A note on bantu extensions and syntactic word formation jochen zeller, university of kwazulunatal, durban. A survey report for the bantu languages by derek nurse cartographer. Furthermore, prohibitive commands in these languages do not use the imperative. Morph syntactic analysis of verb inflections in igikuria. The bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken primarily in the southern part of africa.
It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting somali bantu refugees in their new communities in the united states. In many bantu languages, the negation morpheme usually stands out clearly and coexists with other functional categories including tense, aspect and mood. 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. Comparative morphosyntax the structural data that is of interest here comprise inflected verb forms, in fact any finite verb form marked for tense, aspect, mood, focus, negation, and so forth, be it by inflectional morphemes, auxiliaries, or both. The southern bantu languages, also known as bantu zone s, are a group of languages in the bantu language family. 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. 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. Congobrazzaville national languages online dictionary, bantu web site. Bantu languages such as swahili, zulu, chichewa or bemba are spoken by an estimated 240 million speakers in 27 african countries, and are one of the most important language groups in africa in terms of geographical and demographic distribution. Bantu languages, or narrow bantu languages, are a family of 522 nigercongo languages in subsaharan africa. Bantu languages 80 languages based on lexical evidence, but also on phonological and morphological features. This publication presents the first documentation of nzadi, a bantu language spoken by fishermen along the kasai river in the democratic republic of congo drc. English to xhosa translation page a website that translated words and phrases to and from xhosa by martha r.
It is the product of extensive study by the authors and participants in field methods and group study courses at the university of california. 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. 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. Jespersen cycles and negation in bantu languages a jespersen cycle is generally known as a process taking a language from a single sentential negator to a double sentential negator and then back to a single sentential negator.
Bantu words in american english montclair state university. An important idea to advance here surrounds the branching of constituents in bantu dps. 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. This clearlymarked division of human speech has been entitled the bantu, a name invented by dr w. Bleek, and it is, on the whole, the fittest general term with which to designate the most. There are about 520 languages in the bantu family, 670 languages in the southern bantoid branch which includes bantu, and 1,532 in nigercongo. Bantu languages, a group of some 500 languages belonging to the bantoid subgroup of the benuecongo branch of the nigercongo language family.
The acquisition of bantu languages katherine demuth brown. 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. These were assigned letters as and divided into decades groups a10, a20, etc. Hyman, larry m tukumu, simon nsielanga, sj abstract. Twelve bantu languages are spoken by more than five million people, including rundi, rwanda, shona, xhosa, and zulu. Publication date 19191922 topics bantu languages publisher oxford, clarendon press.
Pdf the genesis of verbal negation in bantu and its dependency. The somali bantu iii preface this booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history, and cultures of the somali bantu. Pagibete c401 reeder 1998, tend to favour final markers. In these languages, sentential negation is marked by postverbal particles. All members of a given class share the same prefix. Title negation in mokpe and two related coastal bantu. A comparative study of the bantu and semibantu languages. Guthrie 1967, 1970a, 1970b, 1971 subdivided the bantu languages into 15 distinct zones on the basis of a set of typological and geographical criteria. Sound change, misanalysis, and analogy in the bantu causative. The greater part of africa south of the equator possesses but one linguistic family so far as its native inhabitants are concerned. The tanzanian bantu languages rangi and mbugwe both employ a double negation marking strategy. Middle passage bantu languages slang black english africanamerican vernacular english play the dozens.
Sesotho sa leboa english online northern sotho english dictionary pukuntsu ya sesotho sa leboa seisimane. Bantu languages root, prefix, prefixes, vowel and language. Pdf it is wellknown that a number of bantu languages distinguish at least two different ways of expressing verbal negation depending on the clause. Pdf the genesis of verbal negation in bantu and its. Bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the free. The expression of negation in the worlds languages may entail either the addition of a free mor. The linear ordering of tamneg markers in the bantu. From a comparative perspective, it is in fact the medial.
A brief summary of the bantu acquisition literature by language is provided below. Guthries divisions of the bantu languages were based on geography, not on language characteristics. Scholars of bantu languages have long posited a common protobantu pb source from which modernday bantu languages have evolved. Introduction in scientific and anthropological usage, the notion of culture encompasses all that is the. View bantu linguistics research papers on academia. Bantu language crossword clue answer crossword heaven. The results of this classification have divided the ruvu languages into three groups. Southern bantu languages simple english wikipedia, the.
Medial markers are used by the large majority of bantu languages. Cycles of negation in rangi and mbugwe abstract the tanzanian. African linguists have a poor record in distinguishing typological. Bantu language is a crossword puzzle clue that we have spotted over 20 times. Media in category bantu languages the following 24 files are in this category, out of 24 total. In many bantu languages, the negation morpheme usually stands out clearly. Bantu words in american english terms you should know for week 11 part 02 are. 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. New developments in the classification of bantu languages. 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.
Most bantu languages have tones which serve to make lexical andor grammatical distinctions. Pdf sentential negation and verb movement in bantu languages. The module offers a comprehensive introduction to the structure of the bantu languages. As such, the verb root may comprise of the stem together with the imperative suffix and occur in a predetermined slot. Swahili, which is spoken by five million people as a mother tongue and some 30 million as a second language, is a bantu lingua franca important in both commerce and literature. The similarity between dispersed bantu languages had been observed as early as in the 17th century. Rimi, while others have reanalyzed it as the more canonical 7v system i, e, e, u, o, a, e. Sentential negation and verb movement in bantu languages 28. 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. Grammatical and lexical comparison of the greater ruvu.
Over 500 languages are classified in this family, including swahili, xhosa, and zulu. A comparative study of the bantu and semibantu languages by johnston, harry hamilton, sir, 18581927. Bantu languages still widely used even by those who dissent strongly fiom his methods and conclusions. 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. The somali bantu lutheran family services rocky mountains. The data derives chiefly from the published literature on bantu languages and covers some 120ish bantu languages from all socalled guthrie zones. For a detailed classification of narrow grassfields bantu languages, see nurse and philippson 2003. 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. The migration of the protobantu language group started around 3000 years ago. Surrogate imperatives in bantu languages with postverbal negative. The southern bantu languages, however, are also a valid linguistic group the southern bantu languages are a group of languages in.
Talking about the bantu language, there are around 650 languages. Information and translations of bantu in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on. Cultural phylogeography of the bantu languages of sub. Introduction this paper investigates the structure of negation in mokpe and two related coastal bantu languages of cameroon. It is probably the origin of rap and has its own origin in the. 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. Providing descriptive and typological information about the bantu languages of southern africa, this volume brings together a set of expert contributors and is divided into two parts. The internal classification of the bantu languages is problematic, but by and large the bantu languages can be subdivided in an eastern, a western and a northwestern group. University of south africa, southafrica abstract northern sotho and zulu are two south african bantu languages that make use of different writing systems, viz. The principal writers are daniel van lehman and omar eno. 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. The name was coined to represent the word for people in loosely reconstructed protobantu, from the plural noun class prefix bacategorizing. Bantu languages article about bantu languages by the. In rangi, verbal negation is achieved through the presence.
Morphologythe most distinctive morphological feature of bantu languages is the grouping of nouns in different classes, marked by a prefix. Bantu languages definition bantu languages are a subset of nigercongo languages mostly spoken in the center and south part of africa english oxford living dictionary, n. They moved eastward to the area between central africa and west africa. Guthrie classification of bantu languages wikipedia. Guthrie, the classification of the bantu languages 1948, repr. It is wellknown that a number of bantu languages distinguish at least two different ways of expressing verbal negation depending on the clause type the predicate occurs in. Mokpe is a coastal bantu language of cameroon spoken by about 32,200. The bantu languages or narrow bantu languages are a branch of the nigercongo languages. Challenges to the promotion of indidegous languages in sou. Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of the present day country of cameroon. Our basic observation is that bantu languages have few genuine quantifiers. The 250 or so narrow bantu languages are conventionally divided up into geographic zones first proposed by malcolm guthrie 19671971.
Depending on how one counts, there are between 300 and 600 bantu languages, spoken in an area south of a line between cameroon in the west and kenya in the east. Pdf this paper explores a wellknown asymmetry between negation marking main clauses and subordinate clauses in bantu languages. This paper explores a wellknown asymmetry between negation marking main clauses and subordinate clauses in bantu languages gilldemann 1999. Mwenyi k352 yukawa 1987b, use a high amount of initial markers, while languages of the northwest and central north, e.
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