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Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages
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Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2024) | Viewed by 9470

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Koen Bostoen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UGent Centre for Bantu Studies, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Interests: Bantu; historical-comparative linguistics
Dr. Sara Pacchiarotti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UGent Centre for Bantu Studies, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Interests: Bantu; Niger-Congo; Chibchan; historical phonology; language change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Languages aims at showcasing new and original research on the diachrony and typology of Bantu languages in the broadest possible way. It welcomes historical-comparative and/or typological studies dealing with lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax, and/or information structure in any subset of Bantu languages, including so-called ‘Wide Bantu’ languages from the Bantu homeland region in the border area of present-day Cameroon and Nigeria. Comparative studies engaging with first-hand data from lesser-known languages are particularly appreciated. The volume is published in English, but sufficiently innovative and well designed studies originally written in French or Portuguese can also be considered for inclusion.  

Tentative Completion Schedule
Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 December 2023
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 15 January 2024
Full Manuscript Deadline: 15 July 2024

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors (koen.bostoen@ugent.be and/or sara.pacchiarotti@ugent.be) or the Languages editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Prof. Dr. Koen Bostoen
Dr. Sara Pacchiarotti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Bantu
  • convergence
  • divergence
  • diachrony
  • genealogical classification
  • grammaticalization
  • language contact
  • nominal morphosyntax
  • reconstruction
  • sound change
  • typology
  • TAMP
  • verbal derivation

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 17983 KiB  
Article
Inheritance and Contact in the Development of Lateral Obstruents in Nguni Languages (S40)
by Nina van der Vlugt and Hilde Gunnink
Languages 2025, 10(5), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10050090 - 24 Apr 2025
Viewed by 379
Abstract
This study investigates the development of the lateral fricatives and affricates, to which we jointly refer as ‘lateral obstruents’, in Nguni (S40) languages of Southern Africa. These lateral obstruents, which include /ɬ, ⁿɬ, ɮ, ⁿɮ, k͡ʟ̝̊/, are rare in the Bantu language family, [...] Read more.
This study investigates the development of the lateral fricatives and affricates, to which we jointly refer as ‘lateral obstruents’, in Nguni (S40) languages of Southern Africa. These lateral obstruents, which include /ɬ, ⁿɬ, ɮ, ⁿɮ, k͡ʟ̝̊/, are rare in the Bantu language family, and are not reconstructed for Proto-Bantu. Lateral obstruents are also rare cross-linguistically. They do occur, however, in four sub-branches of Southern Bantu: Shona, Sotho-Tswana, Nguni, and Tsonga. In this paper, we study how Southern Bantu could have acquired such a large inventory of cross-linguistically rare phonemes by investigating their development in Nguni languages, a large but closely related cluster of languages in which lateral obstruents are very frequent. We analyze published data from nine Nguni languages, including languages for which the only available descriptions are dated or of limited scope, in which case we carefully assess the data and their analysis. On the basis of this large database, we show which lateral obstruents are used in Nguni, and the vocabulary in which they occur. Applying the Comparative Method, we show that alveolar lateral obstruents can be reconstructed to Proto-Nguni, where they are the regular reflex of Proto-Bantu palatals *c and *j. The velar lateral affricate, in contrast, cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Nguni, and finds its origin in loanwords, for example, from Khoe languages, where it is used as a click replacement strategy. As a result, we conclude that both inheritance and contact played a role in the development of lateral obstruents in Nguni, likely combined in the case of alveolar lateral obstruents. In order to better understand the contact history, we evaluate existing hypothesized contact scenarios to account for the presence of lateral obstruents in Southern Bantu or Nguni. Given that alveolar lateral obstruents result from a regular sound change, contact does not seem to be as prominent in the development of lateral obstruents as has been proposed before in the literature. This study lays the groundwork for future research into lateral obstruents in Southern Bantu. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages)
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15 pages, 8072 KiB  
Article
Yeyi: A Phylogenetic Loner in Eastern Bantu
by Hilde Gunnink, Natalia Chousou-Polydouri and Koen Bostoen
Languages 2025, 10(4), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040055 - 21 Mar 2025
Viewed by 396
Abstract
While major advances in the subclassification of Bantu languages have been made thanks to comprehensive, lexicon-based classifications, there are still several important uncertainties obscuring not only the diachronic linguistic processes that gave rise to Bantu diversification, but also the population dynamics of ancestral [...] Read more.
While major advances in the subclassification of Bantu languages have been made thanks to comprehensive, lexicon-based classifications, there are still several important uncertainties obscuring not only the diachronic linguistic processes that gave rise to Bantu diversification, but also the population dynamics of ancestral Bantu speakers underlying them. In this paper, we address one of these persisting mysteries of Bantu genealogy, i.e., the unclassified Yeyi (R41) language of southern Africa. While the Bantu origin of Yeyi is straightforward and undisputed, its closest relatives are unknown, as is the major Bantu branch to which it belongs. We use a lexicon-based, Bayesian phylogenetic approach, comparing Yeyi to languages of the wider geographic region, including even more far-flung languages that have previously been hypothesized to bear a close relationship to Yeyi. The resultant linguistic phylogeny shows that Yeyi is part of the Wider Eastern Bantu branch as its own clade with Narrow Eastern Bantu languages as its closest relatives and none of its nearest neighbors. We argue that this relatively isolated position of Yeyi within Eastern Bantu suggests an early migration into southern Africa from the putative Wider Eastern Bantu homeland, which was followed by the loss of Yeyi’s putative earlier sister languages, presumably through a shift to Bantu languages spoken by more recent migrants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages)
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33 pages, 1516 KiB  
Article
PI-Effects in South Bantu: Consonant Changes Due to a Preceding Front Close Vowel
by Jeffrey Wills
Languages 2025, 10(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10020023 - 27 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1007
Abstract
An important set of sound changes affected the South Bantu languages through the impact of front vowels on following consonants, most notably under the form of the class 5 nominal prefix *i-. These consonant changes are well known, but their extent has been [...] Read more.
An important set of sound changes affected the South Bantu languages through the impact of front vowels on following consonants, most notably under the form of the class 5 nominal prefix *i-. These consonant changes are well known, but their extent has been underestimated, as the substantial data in this paper show. There is not even a standard name for these changes, which are here called “Preceding-I effects”. This paper offers a detailed study of the relevant conditioning factor, calling attention to the understudied category of hiatus resolution in the history of Bantu languages. Although the reflexes in individual languages vary and levelling often reduced the number of surviving examples, indications of systematic PI-effects in all the subgroups of the South Bantu branch contrast with other Bantu branches and suggest a common conditioning factor was present in Proto-South-Bantu. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages)
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25 pages, 1568 KiB  
Article
Reflexive-Reciprocal Syncretism in Eastern Bantu Languages of Tanzania: Distribution and Origins
by Aron Zahran and Sebastian Dom
Languages 2024, 9(11), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9110347 - 8 Nov 2024
Viewed by 2021
Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the distribution of reflexive-reciprocal syncretism in Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Tanzania. Most Bantu languages encode reflexive and reciprocal constructions by means of two distinct verbal affixes. However, the Tanzanian Eastern Bantu languages under study have developed [...] Read more.
This paper presents an overview of the distribution of reflexive-reciprocal syncretism in Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Tanzania. Most Bantu languages encode reflexive and reciprocal constructions by means of two distinct verbal affixes. However, the Tanzanian Eastern Bantu languages under study have developed reflexive-reciprocal syncretism, in which the originally reflexive prefix has developed into a polyfunctional morpheme coding both reflexive and reciprocal constructions, to the detriment of the original reciprocal suffix. In a sample of 79 languages, reflexive-reciprocal syncretism is attested in 27 neighboring languages, thus constituting a clear areal feature. We propose that reflexive-reciprocal syncretism is not a language-internal innovation but was rather adopted from neighboring non-Bantu languages and subsequently spread out to its current distribution. We locate the heart of this contact-induced spread in the Tanzanian Rift Valley, a convergence zone in north-central Tanzania where languages from multiple African language families are spoken and have been in contact for an extensive period. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages)
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17 pages, 4261 KiB  
Article
Phonetic and Phonological Research in Mai-Ndombe: A Few Preliminary Notes on Rhotics and Double-Articulations
by Lorenzo Maselli
Languages 2024, 9(3), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9030114 - 21 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1912
Abstract
Mai-Ndombe is one of the southwestern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ecologically, it can be characterised as a transition zone between a moist, broadleaf rainforest ecotone in the north and shrubland/savannah areas in the south. Linguistically, Mai-Ndombe, along with the rest [...] Read more.
Mai-Ndombe is one of the southwestern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ecologically, it can be characterised as a transition zone between a moist, broadleaf rainforest ecotone in the north and shrubland/savannah areas in the south. Linguistically, Mai-Ndombe, along with the rest of southwestern Congo all the way down to the border with Angola, is among the least well-surveyed areas of the planet. Within its borders, several different Bantu (Guthrie’s zones B, C, and H) varieties are spoken, near the newly identified West-Coastal Bantu homeland, itself a hot spot of phonological diversity unlike any other in the West-Coastal Bantu domain. Phonetic and phonological accounts of its languages are particularly lacking (apart from impressionistic “grey literature” reports which seldom comply with the standards of present-day phonetic and phonological inquiry). This gap is particularly concerning as Mai-Ndombe is also an area of great anthropological diversity, with numerous hunter-gatherer Twa communities living deep in its eastern and northern forests. Their lects, collectively known as Lotwa, are severely endangered, as they face the threats of social stigma and the growing use of national and regional linguae francae. As part of the author’s doctoral project (still underway), phonetic data were collected in the area between May and July 2021, specifically in Inongo (the provincial capital) and Nioki. The present contribution is intended as a brief note on the relevant results produced so far, mainly bearing on the analysis of some phenomena of interest in the languages of the region, including Sakata rhotics and labial–velars and the presence of unusual trilling/flapping realisations in Lotwa. The picture yielded by this preliminary exploration is one of striking phonetic and phonological variation, possibly pointing to earlier stages of greater linguistic diversity than previously supposed. It is also tentatively proposed that one of the specific characteristics of the phenomena attested in the present contribution is that they tend to affect more than one language at a time, working rather as areal “phonetic possibilities” than language-bound outcomes of traditional sound change rules; in this sense, it is suggested that in-depth documentation and description can help broaden our understanding of how language contact works in highly multilingual contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages)
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27 pages, 2522 KiB  
Article
Reflexive Morphology in the Kikongo Language Cluster: Variation and Diachrony
by Sebastian Dom
Languages 2024, 9(3), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9030113 - 20 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2189
Abstract
This paper provides a comparative and diachronic account of reflexive morphology in the Kikongo language cluster, a genealogically closely related group of 40+ West Coastal Bantu languages. This study is based on data from 34 grammatical descriptions from 1659 to 2017 and fieldwork [...] Read more.
This paper provides a comparative and diachronic account of reflexive morphology in the Kikongo language cluster, a genealogically closely related group of 40+ West Coastal Bantu languages. This study is based on data from 34 grammatical descriptions from 1659 to 2017 and fieldwork data collected in 2012 and 2015. Previous studies have shown that Kikongo languages, despite being closely related to each other, demonstrate extensive phonological and morphological variation. This is also the case for reflexive morphology. First, six different reflexive prefixes are attested in the database. These are, in alphabetical order, di- (with cognate li-), ké-, ki-, ku-, lu- and a vocalic morpheme variably written as i-, ii- or yi-. Second, while most Kikongo languages have one reflexive prefix, some descriptions report the use of two or more different prefix forms in a single language. Languages with multiple reflexive prefixes fall into two groups: one group has different prefixes in free alternation, while the overall verbal construction is claimed to determine which prefix is used in the other group. Following an overview of the formal variation, I discuss the possible origins of the various reflexive prefixes. One hypothesis assumes that the vocalic prefix is inherited from Proto-Kikongo, the most recent common ancestor of the Kikongo languages. A second hypothesis relates the origin of some reflexive prefixes to object indexes of various noun classes, in particular, noun classes 5, 7 and 11. A third hypothesis suggests that in some Kikongo languages, the vocalic reflexive prefix became fused with other pre-stem verbal morphology and developed into ku- and ki-. A fourth hypothesis proposes the development of the reflexive prefix ké- from an auxiliary. These four hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and I discuss how multiple diachronic scenarios are necessary to account for the full range of variation of reflexive morphology in the Kikongo language cluster. It is proposed that the distribution of di-/li- and ki- is contact-induced through borrowing, both between different Kikongo languages and between Kikongo and non-Kikongo languages. I tentatively reconstruct the vocalic reflexive prefix *i- to Proto-Kikongo. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments on the Diachrony and Typology of Bantu Languages)
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