# The Small Bang

Abbie Hantgan-Sonko

► To cite this version:

Abbie Hantgan-Sonko. The Small Bang. Iker Salaberri; Dorota Krajewska. Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives, 135, John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp.142-175, 2025, Typological Studies in Language, 9789027218995. 10.1075/tsl.135.05han. hal-04985217

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https://hal.science/hal-04985217v1

Submitted on 10 Mar 2025

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
# The Small Bang: A pilot study investigating the origins of a language and population isolate through loan words

Abbie Hantgan

Langage, Langues et Cultures de l'Afrique (LLACAN) - Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

E-mail abbie.hantgan-sonko@cnrs.fr

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1970-8776

## Abstract:

Language isolates, often viewed as remnants of past linguistic diversity, are predominantly spoken at the edges of dominant linguistic areas. This study explores the origins of the Bangime isolate and its Bangande speakers. By correlating loan words associated with agriculture with interdisciplinary data, the paper focuses on West African crops like millet and sorghum to suggest a Bangande migration timeline. This research contributes to a study on the origins of loan words for plants and animals linked to their domestication in West Africa. Preliminary results indicate a link between early Bangime speakers and Mande communities, especially the Soninke-Bozo. It is yet to be determined if the Bangande originally farmed in their present territories or elsewhere.
Keywords: loan words; pre-colonial West Africa; migration; agriculture; language isolates.

# 1. Introduction<fnref n="1" />

Bangime (Glottocode: bang1363, ISO: dba) is a language isolate spoken among seven small villages in a valley formed from a tributary of the Niger River that culminations in Central Eastern Mali's Bandiagara Escarpment. The ~1500 speakers, the Bangande, claim they speak one of the estimated 22 Dogon languages that border them, though mutual intelligibility rates fall below 20%. The Bangande are also thought to be a population isolate; their genetic structure displays little, if any, admixture with sampled neighboring populations from the Dogon, Fulani (speakers of Maasina Fulfulde), Mande, or Songhay ethnolinguistic groups (Babiker et al. 2020). As with any

<footnote n="1">¹ I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 101045195). I also extend our heartfelt thanks to the organizers and participants of the SLE 2021 'Investigating language isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives' workshop for their invaluable contributions and insights. My sincere appreciation goes to the volume's editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and guidance. Without the tireless input of the speakers from whom the data analyzed in this paper are based, none of this would be possible. I am indebted to all of our language collaborators. Any errors or omissions in this work are the sole responsibility of the author and do not reflect the views of the aforementioned entities.</footnote>
language and its speakers, a historical background and additional archeological evidence are helpful in positing scenarios of past settlement and migration patterns. However, in the case of a small language and population isolate, where internal reconstruction is not easily achieved, these additional methods are compulsory if we want to learn about the language and its speakers' origins.

This research represents the beginning of an exploration into the history of the Bangime language and the Bangande people through an investigation of loan words, specifically in the domain of agriculture. Of particular interest to this investigation are words for plants that are central to sustaining the peoples' existence and were first farmed in or near to the area where Bangime is spoken today in West Africa, such as pearl millet and African rice. With evidence for specific dates provided in the following section, the domestication of the earliest crops in the Escarpment preceded the arrival of Dogon peoples by at least 2,000 years. That is, if the occupation of the Bangande preceded that of Dogon incomers, one would imagine that Bangime would have words for these indigenous crop cultivars not shared with Dogon languages.

Indeed, Blench (2007: 148) argues, “The Banga-na [Bangande] are farming people and their distinctive names for crops suggest that they were farmers prior to the expansion of Dogon in their area”. However, the situation is not quite so simple. This study finds a plethora of loanwords for many crops into
Bangime. Here, most of these loans are traced, not to neighboring Dogon
languages, but rather back to the extensively broad reach of Mande speakers
with whose contact likely took place during the so-called “Mande
Expansion”. Thus, it remains possible that the Bangande did settle the
Escarpment before the arrival of the Dogon, even though their crop names
are not distinctive.

Furthermore, there are at least two other viable hypotheses to account for the
abundance of non-native names for indigenous plants: a) the Bangande
migrated to their current location after the establishment of contemporary
agricultural practices or b) influence from more widely spoken and/or
dominant languages caused replacement of primary Bangime vocabulary. In
that which follows, each of these hypotheses is tested using a combination of
comparative linguistic, geographic, genetic, historical, anthropological, and
archeological research to discern the past of these enigmatic peoples. This
study is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a backdrop to the linguistic
study, with previous findings presented in section 3. In section 4, the
materials and methods used to test the above outlined hypotheses are
presented. The results of some of the data thus far analyzed are given in
section 5. Section 6 gives a summary and a preview of additional work being
done in this sphere.

2. Background
Bangime may be one of only four confirmed language isolates spoken in Africa. The speakers, the *Bangande*, also represent a population isolate. The name of the language and its speakers derive from a root *bang-* that among some Dogon languages means ‘secret, furtive, hidden’. Despite having no discernible shared lineage, the Bangande claim Dogon ancestry.

## 2.1. Geographic position

The Bangande live at the end of a valley of the Bandiagara mountain range that runs parallel to the east of the Niger River in Central Eastern Mali. Several Bozo-speaking peoples of the Mande ethnolinguistic cluster also occupy the valley, but together, the Bangande and Dogon are the sole inhabitants of the Bandiagara Escarpment itself. The map in Figure 1 illustrates the position of the Bangime-speaking villages in relation to neighboring Bozo (Mande) and Dogon groups.
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1.** Excerpt from map of Bandiagara Escarpment linguistic diversity featuring the Lowol Guéou Valley</figcaption></figure>

The topographical map in Figure 1 (also available as an interactive map including all the villages and hamlets in the Bandiagara region; see Hantgan (2024a)) shows that Bangime is presently spoken in seven small villages at the end of a valley of the Bandiagara Escarpment, which floods in rainy seasons from the Niger River. Dogon speakers live to the east of the Bangande atop and along the Bandiagara Escarpment. The Bangande communicate with their Dogon neighbors not through one of the estimated 22 Dogon languages, but through Fulfulde, as Fulani (speakers of Maasina Fulfulde) herders roam the area with their animals and nearly everyone in the area is fluent in their language. Bozo (Mande) languages are spoken among
villages along the same valley, which eventually leads out to the Niger River.
Songhay languages are present to the north of the cliff range. These languages
remain as remnants of their speakers' former imperial dominance, which
succeeded the power of the Mande, specifically the Mali Empire, and persist
to this day.

2.2. Genealogical classification

Bangime conforms to Campbell's (2018: 16) definition of an isolate as a
language with no known relatives. While Blench (2018: 167), Güldemann
(2018: 193), and Ethnologue 26 (Eberhard et al. 2023) consider Bangime to
be one of four confirmed isolates across the African continent, in fact,
Bangime lexical items have only been compared to those from the languages
spoken in its immediate vicinity—the Bandiagara Escarpment region detailed
in the previous subsection. Furthermore, each of the diverse language groups
found there has a debated genealogical classification. Dogon and Mande
branches hold contentious positions in the Niger-Congo language phylum
that dominates West Africa. Güldemann (2018: 189–193) no longer considers
either the Dogon nor the Mande languages as part of Niger-Congo and thus
Glottolog designated both of these as independent families (Hammarström et
al. 2020). Likewise, following Nicolaï (2003), Souag (2012), and Güldemann
(2018), Songhay, with at least two varieties spoken in the relative vicinity of
Bangime, has been withdrawn from the Afro-Asiatic phylum to which it used
to be ascribed and constitutes its own language family in the Glottolog
language classification. Thus, none of the language groups spoken in the
Bandiagara Escarpment area, other perhaps than Fulfulde (which, according
to Segerer & Pozdniakov (forthcoming) remains in the Atlantic language
family of Niger-Congo), hold a definitive genealogical position relative to
other languages of West Africa.

Bangime was officially reclassified as a language isolate in the 16th edition of Ethnologue (Lewis 2009). Prior to that, Bangime was considered to be an outlier Dogon language, which in turn was once affiliated with neighboring Gur languages within the Niger-Congo phylum (Gordon 2005; Williamson & Blench 2000).<fnref n="2" /> Each of the researchers who has encountered Bangime since the 1950's has noted, even in his or her brief time investigating the language, that Bangime clearly lies outside the realm of what constitutes Dogon (Bertho 1953; Blench 2005; Blench 2007; Calame-Griaule 1956; Hochstetler et al. 2004; Plungian & Tembiné 1995). Blench (2005: 15–16; 2007: 3) was the first to actually state that Bangime is a language isolate, based on his own and Hochstetler et al.'s (2004: 99–105) comparative Dogon word lists showing that lexical similarities between Bangime and the Dogon

<footnote n="2">² The Gur languages and peoples are currently being integrated into the comparative study of the Bangime language and Bangande people. Their inclusion is a priority for subsequent research.</footnote>
languages are below ten percent. The lowest limit for mutual intelligibility
among the Dogon languages is 32% (Prokhorov et al. 2012).

2.3. Genetic affiliation

Babiker et al. (2020) analyzed DNA saliva samples from 12 villages across 10 ethno-linguistic groups with a half-million SNPs from Bangime, Dogon, Fulfulde, Mande, and Songhay-speakers. She found that Bangime is additionally note-worthy by the fact that although its speakers, the Bangande, show that which she calls a “West African signal” their admixture with specifically sampled groups as well as other West African populations previously sampled, is extremely low. Thus, in the case of Bangime and the Bangande, the linguistic and genetic findings appear to coincide.

Yet, the situation is slightly more complicated than the genetic delineation
suggests. Among the Bangande exist two distinct groups, or castes, with
separate lineages. The Bangande self-identify as being part of either the
“royal” or the “slave” caste whereby endogamous versus exogamous
practices apply respectively to each faction. In study participants who
identified as being part of the “slave” caste, maternal lineages were admixed
primarily among Dogon populations.

2.4. Archeological context

Archaeological evidence alludes to a diverse human inhabitation at a deep-
time depth on the Bandiagara Escarpment, but, thus far, there is insufficient
evidence to determine which languages were spoken there. The Escarpment in particular was an apex of ancient human development. The earliest pottery found in sub-Saharan Africa—dated to just under 12,000 years before present (YBP)—was found at *Ravin de la Mouche* of the Ounjougou complex which lies a mere ~30 kilometers to the immediate southeast of the seven Bangande villages (Huysecom et al. 2009). To the adjacent southwest, Dia-Shoma is one of the oldest urban sites in the region, attributed to 3,000 YBP (Arazi 2005).

Taking into account the influence of Sahelian paleoclimatic variations, Mayor and Huysecom (2016) contend that the Bandiagara Escarpment has been continuously inhabited for the past three thousand years, but in stages by different occupants. Mayor et al. (2005) attest, based on ethno-archaeological and historical data, that Dogon groups settled the cliff range within the last 800 years. Unfortunately, no archaeological researchers have excavated the western portions of the Escarpment where the Bangande live.

Adding to the allure of the Bandiagara Escarpment are the strange structures somehow built directly into the cliff face and containing human remains; they were once considered granaries and attributed to the so-called *Tellem* people (Bedaux 1972). Mayor et al. (2014; 2016) now consider these structures to have been built by pre-Dogon, multi-ethnic settlers primarily for the purpose of burials. Complex Tellem structures containing both human remains and
grain deposits have been built directly above one of the Bangande villages.
The exact identity of these buildings' architects is unknown.

2.5. Historical context

As presented in Section 2.1, Bangime is spoken in a geographically isolated
region of Sahelian West Africa. Further south, in Western Africa, the Bantu
Expansion dominates the discourse on the history of population migration
and settlement across Africa. In contrast, another, far less discussed
expansion by Mande-speaking populations pushed many groups to the fringes
of its influence during the Mali Empire (1200-1600 A.D.). In present times,
Mande ethno-linguistic peoples number between 30–40 million and speak at
least 75 languages and 172 dialects (Hammarström et al. 2020; Vydrin 2009).

The term *Mande Expansion* can be attributed to the historical narrative
proposed by Brooks (1986). In Brooks' view, the Mande Expansion occurred
through two subsequent events. During the first wave, Mande traders
peacefully progressed throughout West Africa during the Mali Empire, then
in the second, following the collapse of the Empire in 1600s, Mande horse-
riding warriors used force to control anyone in their wake. Childs (2002)
provides convincing linguistic evidence to show that these warriors also
converted conquered Atlantic-speaking populations to speaking their Mande
languages.
However, the Mande Expansion actually began much earlier than the Mali Empire. The dawn of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is thought to have taken place around 4,900 YBP with the domestication of pearl millet farming (Burgarella et al. 2018). Linguistic evidence (Hantgan forthcoming) shows a connection between Mande-speaking populations and the first farming practices in West Africa.

Nunn and Puga (2012), in their survey of regions of refuge, specifically reference that Dogon groups profited from the Bandiagara Escarpment's rocky terrain in an effort to not only escape imperial religious persecution, but also Fulani slave raids. Both Bangande and Dogon peoples recount oral histories of youth being captured by Fulani slave raiders; their Maasina Empire took place from 1820-1864 (Bâ & Daget 1962).

It is likely that in addition to seeking protection from invading Mande and Fulani groups, these early settlers of the Bandiagara Escarpment also escaped the subsequent Songhay Empire (mid-15th to late 16th century A.D.). Songhay speakers are still found at the northern edges of the Escarpment today and many north-western Dogon villages bear Songhay names.

## 2.6. Multilingualism

Most Bangande are fluent in Maasina Fulfulde, which they use as a lingua franca to communicate with neighboring peoples. Despite Bangime speakers' claim that their language is Dogon, as noted above, there is no mutual
intelligibility between Bangime and any of the estimated twenty-two Dogon
languages. Furthermore, Bangande have little contact with their closest
neighbors to the west, speakers of the Mande language Bozo, other than
market interactions and passing through Bozo villages of the Lowol Guéou
Valley. The reason for this is that the Dogon population (and, therefore,
Bangande) has a taboo that limits their dealings, including intermarriage, with
Bozo people. As noted in Section 3, certain among the Bangande practice
exogamous marriages. Women who marry into the Bangande community are
required to learn Bangime. Otherwise, unless Bangande travel outside of their
area, for example to the capital city of Bamako where they learn the country's
main language Bambara (also of the Mande group), they are mostly
monolingual in their daily lives.

3. Previous findings

Previous comparative studies (Hantgan & List 2022; Hantgan et al. 2022) found that the Bangime lexicon shares many words with surrounding languages for domesticated plants and animals, including the lexemes for the animal concepts COW, CAMEL, CHICKEN, DOG, DONKEY, GOAT, PIG and crops COTTON, CASSAVA (and other tubers), ONION, MILLET,
WORK (LABOR).<fnref n="3" /> Some lexemes in the study were shown to have strong similarities between Dogon and Mande or Songhay languages, but for which Bangime appeared to have unique lexemes, included HORSE and SHEEP, as well as RICE, MAIZE, and PUMPKIN.

A follow-up to those studies (Hantgan 2024b) explored names for crops which are grown today on the Bandiagara Escarpment and surrounding region across the area's languages and found multi-layered traces of language contact, not only on the Escarpment and its diverse surrounding region, but throughout West Africa. Many of the plant species that are grown in the area today are either indigenous to what is now the present-day country of Mali, such as rice and pearl millet, while others, for example maize and sweet potato, were recently imported. Thus, words for original crops would be expected to be either indigenous to local languages, while those from outside the area ought to be clearly borrowed. In fact, the study found that neither of these generalizations held true, and that while Bangime in particular often resisted widespread loan words, the language does show, in many cases, clear evidence of deep seeded language contact.

<footnote n="3">³ As detailed in Section 4.2, this and studies which preceded it rely on Concepticon universal concepts within the scope of Cross-linguistic Linked Data (List et al. 2023). Henceforth, Concepticon concepts will be represented in all upper-case letters.</footnote>
Thus, because of the breadth of that study, it was impossible to focus directly on Bangime and the implications of the results on the Bangande people. With the materials and methods detailed in the following section, this study branches from that one to focus directly on loanwords into Bangime and trace these external sources to their probable origin.

# 4. Materials and methods

The following subsections present the data selection used in this study, as well as the methods which are being developed to discover the history of language contact with Bangime.

## 4.1. Materials

The Bangime comparative lexical database used for this study contains 33 languages from the afore mentioned language groups—Dogon, Mande, Songhay, and Fulfulde—plus the recent incorporation of two Gur languages, whose population of speakers borders the Bandiagara Escarpment on the eastern side, and additional Atlantic languages to compensate for Fulfulde being the only language from the Atlantic group in previous studies. Currently, the number of shared words that correspond with the eight comparative concepts studied is nearly 500. The primary set of languages analyzed in this study include Bangime and those spoken in areas adjacent to the Bangande. These are listed with their genealogical affiliations according
to Glottolog 4.7 (Hammarström et al. 2020) in Table 1. Contested classifications are provided in parentheses.

<table><caption>**Table 1.** List of Bandiagara languages</caption><thead><tr><th>Language Family</th><th>Subgroup</th><th>Varieties</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Isolate</td><td>----</td><td>Bangime</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="5">(Niger-Congo)<br>Dogon</td><td>Escarpment</td><td>Donno So, Tommo So, Toro So,<br>Toro Tegu, Yorno So</td></tr><tr><td>Nangan</td><td>Bankan Tey, Ben Tey, Nanga</td></tr><tr><td>North Plateau</td><td>Dogul Dom, Yanda Dom,<br>Bondu So, Tebul Ure</td></tr><tr><td>Plains</td><td>Guru, Jamsay, Perge Tegu,<br>Togo Kan, Tomo Kan</td></tr><tr><td>West</td><td>Ampari, Bunoge, Mombo,<br>Penage, Tiranige Diga</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">(Niger-Congo)<br>Mande</td><td>East-Manding</td><td>Bambara</td></tr><tr><td>Soninke-Bozo</td><td>Jenaama Bozo, Soninke</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>Niger-Congo<br>Atlantic-Congo<br>North-Central<br>Atlantic</td><td>North Atlantic<br>Fula</td><td>Fulfulde Maasina</td></tr><tr><td>(Niger-Congo)<br>Gur</td><td>Central Gur</td><td>Bomu, Koromfé, (Senufo)</td></tr><tr><td>(Nilo-Saharan)<br>Songhay</td><td>Eastern</td><td>Tondi Kiini, Humburi Senni,<br>Djenné Chiini</td></tr></table>

The sources of these wordlists and dictionaries are provided with the supplemental materials (Hantgan 2023). These lexical data are primarily drawn from two large datasets in addition to the author's fieldwork: Heath et al.'s (2015) Dogon comparative wordlist managed by Moran et al. (2016) and the Pan-African lexical database RefLex (Segerer & Flavier 2023). To this list of languages, with the methods to do so described in the following subsection, were added any languages whose speakers are deemed to have potentially had contact with the Bangande.

Further material used for this study comes from thorough literature reviews of relevant archeological, botanical, historical, and genetic studies that were conducted in the area. The research of the Ounjougou project led by
University of Geneva Professor Eric Huysecom which took place at several sites at the Bandiagara Escarpment from 1997-2012, is especially heavily relied on for this study (Huysecom 2023).

Based on the literature review of the historical and archeological contexts discussed in Sections 2.4-2.5, the significant dates and historic locations are summarized in Table 2.

<table><caption>**Table 2.** Relevant dates and locations impacting this study</caption><thead><tr><th>Dates</th><th>Event</th><th>Location</th><th>Source</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Before<br>Common<br>Era</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2580 - 2410</td><td>pearl millet<br>domestication</td><td>Lower Tilemsi<br>Valley (present-day<br>Gao)</td><td>(Manning et al.<br>2011)</td></tr><tr><td>979 - 479</td><td>rice<br>domestication</td><td>Niger River Inland<br>Delta (present-day<br>Djenné)</td><td>(McIntosh &<br>McIntosh 1981)</td></tr><tr><td>Common<br>Era</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>300 - 1200</td><td>Ghana Empire</td><td>Kumbi Saleh</td><td>(Dieterlen et al. 1992; Diallo 1993)</td></tr><tr><td>1235 - 1600</td><td>Mali Empire</td><td>Niani</td><td>(Roberts 1987: 69)</td></tr><tr><td>1340 - 1591</td><td>Songhay Empire</td><td>Gao</td><td>(Simonis 2010)</td></tr><tr><td>1820 - 1864</td><td>Maasina Empire</td><td>Hamdallaye</td><td>(Bâ & Daget 1962)</td></tr><tr><td>1200s - 1400s - Present</td><td>Dogon occupation</td><td>Bandiagara Escarpment</td><td>(Mayor et al. 2005)</td></tr></table>

These dates begin nearly 5,000 years ago and carry us up until the present day. The locations of the archeological sites where evidence for early agriculture as well as the four empires' capital cities in relation to the Escarpment and the Bangande-inhabited valley are illustrated on the map in Figure 2.
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2. Map of locations cited in this article</figcaption></figure>

It is clear by looking at the map that the Bandiagara Escarpment lies at the center of the four major empires whose ethnolinguistic groups are featured in this study: the Bambara, Soninke, Fula, and Songhay (also see an interactive version in Hantgan (2024c)). Furthermore, the home of the Bangande in the Lowol Guéou Valley lies at the heart of this region, strategically positioned between the Inland Niger Delta and the Bandiagara Cliff range. The Valley is a perfect location not only for protection but also for farming.

The primary flora referenced in this article were gathered through fieldwork with Bangande specialists and identified by botanists. The Dogon and Bangime website (Moran et al. 2016) has a page dedicated to flora and fauna from which lexical data were extracted for this study.

Although the exact dates and locations are still a matter of debate, there are at least two cultivated crops that were likely first domesticated in today's
country of Mali where this study is based. These are pearl millet and African
rice.

As noted in Section 3, several flora species have already been explored for
the purposes of tracking historical language contact between inhabitants of
the Bandiagara Escarpment and those of other parts of West Africa. This
study utilizes the same data, yet with a focus on Bangime. The taxa chosen
for this study are provided in Table 3.

<table><caption>**Table 3.** Taxa considered for this study</caption><thead><tr><td>Common name</td><td>Scientific name</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>pearl millet</td><td><i>Pennisetum glaucum</i>†</td></tr><tr><td>sorghum</td><td><i>Sorghum bicolor</i></td></tr><tr><td>fonio</td><td><i>Digitatia exilis</i></td></tr><tr><td>rice</td><td><i>Oryza glaberrima</i></td></tr><tr><td>maize</td><td><i>Zea mays</i></td></tr><tr><td>okra</td><td><i>Abelmoschus esculentus</i></td></tr><tr><td>manioc/cassava/sweet potato</td><td><i>Dioscorea rotundata</i>, <i>Manihot esculenta</i>, <i>Ipomoea batatas</i></td></tr><tr><td>peanut</td><td>‘Bambara groundnut’ <i>Vigna subterranean</i></td></tr><tr><td>cow pea</td><td><i>Vigna unguiculata</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
† Here, the species name *Pennisetum glaucum* will be retained to refer to the cultivated variety of pearl millet rather than the new denomination *Cenchrus americanus* in order to remain consistent with the literature.

These grains and vegetables were chosen because they are all cultivated by
the Bangande today. Words for each of these plants were harvested from the
lexical databases noted above in the manner detailed in the following
subsection.

4.2. Methods

The methodology for searching for traces of language contact between
Bangande speakers and other ethnolinguistic groups began by comparing the
Bangime lexicon to that of neighboring villages' languages. Two types of
data were evaluated from the Bangime lexicon: basic, core concepts, and
words which were subject to borrowability. This study concentrates on the
latter. That is, lexemes which were considered to be loans from unrelated
languages into Bangime, as mentioned in Section 3, were selected for further
investigation. From these, semantically related lexemes were added to the
study.

As noted in the previous subsection, the data were then gathered from a
variety of sources. In some cases, it was simple enough to search for the word
for a given plant in Bangime and compare the same gloss to words found in
other languages. However, because, as noted by Bostoen (2007), semantic
transfer is a common process among African crop names, it was also
necessary to search for a phonetic form across languages, sometimes without
any gloss whatsoever. This is possible thanks to the RefLex lexical database
of African languages which features the built-in tool, "search for borrowing".

Additionally, most lexemes in the RefLex database are associated with a
simplified phonemic code. For example, the lexeme for ‘pearl millet’ in
Bangime *démè* is coded as DEBE. Therefore, as illustrated in Figure 3, words
that have a form which is similar to the one in the target language can be
discovered across a wide set of languages and meanings.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 3.** Snapshot of results from RefLex search for borrowing</figcaption></figure>

From results such as these, a dataset was constructed. However, in order to
create a cohesive, comparative dataset, Cross-Linguistic Data Formats
(Forkel et al. 2018) were applied. Table 4 and Table 5 present the original
source data and the conversion for a selection of words from various
languages in the database pertaining to ‘pearl millet’.

<table><caption>**Table 4.** Source representation of lexemes for ‘pearl millet’ across languages in the core sample</caption><thead><tr><th>Family</th><th>Subgroup</th><th>Language</th><th>Source Transcription</th><th>Source Translation</th></tr></thead></table>
<table><tr><td>Isolate</td><td>----</td><td>Bangime</td><td>démè</td><td>millet</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Dogon</td><td>West</td><td>Ampari</td><td>sêy</td><td>pearl millet</td></tr><tr><td>Nangan</td><td>Ben Tey</td><td>yû:</td><td>pearl millet</td></tr><tr><td>Plains</td><td>Jamsay</td><td>ŋú:</td><td>pearl millet</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Mande</td><td>Soninke-<br/>Bozo</td><td>Jenaama</td><td>pīn</td><td>millet (pearl millet)</td></tr><tr><td>East-<br/>Manding</td><td>Bambara</td><td>sà ŋó / ŋòò</td><td>Pennicillaria spicata,<br/>petit mil, mil / millet</td></tr><tr><td>Atlantic</td><td>North</td><td>Fulfulde</td><td>gawri (ndi)</td><td>millet</td></tr></table>

The subset of forms for ‘pearl millet’ from the original sources as shown in Table 4 illustrates that these data were not necessarily gathered for the purposes of comparison with other datasets. That is, each source’s transcription conventions differ, and the target gloss languages are either in English or French. In order to create a comparative dataset, it was necessary to convert all of the sound symbols to IPA and then to link all glosses with Concepticon (CLLD Concepticon 2021) concepts.

Table 5 provides an illustration of what the data look like after they have undergone these processes.
<table><caption>**Table 5.** Comparative forms for MILLET after CLDF processing</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Language</th><th>Sub-group</th><th>Family</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>dé-mè</td><td>millet</td><td>Bangime</td><td>----</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>sê-j</td><td>pearl millet</td><td>Ampari</td><td>West</td><td rowspan="3">Dogon</td></tr><tr><td>júù</td><td>pearl millet</td><td>Ben Tey</td><td>Nangan</td></tr><tr><td>μúú</td><td>pearl millet</td><td>Jamsay</td><td>Plains</td></tr><tr><td>sà μòà</td><td>millet</td><td>Bambara</td><td>East-Manding</td><td>Mande</td></tr><tr><td>pī</td><td>millet (pearl millet)</td><td>Jenaama</td><td>Bozo</td><td>Western</td></tr><tr><td>gawri-ndi</td><td>millet</td><td>Maasina</td><td>Fulfulde</td><td>Atlantic North</td></tr></tbody></table>

Each entry retains its original source information through a unique ID (not included among the tables in the text but can be found in the supplemental materials (Hantgan 2023)) and is converted into a format that represents a comparative phonetic inventory as well as morpheme boundaries. To these items, the latitude and longitude of the village where the data were gathered is added, plus the language's Glottocode and current classification.
Each plant's provenance and date of either domestication or importation was then detected via a search of the literature across disciplines as noted above in Section 4.1. By doing so, hypotheses were generated to explain the borrowing event that brought the crop along with its name into the Bangandé community. These results are provided in the following section.

**5. Results**

The wider study from which these results are drawn considers nearly all of
the domesticated plants and animals that exist in the region surrounding the
Bandiagara Escarpment in Central Eastern Mali. However, this list is
enormous and each component of it deserves attention that cannot be done if
all are included. Thus, a subset of simply seven of the domesticated crops
found in the region was treated in Hantgan (2024b). Therein, all of the
lexemes for these seven species from all of the languages spoken in the area
were associated across languages in the RefLex database which yielded a
surprisingly prolific amount of loan words. Naturally, the largest donor
language group was Mande, but in certain cases, the ultimate origin of the
word in question was unclear. That is, Mande language speakers spread crops
and their names throughout the whole of West Africa, including the
Bandiagara region, but in some cases, it appeared that the Mande speakers
themselves borrowed terms from other ethnolinguistic groups. Furthermore,
Bangime stood out within the wider context as often having a lexeme that did
not immediately resemble those of its neighboring languages. Therefore, this
study signifies a refined inspection of the names of these same plant species
specifically in Bangime and compares these terms to other languages spoken
in the region and, in some cases, across the African continent.

5.1. MILLET ‘pearl millet’ *Pennisetum glaucum*

Pearl millet is the most ancient dated African grain and epitomizes the
establishment of agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan Africa (Burgarella et
al. 2018; Manning et al. 2011; Fuller et al. 2021; Ozainne et al. 2014). The
grain’s provenance is attributed to an area near present-day Gao at the Niger
River bend dating back to approximately 4,500 years ago. This location lies
just over 500 kilometers to the northeast of the Bandiagara Escarpment. It
was not long after, around 4,200 BP, that an agricultural expansion arrived at
the Escarpment (Fuller et al. 2021; Champion et al. 2021).

Today, pearl millet is grown as a staple crop throughout Escarpment
communities. However, as the current occupants of the Escarpment—at least
eastern Dogon—are relative newcomers, words for MILLET among the
languages currently spoken on and around the Escarpment are, expectedly,
varied. Lexemes for MILLET are displayed on the map in Figure 4.
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 4.** Lexemes for MILLET across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>

While Bangime and its geographically closest Mande language, Jenaama Bozo, do not appear to have a form in common, a view of the map of the wider scope of the two languages provides a clearer picture (see an interactive version of the map in Hantgan (2024d)). Comparative examples are also provided in Table 6.

<table><caption>**Table 6.** Comparative forms for MILLET between Bangime and Mande, plus Bantu, languages</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Gloss</td><td>Language</td><td>Sub-group</td><td>Family</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>dé-mè</td><td>millet</td><td rowspan="3">Bangime</td><td rowspan="3">----</td><td rowspan="3">Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>déj</td><td>grain</td></tr><tr><td>pīj-è</td><td>seed; sow (seeds)</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>pū</td><td>millet (pearl millet); grain, seed</td><td>Jenaama</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>dʒɛ</td><td></td><td>Pondori Nord</td><td rowspan="4">Bozo</td><td rowspan="4">North-western Mande</td></tr><tr><td>pii</td><td>mil</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>pii</td><td>mil</td><td>Korondougou nord</td></tr><tr><td>dʒɛ̃</td><td>mil</td><td>Tieyaxo</td></tr><tr><td>dʒɛŋ</td><td>mil</td><td>Kotya</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>dégɛ̃</td><td>Eleusine indica</td><td>Jenaama</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>dé</td><td>Eleusine</td><td></td><td>Zones JM</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>dègì</td><td>sorghum, millet</td><td>Proto-Bantu</td><td>Zones FGMR</td><td>Bantu</td></tr></table>

The word for MILLET in Bangime *dé-mɛ̃* is composed of the word for GRAIN *dɛ́j* plus the attributive suffix *-mɛ* which triggers regressive [-ATR] vowel harmony on the root-vowel. The Bangime word for MILLET does not immediately evoke a resemblance to its closest Bozo-speaking neighbors, Jenaama, in which the form *pū* represents both MILLET and SEED. Yet, the Bangime forms for MILLET and SEED individually can be compared to, for example, the Bozo language Pondori Nord's compound for MILLET *dʒɛ* *pii*.
It is suggested here that the original meaning of the Bozo compound was MILLET-SEED and that the meaning conflated over time to MILLET. The geographic distance between speakers of Bangime and those of Pondori Nord today suggests that the lexical transfer occurred at a time and place when the Bozo languages formed a more cohesive unit.

As one additional connection, among Bantu languages spoken in central portions of Africa, we find a form *dègì* or *dé* with the meaning of MILLET (*Eleusine* – finger millet) that especially resembles that of a related species of grass *Eleusine indica* in Jenaama Bozo, *dégē*. Note that the Proto-Bantu terms also refer to SORGHUM. Bostoen (2007) illustrates evidence for a form *-bèdé* with a meaning of MILLET being an early loan into Nilotic, where it means SORGHUM today, from eastern Bantu languages. These networks demonstrate the depth of this word, yet, thus far, only among a relatively small range of purportedly unrelated speakers.

Additionally among Dogon groups in whose language the root for MILLET is *see*-, Hantgan (2024b) illustrates that these words also co-lexify meanings with SEED. Furthermore, these forms are like Gur groups' lexemes for SEED who neighbor the Escarpment to the east, as well as the East-Manding (Mande) language Bambara. As Dogon, Gur, and Mande may all represent branches of the Niger-Congo language phylum, a common cognate is indeed possible.
The word for MILLET in Bambara, *jú*, is the likely source of forms *núú* or *jú* found among the north-eastern Dogon languages pictured on the map in Figure 4. Similar words *jɔ́* and *nɔ̃ɔ̃*, in turn, are found with meanings corresponding to the concepts GRAIN and MILLET respectively in some Kru (another branch of Niger-Congo) languages spoken in today's Côte d'Ivoire.

The final lexeme illustrated on the map in Figure 4, that of Songhay, such as *hàynì* which is attested in Tondi Kiini Songhay in Mali, is also similar to many (again, unrelated) Chadic languages spoken in the modern country of Chad. Gravina (2014) reconstructs, for example, in the Central-Chadic language Proto-Bata *haj, with reflexes also meaning GRAIN.

Consequently, the fact that the word for MILLET among these languages derives from either GRAIN or SEED speaks to its deeply rooted nature. Furthermore, the combination of the form with co-lexifications across language families illustrates that there has been contact at least between the Bangande and speakers of northwestern Mande languages that go back farther than their current geographic positions. In turn, as noted in Section 7, Mande languages form a contested part of the Niger-Congo phylum in which the Bantu languages hold a firm position. Given the historic importance of this grain to sub-Saharan Africa, a long-term loan is not surprising, but a form which is not found directly to be connected between Bangande and
neighboring ethnolinguistic groups suggests that the populations' farming of millet began before their settlement of the cliffs.

## 5.2. FONIO ‘fonio’ *Digitaria exilis*

Fonio is another cultivated grain whose home is likely found in West Africa, potentially even in the adjacent Inland Niger Delta (Champion 2020). Yet, according to archeological evidence, fonio reached the Escarpment only approximately 1,600 years ago, at least three thousand years after evidence for pearl millet domestication in the area (McIntosh 1995).

In fact, lexical substantiations of fonio are much more homogenous in the Escarpment area than those of MILLET. Forms with meanings that correspond to the concept FONIO are plotted on the map in Figure 5.

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 5.** Lexemes for FONIO across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>
The expanded map (see an interactive version in Hantgan (2024e)) better illustrates that a common form for FONIO with reflexes such as *pɔŋ́ɔ* in the Dogon languages shown in Figure 5 and *foọọ* in the Atlantic language Seerer is widespread throughout the entire West African region. Two languages, Songhay as spoken in the city of Hombori and Fulfulde Maasina share a different lexeme: *seremb-*. On the other hand, as in the case of MILLET, Bangime *wī-bè* does not resemble the lexemes attested among the other groups whose languages are spoken on or around the Escarpment. Again, the suffix attached to the Bangime root is that of the attributive; -bɛ is an allomorph of -mɛ, as is -jɛ or simply -ɛ.

Actually, as was the case for MILLET and SEED or GRAIN, the meaning of the lexeme in Bangime has likely undergone a semantic shift. As shown in Table 7, the word for MEAL in Bangime *pɔ̃w̃* shows a strong likeness to *pùwess* with the meaning of FONIO in the Bozo language that is spoken closest to the Bangande area, Jenaama. Analogous forms for FONIO are also found among the majority of the Dogon languages spoken across the Escarpment such as Ampari *pɔ́ zɔ́*, as well as some Gur languages spoken in the vicinity; compare *pɔ́ ź̥ ngè* in the West Dogon language Penange with *fóŋgí* in the Central Gur language Natioro.
<table><caption>**Table 7.** Comparative forms for MEAL and FONIO between Bangime and Bozo, plus surrounding languages</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Gloss</td><td>Language</td><td>Sub-Group</td><td>Family</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>pòw̃</td><td>meal</td><td>Bangime</td><td>---</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>pùwɔ́</td><td>fonio (grain)</td><td>Jenaama</td><td>Bozo</td><td>Mande</td></tr><tr><td>pɔ́ɔ̃</td><td>fonio</td><td>Ampari</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>pɔ́ɔ̃-ŋgè</td><td>fonio</td><td>Penange</td><td>West</td><td>Dogon</td></tr><tr><td>fóngí</td><td>fonio</td><td>Natioro</td><td>Central</td><td>Gur</td></tr><tr><td>fíŋgí</td><td>fonio</td><td>Tondi Kiini</td><td>Eastern</td><td>Songhay</td></tr></tbody></table>

Note also the similarity of the stem in the Gur language Natioro to *fíŋgí* from Tondi Kiini, a Songhay language spoken adjacent to the Nangan Dogon languages in the northeast quadrant of the Bandiagara Escarpment. Given that speakers of the other Songhay language spoken north of the Escarpment area appear to have adopted a form from the unrelated language Fulfulde, early Songhay speakers may not have actually cultivated fonio.

The form for FONIO in Bangime itself remains curious as words with an initial [w] are limited to otherwise impermissible onsetless syllables. However, the only other language in the study database with a similar form is located at a great geographic distance. In
Table 8, compare the form for FONIO in Bangime wīībè with āwúbī from the Kwa (Niger-Congo) language Igo, spoken in between today's border with Ghana and Togo.

<table><caption>**Table 8.** Comparative forms for FONIO between Bangime and a Kwa language</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Gloss</td><td>Language</td><td>Family</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>wīī-bè</td><td>fonio</td><td>Bangime</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>ā-wúbī</td><td>fonio</td><td>Igo</td><td>Kwa</td></tr></tbody></table>

Given the expanse between these two groups today, if there is a true connection between these speakers' forms for FONIO, it would have taken place either through trade or early contact. Otherwise, Hantgan (2023a) provides detailed argumentation for a connection between the word for SEED shown above in the Mande Bozo languages *pīī* with Eastern Manding languages lexemes for FONIO such as that found in Bambara *fíní*. In turn, it could be that the root *wīī* is an early attestation of this form. That is, /f/ is not a phoneme in Bangime (nor the Dogon languages), and thus any words borrowed into the languages with an [f] are pronounced with another consonant from the phonemic inventory; admittedly these are usually attested as [p] or [b].

At first glance, it appears that the case of FONIO demonstrates a form which is unique to Bangime, but closer inspection of nearly indistinguishable
lexemes among, again, the Mande Bozo languages reveal a link that goes
beyond the surface layer. In other words, the prepared fonio meal in early
Bozo pùwţ generalized to MEAL pɔ̃w̃ in Bangime, thereby leaving a lexical
gap for FONIO. This gap could have been filled by a loan, though the source
is as yet not clear.

5.3. SORGHUM ‘sorghum’ *Sorghum bicolor*

Sorghum, unlike pearl millet and perhaps fonio, is not native to West Africa.
Nevertheless, its presence may actually pre-date the appearance of fonio in
the Bandiagara region. Ozainne et al. (2014) attribute the arrival of sorghum
to the Inland Niger Delta region around 2,000 years ago—after pearl millet
but before fonio. The map in Figure 6 shows that there is a widespread lexeme
for SORGHUM among Dogon languages è(ɛ)mbɛ́, and that its distribution
forms a pattern almost identical to that of MILLET—that is, the southwest
Dogon languages form a cohesive group that contrasts with the rest of the
Dogon-speaking area.
<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 6.** Lexemes for SORGHUM across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>

By examining the expanded map (see an interactive version in Hantgan (2024f)), Bangime, unlike patterns for MILLET and FONIO, attests a form *eîndʒè* that is immediately traceable neighboring southwestern Dogon languages such as Bunoge *siîndʒà*. Further illustrated by examples in Table 9, SORGHUM in Bangime can easily be connected, not only to the neighboring Dogon languages, but also to forms found among the Mande languages like Bambara *kénigè*. Otherwise, Bangime speakers could have received the Mande loan directly, but through more distant contact, from widely spoken languages Soninke or Bambara.

<table><caption>**Table 9.** Comparative forms for SORGHUM between Bangime, Mande, and West Dogon languages</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Gloss</td><td>Language</td><td>Sub-group</td><td>Family</td></tr></thead></table>
<table><tr><td>ɛ̮iŋdʒè</td><td>Sorghum bicolor</td><td>Bangime</td><td>---</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>kenige</td><td>sorgho</td><td>Soninke</td><td>Soninke-Bozo</td><td rowspan="2">Mande</td></tr><tr><td>kénìgé</td><td>Sorghum bicolor</td><td>Bambara</td><td>East-Manding</td></tr><tr><td>sííndʒà</td><td>Sorghum bicolor</td><td>Bunoge</td><td rowspan="2">West</td><td rowspan="2">Dogon</td></tr><tr><td>síndʒáá-ŋgè</td><td>Sorghum bicolor</td><td>Penange</td></tr></table>

Because the word for SORGHUM in the Bozo language spoken closest to Bangime attests *síjɛ̄w*, if the Bangime form did come from a Mande language, it was not directly from its Bozo neighbors. Furthermore, because the majority of the Dogon languages have a separate word, the form found in the southwestern Dogon languages is determined to be a loan. The most probable direction of change in the word's initial consonant is from /k/ to [ɛ] in Bangime, and to [s] in southwestern Dogon. The loss of the word-medial /i/ would also explain the affricatization of the /g/ to [dʒ] in Bangime. The observed phonetic shifts among the unrelated languages are minimal, suggesting the loan is probably recent. Either the loan reached the Cliff after the groups' settlement, or these groups had already been in contact with each other and farming or trading sorghum prior to reaching their present locations.

5.4. ORKA ‘okra’ *Abelmoschus esculentus*
Okra is an important part of daily life among the Bangande as it is used for sauce on the daily millet dish that is served for lunch and dinner. Although, as far as the author's knowledge is concerned, okra has not been dated to the Inland Niger Delta or the Escarpment, evidence for domesticated okra has been found at Lake Chad around 2,500 years ago (Bigga & Kahlheber 2011). Lake Chad is distant from today's central Mali, but this date would be in line with that of the region's sorghum domestication.

Indeed, the lexical distribution of OKRA between Bangime and the southwestern group of Dogon languages whose speakers border the Bangande is similar to that of SORGHUM. The form *mààdzí* which found in Bangime is also attested in the southwestern Dogon languages such as in Bunoge *màànàdzí*. A map with these and other languages' forms is given in Figure 7.
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 7.** Lexemes for OKRA across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>

As shown in the expanded map (interactive version in Hantgan (2024g)), there is a widespread lexeme that has encompassed many of the languages in the dataset. Further forms for OKRA, shown in Table 10, illustrate a clear cohesiveness between Bangime, many of the Dogon languages, and Fulfulde.

<table><caption>**Table 10.** Comparative forms for OKRA between Bangime, Mande, Dogon, and Atlantic languages</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Language</th><th>Sub-group</th><th>Family</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>mààdzí</td><td>okra</td><td>Bangime</td><td>Isolate</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>màànàdzí</td><td>okra</td><td>Bunoge</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>mànàdzí</td><td>okra</td><td>Tiranige<br>Diga</td><td>West</td><td>Dogon</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>gáŋààdzù ~<br/>mánààdzì</td><td>okra</td><td>Tommo So</td><td>Escarpment</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>gáŋgádzì</td><td>okra</td><td>Yorno So</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>gáŋáázì</td><td>okra</td><td>Dogul Dom</td><td>North-<br/>Plateau</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>gagaare-nde<br/>(singulative) /<br/>gaŋadzi<br/>(collective)</td><td>pod of<br/>Hibiscus<br/>esculentus</td><td>Maasina<br/>Fulfulde</td><td>North</td><td>Atlantic</td></tr><tr><td>wāā</td><td>okra</td><td>Jenaama</td><td>Bozo</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>gá</td><td>Hibiscus<br/>esculentus,<br/>gombo</td><td>Bambara</td><td>East-<br/>Manding</td><td>Mande</td></tr></table>

The comparable form for OKRA between Bangime mààdzì, the Dogon languages that neighbor it, as well as those that are more distant such as Tommo So gáŋààdzù ~ mánààdzì, are ascertained here to be all of the same source in either Fulfulde gaŋadzi or the Mande languages. That is, the root of this lexeme is proposed to be either man- or gan-, with its attested reflexes in Bozo Jenaama wāā or as in the widely spoken language Bambara, gá.
Manessy (1979) reconstructs *man for Proto-Central Gur. In Fulfulde, the
suffix -dʒi marks the collective (cf. the NDI class which, according to,
Breedveld (1995: 329) contains seeds and cereals). While some Dogon
languages, with examples such as Yorno So gáŋgádʒi, very clearly illustrate
the Fulfulde influence, others like the southwestern Dogon language Tiranige
mànàdʒí and Bangime mààdʒí are more similar to the Proto-Central Gur
reconstruction since the change from an initial [g] to an [m] is somewhat
unusual. Therefore, as with SORGHUM, Bangime speakers adopted a word
that is also used by their southwestern Dogon-speaking neighbors, who in
turn received the word from an external source.

As in the case of SORGHUM, these interconnected lexical forms for OKRA
suggest that okra as a cultivated crop was introduced to the Escarpment after
the groups living there today were already established. This also insinuates
that these groups did not have a term for OKRA and were not familiar with
the plant. Further evidence in support of unfamiliarity with okra comes from
the word for RICE in Bangime as detailed in the following subsection.

5.5. RICE ‘African rice’ *Oryza glaberrima*

Africa rice was first cultivated in the Inland Niger Delta around the time that
sorghum first appeared, about 3,000 years ago (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981).
However, ever since the introduction of Asian rice O. sativa nearly 500 years
ago from foreign traders across the Atlantic, local varieties of African rice are
being replaced. In the case of RICE, the homogeneity of lexical forms shown
on the map in Figure 8 actually shadows a state of former diversity. A hint of
that diversity is still found in the dissimilar forms for RICE in Bangime gómè
and neighboring Jenaama dūgā which are also distinct from any of the
surrounding languages.

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 8.** Lexemes for RICE across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>

As can be viewed on the expanded map (interactive version in Hantgan
(2024h)), with little lexical variation, nearly all the Dogon languages attest a
common form á(á)rá; Dogon rice farmers probably came to the Escarpment
with this word already a part of their vocabulary. On the other hand, it is
intriguing to note is that the word for RICE in Bangime gómè actually appears
most similar to the Bozo lexemes for OKRA, such as that of the variety
spoken in the city of Djenné góó-jè, illustrated in Table 11.
<table><caption>**Table 11.** Comparative forms for OKRA and RICE between Bangime, Bozo, and Gur languages</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Language</th><th>Subgroup</th><th>Family</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>gó-mè</td><td>rice</td><td>Bangime</td><td>----</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>gón</td><td>okra</td><td>Pana</td><td>Central</td><td>Gur</td></tr><tr><td>gɔ</td><td>okra</td><td>Tiéyaxo</td><td rowspan="3">Bozo</td><td rowspan="3">Mande</td></tr><tr><td>gɔ́z̥-jè</td><td>okra</td><td>Djenné</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>dūgā</td><td>rice</td><td>Jenaama</td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

In fact, the first time the form for RICE was elicited by my predecessor on the Dogon and Bangime Languages Project, Stefan Elders, there was confusion over the meaning between RICE and OKRA. I am sure that this misunderstanding was not due to a misidentification of the crops. Rather, I believe that the source of the Bangime lexeme for RICE is from the Bozo languages, or, as noted above, pertaining to the discussion of OKRA, the Central Gur languages. That is, the current word for RICE in Bangime *gómè* is proposed to be a shift from the Bozo *gɔ́z̥-jè* (and/or Central Gur languages such as Pana *gón*) word for OKRA. However, as in the case of MILLET, the loan and shift are not from the currently closest Bozo variety —Jenaama
spoken in the Lowol Guéou Valley, which in and of itself attests a lexeme for
RICE *dūgā* not found among any other language in the database.

The fact that many more of these unrelated languages use a common form for
OKRA than for RICE suggests that the original meaning was the latter,
however, as noted above, the grain has been replaced in recent times by
imported rice, and thus the word could as well easily have undergone
substitution.

Furthermore, early inhabitants of the Inland Niger Delta, those now known
as the Bozo, are the most probable ethnic group to have first cultivated rice
in the region (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981). In present times, both the Bozo
and the Bangande currently grow rice in large quantities, which makes it more
curious as to why they would adopt the word for OKRA as the two plants
have little in common. However, as shown in the following subsection, forms
for MAIZE are often identical to words for MILLET and SORGHUM
throughout African languages whose speakers live in areas where these grains
do not grow, even though the plants do differ in appearance.

### 5.6. MAIZE ‘corn’ *Zea mays*

Somewhat surprisingly, given that maize is an imported crop from the
Americas brought with Portuguese sailors to West Africa only around 500
years ago, lexemes for MAIZE among the Dogon languages are composed of
compounds with words for plants discussed in this study including those for
MILLET (Jamsay *núú*), SORGHUM (Tebul Ure *èmbé*), and OKRA (Ben Tey *póró*). The form in Fulfulde is composed of the word for SORGHUM shown above – *mbayeeri*. Examples from the Escarpment area are shown in the map in Figure 9.

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 9.** Lexemes for MAIZE across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>

Even by broadening the search to encompass a larger region of West Africa on the extended map (interactive version in Hantgan (2024i)), no form was found corresponding to *bìrɔ́ndʒ*, MAIZE in Bangime. Internally to the language, however, the form can be related to two other natively occurring flora species as shown in Table 12.

<table><caption>**Table 12.** Comparative forms for MAIZE and local plants in Bangime</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Gloss</td></tr></thead></table>
<table><tr><td>bīrò</td><td>shrub (Guiera)</td></tr><tr><td>bìrò-n-só</td><td>tree (Crataeva ?)</td></tr><tr><td>bìrò-n-dţ</td><td>maize</td></tr></table>

In Bangime, compounds *per se* do not occur. Instead, nouns may be linked with the genitive marker -n-, so that a form such as the *Combretum* tree species from which the tea *Kinkéliba* is made, *bàmàná-m-bɔ́jɛ́*, is literally ‘Bambara’s rope’. In fact, the names of many flora species in Bangime are created in this way. The *Guiera* shrub, *bīrò*, is important to herders as it supplies fodder for animals. The second noun in the genitive “compound” of the tree species and of maize is not known, but there is a lexical parallel to the Dogon languages in that Bangime speakers also use a compound to compare MAIZE with locally cultivated plant species.

It is suggested here that because MAIZE is not indigenous to the area, no native language had a word for it, and thus many groups created their own based on previously introduced crops such as OKRA, MILLET, and SORGHUM. This also implies that OKRA, MILLET, and SORGHUM were already being farmed - but not collectively - by the peoples who currently inhabit the Bandiagara region at the time when MAIZE was introduced.

5.7. GROUNDNUT (PEANUT) ‘Bambara groundnut’ *Vigna subterranea*
Even though groundnuts bear the term, ‘Bambara groundnut’, the pulse was actually first domesticated in Cameroon or northern Nigeria (Majola et al. 2021). Groundnuts are relatively recent to the Bandiagara area, possibly only arriving in the Bambara-speaking area less than 2,000 years ago. Similar to the situation presented above concerning rice cultivars, the so-called ‘Bambara groundnut’ is slowly being replaced by imported peanuts.

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 10.** Lexemes for GROUNDNUT across the Bandiagara Escarpment and its environs</figcaption></figure>

The larger map (interactive version in Hantgan (2024h)) illustrates that forms similar to that shown for Bangime *tigàdʒí* are attested across a variety of West African languages. It is suggested here that Bangime employs a recent loan word from Maasina Fulfulde for PEANUT (GROUNDNUT) *tigadze*, that in turn is a loan into Fulfulde from a Mande language, such as Bambara *tigá*.

These forms are provided in Table 13.
<table><caption>**Table 13.** Comparative forms for PEANUT in Bangime, Soninke, and Fulfulde</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Language</th><th>Sub-group</th><th>Family</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>tìgàdзí<br>dàbbè</td><td>ground nut</td><td>Bangime</td><td>---</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>tìgá</td><td>peanut</td><td>Bambara</td><td>East-Manding</td><td rowspan="2">Mande</td></tr><tr><td>tìgà ndéppè</td><td>pois de terre</td><td>Soninke</td><td>Soninke-Bozo</td></tr><tr><td>tigađze</td><td>peanut</td><td>Maasina Fulfulde</td><td>North</td><td>Atlantic</td></tr></tbody></table>

Due to a taboo that prevents anyone from the Bangande community from planting peanuts, a recent borrowing from Mande languages via Fulfulde is not surprising. Note that, as with forms for OKRA, the Fulfulde stem includes the noun class suffix -dze (of the NDE class which Breedvald (1995), confirms includes fruits), and that the entire stem was passed along into Bangime, but in this case, as opposed to OKRA, to the exclusion of any other neighboring language. This suggests that Dogon farmers already had words for GROUNDNUT.

As pertains to the Dogon languages' word for GROUNDNUT, Tommo So élé kèlè bears a striking resemblance both to COWPEA kērēbè in Bangime, as well as GROUNDNUT egelète in Huluf, a Bak language of the Atlantic coast of West Africa.
<table><caption>**Table 14.** Comparative forms for COWPEA in Bangime with forms for GROUNDNUT in Dogon and Atlantic languages</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Language</th><th>Subgroup</th><th>Family</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>kɛ̄rɛ̄-bɛ̄</td><td>wild cowpea</td><td>Bangime</td><td>----</td><td>Isolate</td></tr><tr><td>ɛ́lé kèlɛ̄</td><td>peanut or groundnut</td><td>Tommo So</td><td>Plains</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ɛ́gilɛ̄</td><td>peanut or groundnut</td><td>Dogul Dom</td><td rowspan="2">North-Plateau</td><td rowspan="2">Dogon</td></tr><tr><td>ɛ́lé-ŋgɔ́</td><td>peanut or groundnut</td><td>Najamba</td></tr><tr><td>gɛ́rɛtɛ̄</td><td>Arachide</td><td>Wolof</td><td>North</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>hu-gɛ́rɛtɛ̄</td><td>arachide</td><td>Her</td><td></td><td rowspan="3">Atlantic</td></tr><tr><td>ɛ̄-gɛ́lɛtɛ̄</td><td>arachide</td><td>Huluf</td><td rowspan="2">Bak</td></tr><tr><td>ɛ̄-kɛ́rɛtta</td><td>arachide</td><td>Gusiilaay</td></tr></tbody></table>

While cowpea (*Vigna unguiculata*) will be fully treated in a subsequent study, here, it is pertinent to note that it is estimated that the pulse was first domesticated in Ghana approximately 3,500 years ago. The form for a domesticated cowpea in Bangime, *nèè* bears no resemblance to the forms shown in the table above. Thus, it is proposed that contact through trade distributed this form, though further investigation is required to ascertain the plant, and its lexeme's origin.

**6. Discussion**
This study navigated the history of domesticated crops in West Africa, beginning with the oldest—pearl millet—and ending with the most recent — peanuts as replacement to groundnuts—to illustrate the evolution of loan words into Bangime from geographically and genealogically disparate languages.

Earlier words represent semantic shifts from the Bozo languages, while the newest are from Fulfulde. The Bozo Jenaama and Bangande communities currently both live and farm in the Lowol Guéou Valley. Historically, the presence of Fulani herders in the area where Bangime is spoken today is relatively recent, so a contemporary trajectory from the Fulfulde language into Bangime makes sense. Moreover, today's Bangande speakers are nearly all fluent in Fulfulde, while few are conversant in Bozo. Borrowed words from Bozo languages into the Bangime lexicon have become sufficiently buried to be practically indetectable. Meanings for concepts corresponding to the area's most ancient grains have changed from their fundamental meanings: MEAL, SEED, or GRASS and GRAIN to FONIO and MILLET respectively.

This article also presented an overview of one of the methodologies currently being used to investigate the origin of the West African language isolate Bangime and its speakers, the Bangande. The approach is innovative in that it employs computationally supported tools to compare borrowing patterns between Bangime and surrounding spoken languages. In turn, these results
were correlated with discoveries from other disciplines: archeology, botany, genetics, and history.

While this study introduced only seven terms, it is suggested that, given sufficient data, this approach will produce findings that guide research towards identifying hitherto undetected contact between Bangime and other West African languages. Eventually, once key linguistic links are established, these will be followed through with genetic population sampling for comparison. Thus far, the linguistic and genetic findings coincide. The Bangime language and Bangande people represent a linguistic and population isolate. It will be determined if the same holds true for forthcoming explorations.

Blench (2007) suggests that the Bangande have been *in situ* at their current home at the southwestern edge of the Bandiagara Escarpment for an extended period of time because he deemed their crop names to be unique. Rather, it is likely that the ancestors of the Bangande were either subsumed into the expanding Mande Empire or were captured as slaves by Fulani raiders. Those who survived hid in the Bandiagara Escarpment and started farming in the fertile valley where they continue to do so today.

According to lexical evidence, Bangande, like other West Africans, were probably early millet growers, in conjunction or at least in connection with Bozo farmers. Sorghum, okra, and groundnuts (or at least peanuts), however,
appear to be a relatively recently introduced crops to the Bangande, as the
terms in Bangime are loans from the surrounding southwestern Dogon
languages, who in turn borrowed the term from widely spoken Mande
varieties or Maasina Fulfulde. Although at least fonio and sorghum are
estimated to have arrived in the region where the Bangande live today at
around the same time, thus far, the term for FONIO in Bangime has no
traceable source. Nor does the word for RICE in Bangime.

It is essential to recall that, based on the historical (including oral traditions)
and archeological evidence, neither the Bangande nor the Dogon were the
first occupants of the Bandiagara Escarpment. This information is crucial to
keep in mind because the domestication of the plant species treated in this
study likely pre-dated either population's settlement of the Cliffs. At the same
time, continuous occupation of the Bandiagara Escarpment has likely taken
place for at least 3,000 years. The question of whom the original occupants
were remains open.

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