts of surrogate negative imperatives in other languages have attributed the. Sesotho sa leboa english online northern sotho english dictionary pukuntsu ya sesotho sa leboa seisimane. Each word must end in a vowel though in some mod ern dialects in eastern equatorial, west and south africa the ter minal vowel may be elided in rapid pronunciation, or be dropped, or absorbed in the terminal.
Grammatical and lexical comparison of the greater ruvu bantu. The southern bantu languages, however, are also a valid linguistic group. The bantu languages or narrow bantu languages are a branch of the nigercongo languages. Introduction, purpose and definition this short paper attempts to provide an introductory description of the phenomenon of verbal extensions in bantu languages with special. Medial markers are used by the large majority of bantu languages. English to xhosa translation page a website that translated words and phrases to and from xhosa by martha r. In these languages, sentential negation is marked by postverbal particles. Figure 1 should be interpreted as a situation that either has negation in its scope or falls. Greenbergs first major work was the genetic classification of the languages of africa, published in serialized form in the southwestern journal of anthropologyein 194950. A survey report for the bantu languages by derek nurse cartographer. In recent years they have been used to advance morphological as well as syntactic theory, and in the study of interface relations in grammatical theory.
Cultural phylogeography of the bantu languages of subsaharan. Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test. Bantu language article about bantu language by the free. It is unfortunate, tragic and regrettable, that the authorities look for the causes of the riots elsewhere. 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. Scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common protobantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. While the various main clause verb inflections mark negation with. Bantu represents the largest african language family in terms of number of languages approx. Pagibete c401 reeder 1998, tend to favour final markers. Capital letters correspond to language groups mentioned below. In bantu languages, negation has been receiving attention from different linguists rugemalira. 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. It is estimated that there are more than 500 bantu languages spoken in subsaharan africa, making this one of the largest and most widespread language groupings in the world.
Like many languages, bantu languages express some tense and aspect relations via a. One is a kind of v2 effect found in relative clauses, but not in main clauses, which in. Introduction the present work builds on the work of carstens 2001 as well as henderson to appear in examining the syntax of compound tense ct structures in bantu. Bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. We combine these findings with earlier tests on double object applica. Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, or visit the webmasters page for free fun content. This stress rule is exemplified below, where primary stress in 7a is on the verb pig, the penultimate syllable. Guthrie, the classification of the bantu languages 1948, repr. 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. 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. Jespersen cycles and negation in bantu languages a jespersen.
There is a category of expressions that combine phasal and polarity values, briefly outlined. The study of bantu languages of subsaharan africa has provided the basis for significant contributions to research in linguistics. The bantu languagesedited by derek nurse and gerard philippson. For a detailed classification of narrow grassfields bantu languages, see nurse and philippson 2003. Information and translations of bantu in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Guthrie 1967, 1970a, 1970b, 1971 subdivided the bantu languages into 15 distinct zones on the basis of a set of typological and geographical criteria. An estimated 2,5003,000 years ago bc to 500 bc, although other sources put the start of the bantu expansion closer to 3000 bc, speakers of the protobantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying. At the time, african languages were classified into five families. The syntax of agreement in bantu relatives brent henderson 1 the typology of bantu relatives many linguists have found bantu relative clauses interesting for two reasons. Mwenyi k352 yukawa 1987b, use a high amount of initial markers, while languages of the northwest and central north, e. The northeast bantu languages are a group of bantu languages spoken in east africa. Apparently in the parent language this particle had already these alternative forms, which resemble those in some west african negro languages.
The results of this classification have divided the ruvu languages into three groups. A comparative grammar of the south african bantu languages comprising those of zanzibar, mozambique, the zambesi, kafirland, benguela, angola, the congo, the ogowe, the cameroons, the lake region, etc. They are nearly synonymous with guthries bantu zone s, apart from the exclusion of shona and the inclusion of makhuwa. Subsequent studies of other languages nguni languages zulu and xhosa, sotho languages sesotho henceforth sotho and tswana, malawian chewa and the gabonese language sangu, have examined various aspects of childrens language acquisition. The linear ordering of tamneg markers in the bantu. From a comparative perspective, it is in fact the medial.
All nouns are assigned to a noun class, where the number of noun classes varies between 12 and 20. A brief summary of the bantu acquisition literature by language is provided below. What the bantu languages can tell us about word order and. Aug 02, 2012 the expansion of bantu languages represents one of the most momentous events in the history of africa. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting somali bantu refugees in their new communities in the united states. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation. Scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common proto bantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. Surrogate imperatives in bantu languages with postverbal negative. Bantu languages article about bantu languages by the free. Bantu languages 80 languages based on lexical evidence, but also on phonological and morphological features. The acquisition of bantu languages macquarie university. Bantu languages, a group of some 500 languages belonging to the bantoid subgroup of the benuecongo branch of the nigercongo language family. The genesis of verbal negation in bantu and its dependency on functional. Our basic observation is that bantu languages have few genuine quantifiers.
What the bantu languages can tell us about word order and movement leston c. One is a kind of v2 effect found in relative clauses, but not in main clauses, which in many languages requires inversion of the verb and the. Based on shared characteristics and on territorial contiguity, guthrie grouped the bantu languages into. Pdf lexical reconstruction has been an important enterprise in bantu historical linguistics since the earliest days of the discipline. It is the system that one would, on internai evidence, reconstruct for protobantu. The somali bantu iii preface this booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history, and cultures of the somali bantu. Cycles of negation in rangi and mbugwe abstract the tanzanian. Guthrie 19671971 names some 440 bantu varieties, grimes 2000 has 501, bastin et al. 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. Bantu education has produced the worst kind of frus trat ion. Southern bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the free. Bantu languages have a derivational suffix on the verb that licenses an additional object.
Genetics, archaeology and linguistics all point to the extensive distribution of this language family being the result of a population dispersal that began around 30005000 years ago 24. 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. Lodhi department of asian and african languages uppsala university abdulaziz. New developments in the classification of bantu languages and. Other areas of interest include afroasiatic, general phonology, linguistic classification and.
The somali bantu lutheran family services rocky mountains. They are spoken by nearly onethird of the population of the continent, approximately 330 million people. He has mainly worked on comparative bantu tonology. While it is well accepted that bantu languages spread from their homeland cameroonnigeria approximately 5000 years ago ya, there is no consensus about the timing and geographical routes underlying this expansion. Allen is a reader in morphology and syntax of bantu languages, with special focus on the runyankorerukiga language cluster. The southern bantu languages, however, are also a valid linguistic group the southern bantu languages are a group of languages in.
Afl260120112017 tutorial letter 20112017 communication languages dynamics in african afl2601 semesters 1. Morph syntactic analysis of verb inflections in igikuria. Introduction studies of the noun in bantu languages have traditionally concentrated on the morphology of the noun with its elaborate class. Jul 07, 20 it is estimated that there are more than 500 bantu languages spoken in subsaharan africa, making this one of the largest and most widespread language groupings in the world. She is a lecturer in the department of african languages at makerere university, kampala uganda. In 7b, with the addition of the applicative suffix, stress moves rightward onto the applicative suffix, which is. View bantu linguistics research papers on academia. According to the most recent estimate grimes 2000 the world has 6,809 languages, of which 2,058, approximately 30%, are spoken in africa an additional 44 are described as extinct. Pdf this paper explores a wellknown asymmetry between negation marking main clauses and subordinate clauses in bantu languages.
They are descendants of people from various bantu ethnic groups, who were acquisitioned from southeast africa and sold into slavery in somalia and other areas in. Over 500 languages are classified in this family, including swahili, xhosa, and zulu. In the vast majority of the bantu dialects at the present day. Bantu languages are generally thought to have originated approximately 5000 years ago ya in the cameroonian grassfields area neighbouring nigeria, and started to spread, possibly together. Genetics, archaeology and linguistics all point to the extensive distribution of this language family being the result of a population dispersal that began around 3000. Verbal extensions in bantu the case of swahili and nyamwezi abdulaziz y. There are languages in the world in which the normal negation neg. Verbal extensions in bantu the case of swahili and nyamwezi. Meeussen 1967 was particularly instrumental in reconstructing what is thought to be the noun class system of proto bantu see also guthrie 196771 and welmers 1973. As such, the verb root may comprise of the stem together with the imperative suffix and occur in a predetermined slot. It is of particular interest to linguists because it is isolated from the other bantu languages, surrounded by languages from other families, such as the cushitic languages iraqw and gorowa to the west and south respectively, and the nilotic maasai language to the east.
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. When the negative marker is a syntactic head, the verb cannot move and merge. Many other bantu languages have a reduced fivevowel system i e a o u. The two ways of marking sentence negation in nweh likely reflect two different. Firstly, unlike romance languages, there is a greater variety of bantu languages estimated 250400 separate languages. Bantu languages still widely used even by those who dissent strongly fiom his methods and conclusions. Mutual intelligibility depends on the closeness of individual languages for example, shona, kalanga and chewa are surprisingly. Problems of citation forms in dictionaries of bantu languages john g. A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation jochen zeller, university of kwazulunatal, durban. The southern bantu languages, also known as bantu zone s, are a group of languages in the bantu language family. The definition of the bantu cornes from a variety of sources, most. Semitic, hamitic, sudanic, bantu and bushman newman 1995. Studies of the applicative constructions in various bantu languages have revealed.
The southern bantu languages are a large group of bantu languages, largely validated in janson 199192. Bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the free. Cultural phylogeography of the bantu languages of sub. The bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken primarily in the southern part of africa. The systematic study of bantu language acquisition began with lwandle kunenes 1979 dissertation on the acquisition of swati. 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. Negation in ginantuzu kusekwa mabondo masters thesis speech science linguistics.