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The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large
family of languages A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in ...
spoken by the Bantu people of
Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
,
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...
, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the
Southern Bantoid languages Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branc ...
. The total number of Bantu languages ranges in the hundreds, depending on the definition of "language" versus "dialect", and is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages."Guthrie (1967-71) names some 440 Bantu 'varieties', Grimes (2000) has 501 (minus a few 'extinct' or 'almost extinct'), Bastin ''et al.'' (1999) have 542, Maho (this volume) has some 660, and Mann ''et al.'' (1987) have ''c.'' 680." Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', p. 2
:Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid"
lists a total of 535 languages. The count includes 13
Mbam languages The Mbam languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in Cameroon *Sanaga (A60): Tuki (Bacenga), Leti/ Mengisa, Mbwasa *West Mbam (A40): Bati (A60), Nomaande (Mandi)– Tunen (Aling'a, Banen)– Tuotomb– Yambeta, Nyokon *Yambasa (A60): ...
, which are not always included under "Narrow Bantu".
For Bantuic,
Linguasphere The Linguasphere Observatory (or "the Observatoire", based on its original French and legal title: ''Observatoire Linguistique'') is a non-profit transnational research network, devoted (alongside related programs) to the gathering, study, classi ...
has 260 outer languages (which are equivalent to languages, inner languages being dialects). John McWhorter said, using a comparison of 16 languages from Bangi-Moi, Bangi-Ntamba, Koyo-Mboshi, Likwala-Sangha, Ngondi-Ngiri and Northern Mozambiquean, mostly from Guthrie Zone C, that many varieties are mutually intelligible. The total number of Bantu speakers is in the hundreds of millions, estimated around 350 million in the mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the total population of Africa or roughly 5% of world population). Bantu languages are largely spoken southeast of
Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...
, throughout Central Africa, Southeast Africa and Southern Africa. About one-sixth of Bantu speakers, and about one-third of Bantu languages, are found in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
alone (c. 60 million speakers as of 2015). See list of Bantu peoples. The Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers is Swahili. Swahili is one of the official languages of the founding members of the east african community ie Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda( L1: c. 16 million, L2: 80 million, as of 2015). Other major Bantu languages include Xhosa with 13 million speakers (
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
and Zimbabwe), Zulu with 12 million speakers and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included); Zimbabwe has Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya and Xhosa speakers. '' Ethnologue'' separates the largely mutually intelligible
Kinyarwanda Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda (where ther ...
and
Kirundi Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language spoken by some 9 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, as well as in Kenya. It is the official language of Burundi. ...
, which together have 20 million speakers. Being close, the bantu languages like the romance languages borrow words from each other and bantu speakers can recognise some words from other bantu languages


Name

The similarity among dispersed Bantu languages had been observed as early as the 17th century. The term ''Bantu'' as a name for the group was coined (as ''Bâ-ntu'') by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858, and popularised in his ''Comparative Grammar'' of 1862. He coined the term to represent the word for "people" in loosely reconstructed Proto-Bantu, from the plural noun class prefix '' *ba-'' categorizing "people", and the root ''*ntʊ̀-'' "some (entity), any" (e.g. Zulu ''umuntu'' "person", ''abantu'' "people"). There is no indigenous term for the group, as Bantu-speaking populations refer to themselves by their endonyms, but did not have a concept for the larger ethno-linguistic phylum. Bleek's coinage was inspired by the anthropological observation of groups frequently self-identifying as "people" or "the true people" (as is the case, for example, with the term '' Khoikhoi'', but this is a ''kare'' "praise address" and not an ethnic name). The term ''narrow Bantu'', excluding those languages classified as Bantoid by Guthrie (1948), was introduced in the 1960s.''Studies in African Linguistics'': Supplement, Issues 3–4, Department of Linguistics and the African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles (1969), p. 7. The prefix ''ba-'' specifically refers to people. Endonymically, the term for cultural objects, including language, is formed with the ''ki-'' noun class (Nguni '' ísi-''), as in KiSwahili (Swahili language and culture), IsiZulu (Zulu language and culture) and KiGanda (Ganda religion and culture). In the 1980s, South African linguists suggested referring to these languages as ''KiNtu.'' The word ''kintu'' exists in some places, but it means "thing", with no relation to the concept of "language". In addition, delegates at the African Languages Association of Southern Africa conference in 1984 reported that, in some places, the term ''Kintu'' has a derogatory significance. This is because ''kintu'' refers to "things" and is used as a dehumanizing term for people who have lost their dignity. In addition, '' Kintu'' is a figure in some mythologies. In the 1990s, the term ''Kintu'' was still occasionally used by South African linguists.as in Noverino N. Canonici, ''A Manual of Comparative Kintu Studies'', Zulu Language and Literature, University of Natal (1994). But in contemporary decolonial South African linguistics, the term ''Ntu languages'' is used.


Origin

The Bantu languages descend from a common Proto-Bantu language, which is believed to have been spoken in what is now
Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...
in Central Africa.Philip J. Adler, Randall L. Pouwels, ''World Civilizations: To 1700 Volume 1 of World Civilizations'', (Cengage Learning: 2007), p.169. An estimated 2,500–3,000 years ago (1000 BC to 500 BC), speakers of the Proto-Bantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying agriculture with them. This Bantu expansion came to dominate Sub-Saharan Africa east of Cameroon, an area where
Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Souther ...
now constitute nearly the entire population.Toyin Falola, Aribidesi Adisa Usman, ''Movements, borders, and identities in Africa'', (University Rochester Press: 2009), p.4. Some other sources estimate the Bantu Expansion started closer to 3000 BC.Gemma Berniell-Lee et al
"Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages"
, Oxford Journals
The technical term Bantu, meaning "human beings" or simply "people", was first used by Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), as the concept is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as ''muntu'' or ''mutu'' for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and the plural prefix for human nouns starting with ''mu-'' (class 1) in most languages is ''ba-'' (class 2), thus giving ''bantu'' for "people". Bleek, and later
Carl Meinhof Carl Friedrich Michael Meinhof (23 July 1857 – 11 February 1944) was a German linguist and one of the first linguists to study African languages. Early years and career Meinhof was born in Barzwitz near Rügenwalde in the Province of Po ...
, pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages.


Classification

The most widely used classification is an alphanumeric coding system developed by Malcolm Guthrie in his 1948 classification of the Bantu languages. It is mainly geographic. The term "narrow Bantu" was coined by the ''Benue–Congo Working Group'' to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Guthrie, from the Bantoid languages not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie. In recent times, the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other
Southern Bantoid languages Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branc ...
has been called into doubt (cf. Piron 1995, Williamson & Blench 2000, Blench 2011), but the term is still widely used. There is no true genealogical classification of the (Narrow) Bantu languages. Until recently most attempted classifications only considered languages that happen to fall within traditional Narrow Bantu, but there seems to be a continuum with the related languages of South Bantoid. At a broader level, the family is commonly split in two depending on the reflexes of proto-Bantu tone patterns: Many Bantuists group together parts of zones A through D (the extent depending on the author) as ''Northwest Bantu'' or ''Forest Bantu'', and the remainder as ''Central Bantu'' or ''Savanna Bantu''. The two groups have been described as having mirror-image tone systems: where Northwest Bantu has a high tone in a cognate, Central Bantu languages generally have a low tone, and vice versa. Northwest Bantu is more divergent internally than Central Bantu, and perhaps less conservative due to contact with non-Bantu Niger–Congo languages; Central Bantu is likely the innovative line cladistically. Northwest Bantu is clearly not a coherent family, but even for Central Bantu the evidence is lexical, with little evidence that it is a historically valid group. Another attempt at a detailed genetic classification to replace the Guthrie system is the 1999 "Tervuren" proposal of Bastin, Coupez, and Mann. However, it relies on lexicostatistics, which, because of its reliance on overall similarity rather than shared innovations, may predict spurious groups of conservative languages that are not closely related. Meanwhile, '' Ethnologue'' has added languages to the Guthrie classification which Guthrie overlooked, while removing the
Mbam languages The Mbam languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in Cameroon *Sanaga (A60): Tuki (Bacenga), Leti/ Mengisa, Mbwasa *West Mbam (A40): Bati (A60), Nomaande (Mandi)– Tunen (Aling'a, Banen)– Tuotomb– Yambeta, Nyokon *Yambasa (A60): ...
(much of zone A), and shifting some languages between groups (much of zones D and E to a new zone J, for example, and part of zone L to K, and part of M to F) in an apparent effort at a semi-genetic, or at least semi-areal, classification. This has been criticized for sowing confusion in one of the few unambiguous ways to distinguish Bantu languages. Nurse & Philippson (2006) evaluate many proposals for low-level groups of Bantu languages, but the result is not a complete portrayal of the family. '' Glottolog'' has incorporated many of these into their classification. The languages that share Dahl's law may also form a valid group,
Northeast Bantu The Northeast Bantu languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in East Africa. In Guthrie's geographic classification, they fall within Bantu zones E50 plus E46 (Sonjo), E60 plus E74a (Taita), F21–22, J, G60, plus Northeast Coast Bantu ...
. The infobox at right lists these together with various low-level groups that are fairly uncontroversial, though they continue to be revised. The development of a rigorous genealogical classification of many branches of Niger–Congo, not just Bantu, is hampered by insufficient data.Bryan, M.A.(compiled by), ''The Bantu Languages of Africa''. Published for the International African Institute, Oxford University Press, 1959.


Computational phylogenetic classifications

Simplified phylogeny of northwestern branches of Bantu by Grollemund (2012): Other
computational phylogenetic Computational phylogenetics is the application of computational algorithms, methods, and programs to phylogenetic analyses. The goal is to assemble a phylogenetic tree representing a hypothesis about the evolutionary ancestry of a set of genes, spe ...
analyses of Bantu include Currie et al. (2013), Grollemund et al. (2015), Rexova et al. 2006, Holden et al., 2016, and Whiteley et al. 2018.


Glottolog classification

Glottolog (2021) does not consider the older geographic classification by Guthrie relevant for its ongoing classification based on more recent linguistic studies, and Divides Bantu into four main branches ( Bantu A-B10-B20-B30, Central-Western Bantu, East Bantu and Mbam-Bube-Jarawan).


Language structure

Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu. The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes (see
Sotho grammar This article presents a brief overview of the grammar of the Sesotho and provides links to more detailed articles. Typology The Sesotho language may be described in several ways depending on the aspect being considered. *It is an agglutinative ...
and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a
class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...
, and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with the noun. Plural is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix. All Bantu languages are
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative l ...
. The verb has a number of prefixes, though in the western languages these are often treated as independent words. In Swahili, for example, ''Mtoto mdogo amekisoma'' (for comparison, ''Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga'' in Shona language) means 'The small child has read it book. ''Mtoto'' 'child' governs the adjective prefix ''m-'' (representing the diminutive form of the word) and the verb subject prefix ''a-''. Then comes perfect tense ''-me-'' and an object marker ''-ki-'' agreeing with implicit ''kitabu'' 'book' (from Arabic ''kitab''). Pluralizing to 'children' gives ''Watoto wadogo wamekisoma'' (''Vana vadoko varikuverenga'' in Shona), and
plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
izing to 'books' (''vitabu'') gives ''watoto wadogo wamevisoma''. Bantu words are typically made up of
open syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
s of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most languages having syllables exclusively of this type. The Bushong language recorded by Vansina, however, has final consonants, while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi. The morphological shape of Bantu words is typically CV, VCV, CVCV, VCVCV, etc.; that is, any combination of CV (with possibly a V- syllable at the start). In other words, a strong claim for this language family is that almost all words end in a vowel, precisely because closed syllables (CVC) are not permissible in most of the documented languages, as far as is understood. This tendency to avoid consonant clusters in some positions is important when words are imported from
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
or other non-Bantu languages. An example from Chewa: the word "school", borrowed from English, and then transformed to fit the sound patterns of this language, is ''sukulu''. That is, ''sk-'' has been broken up by inserting an epenthetic ''-u-''; ''-u'' has also been added at the end of the word. Another example is ''buledi'' for "bread". Similar effects are seen in
loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...
s for other non-African CV languages like Japanese. However, a clustering of sounds at the beginning of a syllable can be readily observed in such languages as Shona, and the Makua languages. With few exceptions, such as Kiswahili and Rutooro, Bantu languages are tonal and have two to four register tones.


Reduplication

Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem.Abdulaziz Lodhi,
Verbal extensions in Bantu (the case of Swahili and Nyamwezi)
. ''Africa & Asia,'' 2002, 2:4–26, Göteborg University
*Example: in Swahili ''piga'' means "strike", ''pigapiga'' means "strike repeatedly". Well-known words and names that have reduplication include: *
Bafana Bafana The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Bafana Bafana (The Boys/G ...
, a football team * Chipolopolo, a football team *
Eric Djemba-Djemba Eric Daniel Djemba-Djemba (born 4 May 1981) is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He previously played club football in France, England, Qatar, Denmark, Israel, Serbia, Scotland, India and Indonesia. In int ...
, a footballer *
Lomana LuaLua Trésor Lomana LuaLua (; born 28 December 1980) is a Congolese professional footballer who last played as a striker. He is currently the attacking coach for Spalding United. LuaLua was born in Kinshasa, but moved to England at a young age. ...
, a footballer Repetition emphasizes the repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," has two to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. The meaning of the former in translation is, "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," and that of the latter is, "A slow but steady pace wins the race." Haraka haraka would mean hurrying just for the sake of hurrying, reckless hurry, as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" ome here! Hurry, hurry In contrast, there are some words in some of the languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, and or lower intensity of the action and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more. *Example 1: In Xi tsonga and (Chi)Shona, ''famba'' means "walk" while ''famba-famba'' means "walk around". *Example 2: in isiZulu and Si Swati ''hamba'' means "go", ''hambahamba'' means "go a little bit, but not much". *Example 3: in both of the above languages ''shaya'' means "strike", ''shayashaya'' means "strike a few more times lightly, but not heavy strikes and not too many times". *Example 4: In Shona ' means "scratch", ''Kwenyakwenya'' means "scratch excessively or a lot".


Noun class

The following is a list of nominal classes in Bantu languages:


Syntax

Virtually all Bantu languages have a Subject–verb–object word order with some exceptions such as the Nen language which has a Subject-Object-Verb word order.


By country

Following is an incomplete list of the principal Bantu languages of each country. Included are those languages that constitute at least 1% of the population and have at least 10% the number of speakers of the largest Bantu language in the country. Most languages are referred to in English without the class prefix (''Swahili'', ''Tswana'', ''Ndebele''), but are sometimes seen with the (language-specific) prefix (''Kiswahili'', ''Setswana'', ''Sindebele''). In a few cases prefixes are used to distinguish languages with the same root in their name, such as Tshiluba and
Kiluba Luba-Katanga, also known as Luba-Shaba and ''Kiluba'' ( lu, Kiluba), is a Bantu language ( Zone L) of Central Africa. It is spoken mostly in the south-east area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Luba people. Kiluba is spoken in the ...
(both ''Luba''), Umbundu and Kimbundu (both ''Mbundu''). The prefixless form typically does not occur in the language itself, but is the basis for other words based on the ethnicity. So, in the country of Botswana the people are the '' Batswana'', one person is a ''Motswana'', and the language is '' Setswana''; and in Uganda, centred on the kingdom of '' Buganda'', the dominant ethnicity are the '' Baganda'' (singular ''Muganda''), whose language is '' Luganda''. Lingua franca * Swahili (Kiswahili) (350,000; tens of millions as L2) Angola * South Mbundu (Umbundu) (4 million) * Central North Mbundu (Kimbundu) (3 million) * North Bakongo (Kikongo) (576,800) * Ovambo (Ambo) (Oshiwambo) (500,000) * Luvale (Chiluvale) (500,000) *
Chokwe Chokwe may refer to: *Chokwe people, a Central African ethnic group ** Chokwe language, a Bantu language * Chokwe or Tshokwe, Botswana, a village * Chokwe, Malawi * Chókwè District, Mozambique **Chokwe, Mozambique Chokwé, and earlier known a ...
(Chichokwe) (500,000) Botswana * Tswana (Setswana) (1.6 million) * Kalanga (Ikalanga) (150,000) Burundi :''Swahili is recognized national language'' *
Kirundi Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language spoken by some 9 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, as well as in Kenya. It is the official language of Burundi. ...
(8.5 - 10.5 million) Cameroon *
Beti Beti may refer to: People * Mongo Beti (1932–2001), Cameroonian writer * Beti George (born 1939), Welsh television and radio broadcaster * Beti Jones (1919–2006), Scottish social worker * Beti Kamya-Turwomwe (born 1955), Ugandan businesswoma ...
(1.7 million: 900,000 Bulu, 600,000 Ewondo, 120,000 Fang, 60,000 Eton, 30,000 Bebele) *
Basaa Basaa (also spelled ''Bassa, Basa, Bissa''), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions. Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects. ...
(230,000) * Duala (350,000) *
Manenguba languages The Manenguba languages, also known as the Mbo cluster, are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken on and around the Manenguba mountain range in south-western Cameroon. The people speaking the various Manenguba languages belong to th ...
(230,000) Central African Republic * Mbati (60,000) *
Aka Aka, AKA or a.k.a. may refer to: * "Also known as", used to introduce an alternative name Languages * Aka language (Sudan) * Aka language, in the Central African Republic * Hruso language, in India, also referred to as Aka * a prefix in the n ...
(30,000) * Pande (8,870) * Ngando (5,000) * Ukhwejo * Kako * Mpiemo *
Bodo Bodo may refer to: Ethnicity * Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India * Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people Culture and language * Boro cu ...
* Kari Democratic Republic of the Congo :''Swahili is recognized national language'' * Lingala (Ngala) (2 million; 7 million with L2 speakers) *
Luba-Kasai Luba-Kasai, also known as Western Luba, ''Bena-Lulua, Cilubà/Tshilubà'', ''Luba-Lulua'' or ''Luva'', is a Bantu language ( Zone L) of Central Africa and a national language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, alongside Lingala, Swahil ...
(Tshiluba) (6.5 million) * Kituba (4.5 million), a Bantu creole * Kongo (Kikongo) (3.5 million) * Luba-Katanga (Kiluba) (1.5+ million) *
Songe Songe is a village in Tvedestrand municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located along the European route E18, about northeast of the town of Tvedestrand and about south of the village of Akland (in neighboring Risør is a mun ...
(Lusonge) (1+ million) *
Nande Nande is a village in Mulshi taluka of Pune District in the state of Maharashtra, India.Talukas surrounding the village are Karjat taluka, Talegaon Dabhade Taluka, Mawal taluka and by Khalapur taluka. Districts closest to the village are Raigad ...
(Orundandi) (1 million) * Tetela (Otetela) (800,000) * Yaka (Iyaka) (700,000+) * Shi (700,000) * Yombe (Kiyombe) (670,000) * Lele (Bashilele) (26,000) Equatorial Guinea *
Beti Beti may refer to: People * Mongo Beti (1932–2001), Cameroonian writer * Beti George (born 1939), Welsh television and radio broadcaster * Beti Jones (1919–2006), Scottish social worker * Beti Kamya-Turwomwe (born 1955), Ugandan businesswoma ...
( Fang) (300,000) * Bube (40,000) Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) * Swazi (Siswati) (1 million) Gabon *
Baka Baka, baká or BAKA may refer to: Ethnicities and languages * Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), an African ethnic group * Baka people (Congo and South Sudan), an African ethnic group * Baka language, a dialect cluster of Cameroon and Gabon * Baka ...
* Barama *
Bekwel Bekwel (Bekwil) is a Bantu language of the Republic of the Congo. There are some 10,000 speakers there, with a quarter that number across the border in Gabon, and perhaps a similar on the opposite side in Cameroon. It is rather close to Nzime ...
* Benga * Bubi * Bwisi *
Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were f ...
* Fang (500,000) * Kendell * Kanin * Sake *
Sangu Sangu may refer to: * Sangu language (Gabon) * Sangu language (Tanzania) * Sanghu, Taplejung, Nepal * Sangu River, Bangladesh * Sangu (armour) ''Sangu'' is the term for the three armour components that protected the extremities of the samurai ...
* Seki * Sighu * Simba * Sira * Northern Teke * Western Teke * Tsaangi * Tsogo * Vili (3,600) * Vumbu * Wandji * Wumbvu * Yangho * Yasa Kenya :''Swahili and English are national languages'' * Gikuyu (8 million) *
Luhya Luhya or Abaluyia may refer to: * Luhya people * Luhya language Luhya (; also Luyia, Luhia or Luhiya) is a Bantu language of western Kenya. Dialects The various Luhya tribes speak several related languages and dialects, though some of them ar ...
(6.8 million) * Kamba (4 million) *
Meru Meru may refer to: Geography Kenya * Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya ** Meru County, created by the merger of *** Meru Central District *** Meru North District *** Meru South District * Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park Tanz ...
(Kimeru) (2.7 million) * Gusii (2 million) * Mijikenda * Taita *
Embu Embu may refer to: Places ; in Brazil * Embu das Artes * Embu-Guaçu ; in Kenya * Embu, Kenya * Embu County Other *Embu people of Kenya *Embu language Embu, also known as Kîembu, is a Bantu language of Kenya. It is spoken by the Embu peopl ...
* Mbeere * Giriama Lesotho * Sesotho (1.8 million) * Zulu (Isizulu) (300,000) Malawi * Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (7 million) * Tumbuka (1 million) * Yao (1 million) Mozambique :''Swahili is recognized national language'' * Makhuwa (4 million; 7.4 million all Makua) * Tsonga (Xitsonga) (3.1 million) * Shona (Ndau) (1.6 million) * Lomwe (1.5 million) *
Sena Sena may refer to: Places * Sanandaj or Sena, city in northwestern Iran * Sena (state constituency), represented in the Perlis State Legislative Assembly * Sena, Dashtestan, village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Sena, Huesca, municipality in Hue ...
(1.3 million) * Tswa (1.2 million) * Chuwabu (1.0 million) *
Chopi Chopi may refer to: * Chopi people, an ethnic group of Mozambique * Chopi language, a Bantu language spoken along the southern coast of Mozambique * Chopi blackbird (''Gnorimopsar chopi''), a bird of family Icteridae * A spice made from ''Zanthoxy ...
(800,000) *
Ronga Ronga (XiRonga; sometimes ShiRonga or GiRonga) is a Bantu language of the Tswa–Ronga branch spoken just south of Maputo in Mozambique. It extends a little into South Africa. It has about 650,000 speakers in Mozambique and a further 90,000 in ...
(700,000) * Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (600,000) * Yao (Chiyao) (500,000) * Nyungwe (Cinyungwe/Nhungue)(400,000) * Tonga (400,000) * Makonde (400,000) * Nathembo (25,000) Namibia * Ovambo (Ambo, Oshiwambo) (1,500,000) *
Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people The Herero ( hz, Ovaherero) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. There were an estimated 250,000 Herero people in Namibia in 2013. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though t ...
(200,000) Nigeria * Jarawa (250,000) * Mbula-Bwazza (100,000) * Kulung (40,000) * Bile (38,000) * Lame (10,000) *
Mama Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent * Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlemen ...
(2,000-3,000) * Shiki (1,200) * Gwa * Labir * Dulbu Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) * Kituba (1.2+ million) Bantu creole* Kongo (Kikongo) (1.0 million) * Teke languages (500,000) * Yombe (350,000) * Suundi (120,000) * Mbosi (110,000) *
Lingala Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree i ...
(100,000; ? L2 speakers) Rwanda :''Swahili, Kinyarwanda, English and French are official languages'' *
Kinyarwanda Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda (where ther ...
(Kinyarwanda) (10 - 12 million) Somalia * Swahili (Mwini dialect) * Chimwini * Mushungulu South Africa According to the South African National Census of 2011South African National Census of 2011 * Zulu (Isizulu) (11,587,374) * Xhosa (Isixhosa) (8,154,258) * Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa) (4,618,576) * Tswana (Setswana) (4,067,248) * Sotho (Sesotho) (3,849,563) * Tsonga (Xitsonga) (2,277,148) * Swazi (Siswati) (1,297,046) *
Venda Venda () was a Bantustan in northern South Africa, which is fairly close to the South African border with Zimbabwe to the north, while to the south and east, it shared a long border with another black homeland, Gazankulu. It is now part of t ...
(Tshivenda) (1,209,388) * Southern Ndebele (Transvaal Ndebele) (1,090,223) *Total Nguni: 22,406,049 (61.98%) *Total Sotho-Tswana: 13,744,775 (38.02%) *Total official indigenous language speakers: 36,150,824 (69.83%) Tanzania :''Swahili is the national language'' * Sukuma (5.5 million) * Gogo (1.5 million) * Haya (Kihaya) (1.3 million) *
Chaga The Chaga or Chagga (Swahili language: WaChaga) are Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous Africans and the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They traditionally live on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro ...
(Kichaga) (1.2+ million : 600,000 Mochi, 300,000+ Machame, 300,000+ Vunjo) * Nyamwezi (1.0 million) * Makonde (1.0 million) * Ha (1.0 million) * Nyakyusa (800,000) * Hehe (800,000) * Luguru (700,000) * Bena (600,000) * Shambala (650,000) * Nyaturu (600,000) Uganda :''Swahili and English are official languages'' * Luganda (9,295,300) * Runyankore (4,436,000) *
Lusoga Soga, or Lusoga, is a Bantu language spoken by the Soga people of the Busoga region in Eastern Uganda. With over three million speakers, it is one of the major languages of Uganda, after English, Swahili, and Luganda. However, it is largely re ...
(3,904,600) * Rukiga (3,129,000) * Masaba (Lumasaba) (2.7 million) * Runyoro (1,273,000) * Konjo (1,118,000) * Rutooro (1,111,000) * Lugwere (816,000) *
Kinyarwanda Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda (where ther ...
(750,000) * Samia (684,000) * Ruuli (250,000) * Talinga Bwisi (133,000) * Gungu (110,000) *
Amba Amba or AMBA may refer to: Title * Amba Hor, alternative name for Abhor and Mehraela, Christian martyrs * Amba Sada, also known as Psote, Christian bishop and martyr in Upper Egypt Given name * Amba, the traditional first name given to the fir ...
(56,000) * Singa Zambia * Aushi (Unknown) *
Bemba Bemba may refer to: * Bemba language (Chibemba), a Bantu language spoken in Zambia * Bemba people (AbaBemba), an ethnic group of central Africa * Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-President of the Democratic Republic of Congo * A Caribbean drum, ...
(3.3 million) * Tonga (1.0 million) * Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (800,000) * Kaonde (240,000) * Lozi (Silozi) (600,000) * Lala-Bisa (600,000) * Nsenga (550,000) * Tumbuka (Chitumbuka) (500,000) * Lunda (450,000) *
Nyiha The Nyiha are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in Mbeya Region, Tanzania and northeastern Zambia. In 1993 the Nyiha population was estimated to number 626,000, of which 306,000 were in Tanzania and 320,000 were in Zambia. The Nyiha are scattere ...
(400,000+) * Mambwe-Lungu (400,000) Zimbabwe * Shona languages (15 million incl. Karanga, Zezuru, Korekore, Ndau, Manyika) * Northern Ndebele (IsiNdebele) (estimated 2 million) * Tonga * Chewa/ Nyanja (Chichewa/ChiNyanja) *
Venda Venda () was a Bantustan in northern South Africa, which is fairly close to the South African border with Zimbabwe to the north, while to the south and east, it shared a long border with another black homeland, Gazankulu. It is now part of t ...
* Kalanga


Geographic areas

Map 1 shows Bantu languages in Africa and map 2 a magnification of the Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon area, as of July 2017.


Bantu words popularised in western cultures

A case has been made out for borrowings of many place-names and even misremembered rhymes – chiefly from one of the Luba varieties – in the USA. Some words from various Bantu languages have been borrowed into western languages. These include:


Writing systems

Along with the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...
and
Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and th ...
orthographies, there are also some modern indigenous writing systems used for Bantu languages: *The Mwangwego alphabet is an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel no ...
created in 1979 that is sometimes used to write the Chewa language and other languages of Malawi. *The
Mandombe script Mandombe or Mandombé is a script proposed in 1978 in Mbanza-Ngungu in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Wabeladio Payi, who related that it was revealed to him in a dream by Simon Kimbangu, the prophet of the ...
is an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel no ...
that is used to write the Bantu languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mainly by the Kimbanguist movement. *The Isibheqe Sohlamvu or Ditema tsa Dinoko script is a
featural In a featural writing system, the shapes of the symbols (such as letters) are not arbitrary but encode phonological features of the phonemes that they represent. The term featural was introduced by Geoffrey Sampson to describe the Korean alpha ...
syllabary used to write the siNtu or
Southern Bantu languages The Southern Bantu languages are a large group of Bantu languages, largely validated in Janson (1991/92).Tore Janson (1991-92) "Southern Bantu and Makua", ''Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika'' (''SUGIA'') Vol. 12/13: 63-106, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag ...
.


See also

* Meeussen's rule * Nguni languages * Proto-Bantu Swadesh list


References


Bibliography

*Biddulph, Joseph, ''Bantu Byways'' Pontypridd 2001. . * * Guthrie, Malcolm. 1948. ''The classification of the Bantu languages.'' London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute. . *Guthrie, Malcolm. 1971. ''Comparative Bantu'', Vol 2. Farnborough: Gregg International. *. *Maho, Jouni F. 2001
The Bantu area:(towards clearing up) a mess
''Africa & Asia'', 1:40–49. *Maho, Jouni F. 2002
Bantu lineup: comparative overview of three Bantu classifications
Göteborg University: Department of Oriental and African Languages. * . * . *


Further reading

* . * KNAPPERT, JAN. “The Bantu Languages: An Appraisal”. In: ''European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie / Europäisches Archiv Für Soziologie'', vol. 28, no. 2, 1987, pp. 177–91. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23997575. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.


External links


Arte da lingua de Angola: oeferecida [sic] a virgem Senhora N. do Rosario, mãy, Senhora dos mesmos pretos
The art of the language of Angola, by Father Pedro Dias, 1697, Lisbon, artedalinguadean
Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary
linguistics.berkeley.edu, includes comprehensive bibliography. *Maho, Jouni Fili
NUGL Online. The online version of the New Updated Guthrie List, a referential classification of the Bantu languages
goto.glocalnet.net, 4 June 2009, 120pp. Guthrie 1948 in detail, with subsequent corrections and corresponding ISO codes.
Bantu online resources
bantu-languages.com, Jacky Maniacky, 7 July 2007, including

bantu-languages.com (in French)
Ehret's compilation of classifications by Klieman, Bastin, himself, and others
pp 204–09, ucla.edu, 24 June 2012 *Contini-Morava, Ellen.
Noun Classification in Swahili
'. 1994, Virginia.edu

linguistics.berkeley.edu 529 names
Introduction to the languages of South Africa
salanguages.com
Narrow Bantu
Journal of West African Languages

ugandatravelguide.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bantu languages Synthetic languages Agglutinative languages