Yaren Bantu

Harsunan Bantu (Turanci:Ipa-cen, IPA-cen Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) dangin harshe ne na adadin harsuna kusan 600 waɗanda al'ummomin Bantu na Tsakiya, Kudancin, Gabas da Kudu maso Gabashin Afirka ke magana. Sun kafa reshe mafi girma na harsunan Bantoid na Kudancin.

An kiyasta jimlar yawan harsunan Bantu tsakanin adadin harsuna 440 zuwa 680, dangane da ma'anar "harshe" da "harshen". Yawancin harsunan Bantu suna aron kalmomi daga juna, wasu kuma suna iya fahimtar juna. Wasu daga cikin harsunan mutane kalilan ne ke magana da su, misali harshen Kabwa an kiyasta cewa a shekarar 2007 mutane 8500 ne kawai ke magana amma an tantance yare ne na daban.

An kiyasta jimlar adadin masu magana da Bantu kusan miliyan 350 a cikin 2015 (kusan kashi 30% na al'ummar Afirka ko kashi 5% na al'ummar duniya). Harsunan Bantu galibi ana magana ne a kudu maso gabashin Kamaru, kuma a ko'ina cikin Tsakiya, Kudancin, Gabas, da Kudu maso Gabashin Afirka. Kimanin kashi ɗaya bisa shida na masu magana da Bantu, da kashi ɗaya bisa uku na harsunan Bantu, ana samun su a Jamhuriyar Dimokuradiyyar Kwango.

Yaren Bantu da aka fi amfani da shi ta yawan masu magana shi ne Swahili, tare da masu jin yaren gida miliyan 16 da masu magana da L2 miliyan 80 (2015).

Harsunan Bantu (Turanci: Template:IPA-cen, Template:IPA-cen Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) dangin harshe ne na harsuna kusan 600 waɗanda al'ummomin Bantu na Tsakiya, Kudancin, Gabas da Kudu maso Gabashin Afirka ke magana. Sun kafa reshe mafi girma na harsunan Bantoid na Kudancin.

An kiyasta jimlar yawan harsunan Bantu tsakanin harsuna 440 zuwa 680, dangane da ma'anar "harshe" da "harshen". Yawancin harsunan Bantu suna aron kalmomi daga juna, wasu kuma suna iya fahimtar juna. Wasu daga cikin harsunan mutane kalilan ne ke magana da su, misali harshen Kabwa an kiyasta cewa a shekarar 2007 mutane 8500 ne kawai ke magana amma an tantance yare ne na daban.

An kiyasta jimlar adadin masu magana da Bantu kusan miliyan 350 a cikin 2015 (kusan kashi 30% na al'ummar Afirka ko kashi 5% na al'ummar duniya). Harsunan Bantu galibi ana magana ne a kudu maso gabashin Kamaru, kuma a ko'ina cikin Tsakiya, Kudancin, Gabas, da Kudu maso Gabashin Afirka. Kimanin kashi ɗaya bisa shida na masu magana da Bantu, da kashi ɗaya bisa uku na harsunan Bantu, ana samun su a Jamhuriyar Dimokuradiyyar Kwango.

Yaren Bantu da aka fi amfani da shi ta yawan masu magana shi ne Swahili, tare da masu jin yaren gida miliyan 16 da masu magana da L2 miliyan 80 (2015). Yawancin masu jin harshen Swahili na zama a Tanzaniya, inda yaren kasa ne, yayin da a matsayin harshe na biyu, ana koyar da shi a matsayin darasi na wajibi a makarantu da yawa a gabashin Afirka, kuma harshe ne na al'ummar Gabashin Afirka.

Sauran manyan yarukan Bantu sun hada da Lingala mai masu magana da fiye da miliyan 20 (Congo, DRC), Zulu mai magana da miliyan 12 (Afirka ta Kudu), Xhosa mai magana da miliyan 8.2 (Afirka ta Kudu da Zimbabwe), da Shona mai kasa da miliyan 10 (idan Manyika da Ndau sun haɗa da), yayin da harsunan Sotho-Tswana (Sotho, Tswana da Pedi) suna da masu magana sama da miliyan 15 (a faɗin Botswana, Lesotho, Afirka ta Kudu, da Zambia). Zimbabwe na da masu magana da Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya, da Xhosa. Ethnologue ya raba Kinyarwanda da Kirundi, waɗanda ke da masu magana miliyan 20 tare.

 Suna 
Samfura:Duba kamanceceniya tsakanin harsunan Bantu da aka tarwatsa an gansu tun farkon ƙarni na 17. Kalmar Bantu a matsayin suna ga ƙungiyar Wilhelm Bleek ne ya ƙirƙira (a matsayin Bâ-ntu) a cikin 1857 ko 1858, kuma ya shahara a cikin nahawunsa na Comparative na 1862. Ya ƙirƙira kalmar don wakiltar kalmar don "mutane" a cikin sakin layi na Proto. -Bantu, daga jam'in suna a prefix * ba- categorizing "mutane", da tushen *ntʊ̀- "wasu (halli), kowane" (misali Xhosa umntu "mutum", abantu "mutane"; Zulu umuntu "mutum", abantu "mutane").

Babu wata kalma ta asali ga ƙungiyar, kamar yadda al'ummar Bantu ke magana da kansu ta hanyar ƙayyadaddun ƙabilanci, amma ba su da wata ma'ana ga phylum mafi girma na kabilanci. Kuɗin Bleek ya sami wahayi ne ta hanyar lura da ɗan adam na ƙungiyoyi akai-akai masu bayyana kansu a matsayin "mutane" ko "mutane na gaskiya" (kamar yadda lamarin yake, alal misali, tare da kalmar Khoikhoi, amma wannan kare "adireshin yabo" ne ba sunan kabilanci).

Harsunan Bantu (Turanci: Template:IPA-cen, Template:IPA-cen Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) dangin harshe ne na harsuna kusan 600 waɗanda al'ummomin Bantu na Tsakiya, Kudancin, Gabas da Kudu maso Gabashin Afirka ke magana. Sun kafa reshe mafi girma na harsunan Bantoid na Kudancin.

An kiyasta jimlar yawan harsunan Bantu tsakanin harsuna 440 zuwa 680, dangane da ma'anar "harshe" da "harshen". Yawancin harsunan Bantu suna aron kalmomi daga juna, wasu kuma suna iya fahimtar juna. Wasu daga cikin harsunan mutane kalilan ne ke magana da su, misali harshen Kabwa an kiyasta cewa a shekarar 2007 mutane 8500 ne kawai ke magana amma an tantance yare ne na daban.

An kiyasta jimlar adadin masu magana da Bantu kusan miliyan 350 a cikin 2015 (kusan kashi 30% na al'ummar Afirka ko kashi 5% na al'ummar duniya). Harsunan Bantu galibi ana magana ne a kudu maso gabashin Kamaru, kuma a ko'ina cikin Tsakiya, Kudancin, Gabas, da Kudu maso Gabashin Afirka. Kimanin kashi ɗaya bisa shida na masu magana da Bantu, da kashi ɗaya bisa uku na harsunan Bantu, ana samun su a Jamhuriyar Dimokuradiyyar Kwango.

Yaren Bantu da aka fi amfani da shi ta yawan masu magana shi ne Swahili, tare da masu jin yaren gida miliyan 16 da masu magana da L2 miliyan 80 (2015). Yawancin masu jin harshen Swahili na zama a Tanzaniya, inda yaren kasa ne, yayin da a matsayin harshe na biyu, ana koyar da shi a matsayin darasi na wajibi a makarantu da yawa a gabashin Afirka, kuma harshe ne na al'ummar Gabashin Afirka.

Sauran manyan yarukan Bantu sun hada da Lingala mai masu magana da fiye da miliyan 20 (Congo, DRC), Zulu mai magana da miliyan 12 (Afirka ta Kudu), Xhosa mai magana da miliyan 8.2 (Afirka ta Kudu da Zimbabwe), da Shona mai kasa da miliyan 10 (idan Manyika da Ndau sun haɗa da), yayin da harsunan Sotho-Tswana (Sotho, Tswana da Pedi) suna da masu magana sama da miliyan 15 (a faɗin Botswana, Lesotho, Afirka ta Kudu, da Zambia). Zimbabwe na da masu magana da Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya, da Xhosa. Ethnologue ya raba Kinyarwanda da Kirundi, waɗanda ke da masu magana miliyan 20 tare.

Suna

Samfura:Duba kamanceceniya tsakanin harsunan Bantu da aka tarwatsa an gansu tun farkon ƙarni na 17. Kalmar Bantu a matsayin suna ga ƙungiyar Wilhelm Bleek ne ya ƙirƙira (a matsayin Bâ-ntu) a cikin 1857 ko 1858, kuma ya shahara a cikin nahawunsa na Comparative na 1862. Ya ƙirƙira kalmar don wakiltar kalmar don "mutane" a cikin sakin layi na Proto. -Bantu, daga jam'in suna a prefix * ba- categorizing "mutane", da tushen *ntʊ̀- "wasu (halli), kowane" (misali Xhosa umntu "mutum", abantu "mutane"; Zulu umuntu "mutum", abantu "mutane").

Babu wata kalma ta asali ga ƙungiyar, kamar yadda al'ummar Bantu ke magana da kansu ta hanyar ƙayyadaddun ƙabilanci, amma ba su da wata ma'ana ga phylum mafi girma na kabilanci. Kuɗin Bleek ya sami wahayi ne ta hanyar lura da ɗan adam na ƙungiyoyi akai-akai masu bayyana kansu a matsayin "mutane" ko "mutane na gaskiya" (kamar yadda lamarin yake, alal misali, tare da kalmar Khoikhoi, amma wannan kare "adireshin yabo" ne ba sunan kabilanci).

Kalmar kunkuntar Bantu, ban da waɗannan harsunan da Guthrie ya ware (1948), an ƙaddamar da shi a cikin 1960s.

Prefix musamman yana nufin mutane. A ƙarshe, kalmar abubuwan al'adu, gami da harshe, an ƙirƙira su ne tare da ajin ki-noun (Nguni ísi-), kamar a cikin KiSwahili (harshen Swahili da al'ada), IsiZulu (harshen Zulu da al'ada) da KiGanda (addini da al'adun Ganda) .

A cikin 1980s, masana harsunan Afirka ta Kudu sun ba da shawarar a kira waɗannan harsunan a matsayin KiNtu. Kalmar kintu tana wanzuwa a wasu wurare, amma tana nufin "abu", ba tare da wata alaƙa da manufar "harshe". Bugu da ƙari, wakilai a taron Ƙungiyar Harsunan Afirka na Kudancin Afirka a 1984 sun ba da rahoton cewa, a wasu wurare, kalmar Kintu tana da ma'anar wulakanci. Wannan saboda kintu yana nufin "abubuwa" kuma ana amfani da ita azaman kalmar wulaƙanci ga mutanen da suka rasa mutuncinsu.

Bugu da kari, Kintu adadi ne a wasu tatsuniyoyi.

A cikin 1990s, har yanzu ana amfani da kalmar Kintu a wasu lokuta masana harsunan Afirka ta Kudu. Amma a cikin ilimin harsunan Afirka ta Kudu na mulkin mallaka na zamani, ana amfani da kalmar Ntu harsuna.

 Asalin 
Harsunan Bantu sun fito ne daga yaren Proto-Bantu na gama gari, wanda aka yi imanin ana magana da shi a ƙasar Kamaru a yanzu a Afirka ta Tsakiya. Kimanin shekaru 2,500-3,000 da suka gabata (1000 BC zuwa 500 BC), masu magana da yaren Proto-Bantu sun fara jerin ƙaura zuwa gabas da kudu, ɗauke da noma tare da su. Wannan fadada Bantu ya mamaye yankin kudu da hamadar Sahara a gabashin Kamaru, yankin da al'ummar Bantu ke zama kusan daukacin al'umma. Wasu kafofin sun kiyasta Faɗawar Bantu ya fara kusan 3000 BC.

Kalmar fasaha ta Bantu, ma'ana "'yan adam" ko kuma a sauƙaƙe "mutane", Wilhelm Bleek (1827-1875) ya fara amfani da shi, kamar yadda ra'ayi ya bayyana a yawancin harsunan wannan rukuni. Halin gama gari na harsunan Bantu shine cewa suna amfani da kalmomin 

The total number of Bantu languages is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of "language" versus "dialect"."Guthrie (1967–71) names some 440 Bantu 'varieties', Grimes (2000) has 501 (minus a few 'extinct' or 'almost extinct'), Bastin et al. (1999) have 542, Maho (this volume) has some 660, and Mann et al. (1987) have c. 680." Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, p. 2. :Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid"  lists a total of 535 languages. The count includes 13 Mbam languages, which are not always included under "Narrow Bantu". Many Bantu languages borrow words from each other, and some are mutually intelligible.McWhorter, J. 2001. The Power of Babel (pp. 81–82). New York: Freeman-Times-Henry Holt.  Some of the languages are spoken by a very small number of people, for example the Kabwa language was estimated in 2007 to be spoken by only 8500 people but was assessed to be a distinct language.

The total number of Bantu speakers is estimated to be around 350 million in 2015 (roughly 30% of the population of Africa or 5% of the world population).Total population cannot be established with any accuracy due to the unavailability of precise census data from Sub-Saharan Africa. A number just above 200 million was cited in the early 2000s (see Niger-Congo languages: subgroups and numbers of speakers for a 2007 compilation of data from SIL Ethnologue, citing 210 million). Population estimates for the region of West-Central Africa were recognized as significantly too low by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2015 (). Population growth in Central-West Africa as of 2015 is estimated at between 2.5% and 2.8% p.a., for an annual increase of the Bantu population by about 8 to 10 million. Bantu languages are largely spoken southeast of Cameroon, and throughout Central, Southern, Eastern, and Southeast Africa. About one-sixth of Bantu speakers, and one-third of Bantu languages, are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The most widely spoken Bantu language by number of speakers is Swahili, with 16 million native speakers and 80 million L2 speakers (2015)."Swahili" , Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015): "47,000,000 in Tanzania, all users. L1 users: 15,000,000 (2012), increasing. L2 users: 32,000,000 (2015 D. Nurse). Total users in all countries: 98,310,110 (as L1: 16,010,110; as L2: 82,300,000)." Most native speakers of Swahili live in Tanzania, where it is a national language, while as a second language, it is taught as a mandatory subject in many schools in East Africa, and is a lingua franca of the East African Community.

Other major Bantu languages include Lingala with more than 20 million speakers (Congo, DRC), Zulu with 12 million speakers (South Africa), Xhosa with 8.2 million speakers (South Africa and Zimbabwe), and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included), while Sotho-Tswana languages (Sotho, Tswana and Pedi) have more than 15 million speakers (across Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and Zambia). Zimbabwe has Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya, and Xhosa speakers. Ethnologue separates the largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, which together have 20 million speakers.

Name

The similarity among dispersed Bantu languages had been observed as early as the 17th century.R. Blench, Archaeology, Language, and the African Past (2006), p. 119. . The term Bantu as a name for the group was coined (as Bâ-ntu) by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858, and popularized in his Comparative Grammar of 1862. He coined the term to represent the word for "people" in loosely reconstructed Proto-Bantu, from the plural noun class prefix *ba- categorizing "people", and the root *ntʊ̀- "some (entity), any" (e.g. Xhosa umntu "person", abantu "people"; Zulu umuntu "person", abantu "people").

There is no indigenous term for the group, as Bantu-speaking populations refer to themselves by their endonyms, but did not have a concept for the larger ethno-linguistic phylum. Bleek's coinage was inspired by the anthropological observation of groups frequently self-identifying as "people" or "the true people" (as is the case, for example, with the term Khoikhoi, but this is a kare "praise address" and not an ethnic name).R. K. Herbert and R. Bailey in Rajend Mesthrie (ed.), Language in South Africa (2002), p. 50. .

The term narrow Bantu, excluding those languages classified as Bantoid by Guthrie (1948), was introduced in the 1960s.Studies in African Linguistics: Supplement, Issues 3–4, Department of Linguistics and the African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles (1969), p. 7.

The prefix ba- specifically refers to people. Endonymically, the term for cultural objects, including language, is formed with the ki- noun class (Nguni ísi-), as in KiSwahili (Swahili language and culture), IsiZulu (Zulu language and culture) and KiGanda (Ganda religion and culture).

In the 1980s, South African linguists suggested referring to these languages as KiNtu. The word kintu exists in some places, but it means "thing", with no relation to the concept of "language".Joshua Wantate Sempebwa, The Ontological and Normative Structure in the Social Reality of a Bantu Society: A Systematic Study of Ganda Ontology and Ethics, 1978, p. 71. In addition, delegates at the African Languages Association of Southern Africa conference in 1984 reported that, in some places, the term Kintu has a derogatory significance. This is because kintu refers to "things" and is used as a dehumanizing term for people who have lost their dignity.Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama, Encyclopedia of African Religion (2009), p. 173. .

In addition, Kintu is a figure in some mythologies.David William Cohen, The Historical Tradition of Busoga, Mukama and Kintu (1972). Joseph B. R. Gaie, Sana Mmolai, The Concept of Botho and HIV/AIDS in Botswana (2007), p. 2. .

In the 1990s, the term Kintu was still occasionally used by South African linguists.as in Noverino N. Canonici, A Manual of Comparative Kintu Studies, Zulu Language and Literature, University of Natal (1994). But in contemporary decolonial South African linguistics, the term Ntu languages is used.

Origin
The Bantu languages descend from a common Proto-Bantu language, which is believed to have been spoken in what is now Cameroon in Central Africa.Philip J. Adler, Randall L. Pouwels, World Civilizations: To 1700 Volume 1 of World Civilizations, (Cengage Learning: 2007), p.169. An estimated 2,500–3,000 years ago (1000 BC to 500 BC), speakers of the Proto-Bantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying agriculture with them. This Bantu expansion came to dominate Sub-Saharan Africa east of Cameroon, an area where Bantu peoples now constitute nearly the entire population.Toyin Falola, Aribidesi Adisa Usman, Movements, borders, and identities in Africa, (University Rochester Press: 2009), p.4. Some other sources estimate the Bantu Expansion started closer to 3000 BC.Gemma Berniell-Lee et al, "Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages" , Oxford Journals

The technical term Bantu, meaning "human beings" or simply "people", was first used by Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), as the concept is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as muntu or mutu for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and the plural prefix for human nouns starting with mu- (class 1) in most languages is ba- (class 2), thus giving bantu for "people". Bleek, and later Carl Meinhof, pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages.

Sashe Sashe 


The most widely used classification is an alphanumeric coding system developed by Malcolm Guthrie in his 1948 classification of the Bantu languages. It is mainly geographic. The term "narrow Bantu" was coined by the Benue–Congo Working Group to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Guthrie, from the Bantoid languages not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie.

In recent times, the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other Southern Bantoid languages has been called into doubt,(cf. Piron 1995, Williamson & Blench 2000, Blench 2011) but the term is still widely used.

There is no true genealogical classification of the (Narrow) Bantu languages. Until recently most attempted classifications only considered languages that happen to fall within traditional Narrow Bantu, but there seems to be a continuum with the related languages of South Bantoid.

At a broader level, the family is commonly split in two depending on the reflexes of proto-Bantu tone patterns: many Bantuists group together parts of zones A through D (the extent depending on the author) as Northwest Bantu or Forest Bantu, and the remainder as Central Bantu or Savanna Bantu. The two groups have been described as having mirror-image tone systems: where Northwest Bantu has a high tone in a cognate, Central Bantu languages generally have a low tone, and vice versa.

Northwest Bantu is more divergent internally than Central Bantu, and perhaps less conservative due to contact with non-Bantu Niger–Congo languages; Central Bantu is likely the innovative line cladistically. Northwest Bantu is not a coherent family, but even for Central Bantu the evidence is lexical, with little evidence that it is a historically valid group.

Another attempt at a detailed genetic classification to replace the Guthrie system is the 1999 "Tervuren" proposal of Bastin, Coupez, and Mann.The Guthrie, Tervuren, and SIL lists are compared side by side in Maho 2002. However, it relies on lexicostatistics, which, because of its reliance on overall similarity rather than shared innovations, may predict spurious groups of conservative languages that are not closely related. Meanwhile, Ethnologue has added languages to the Guthrie classification which Guthrie overlooked, while removing the Mbam languages (much of zone A), and shifting some languages between groups (much of zones D and E to a new zone J, for example, and part of zone L to K, and part of M to F) in an apparent effort at a semi-genetic, or at least semi-areal, classification. This has been criticized for sowing confusion in one of the few unambiguous ways to distinguish Bantu languages. Nurse & Philippson (2006) evaluate many proposals for low-level groups of Bantu languages, but the result is not a complete portrayal of the family. Glottolog has incorporated many of these into their classification.

The languages that share Dahl's law may also form a valid group, Northeast Bantu. The infobox at right lists these together with various low-level groups that are fairly uncontroversial, though they continue to be revised. The development of a rigorous genealogical classification of many branches of Niger–Congo, not just Bantu, is hampered by insufficient data.Bryan, M.A.(compiled by), The Bantu Languages of Africa. Published for the International African Institute, Oxford University Press, 1959.

Computational phylogenetic classifications
Simplified phylogeny of northwestern branches of Bantu by Grollemund (2012):Grollemund, Rebecca. 2012. Nouvelles approches en classification : Application aux langues bantu du Nord-Ouest . Ph.D Dissertation, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, 550 pp.

Other computational phylogenetic analyses of Bantu include Currie et al. (2013),Currie, Thomas E., Andrew Meade, Myrtille Guillon, Ruth Mace (2013). "Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa".  . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2013, Volume 280, issue 1762  Grollemund et al. (2015),Grollemund, Rebecca Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti, and Mark Pagel (2015). "Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals".  . PNAS October 27, 2015. 112 (43), 13296–13301.  Rexova et al. 2006,Rexová, K., Bastin, Y., Frynta, D. 2006. "Cladistic analysis of Bantu languages: a new tree based on combined lexical and grammatical data". Naturwissenschaften 93, 189–194. Holden et al., 2016,Holden, C., Meade, A., Pagel, M. 2016. "Comparison of MP and Bayesian Bantu Trees" (Chp. 4). In: The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: a Phylogenetic Approach, Ruth Mace, Clare Holden, Stephen Shennan (eds.)(Amazon Look Inside)(in Britain 1st published by UCL Press, 2005). and Whiteley et al. 2018.Whiteley, P.M., Ming Xue, Wheeler, W.C. 2018. Revising the Bantu tree. Cladistics, 1–20 (amnh.org).

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

Language structure
Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu.

The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class, and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with the noun. Plurality is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix. All Bantu languages are agglutinative.

The verb has a number of prefixes, though in the western languages these are often treated as independent words.Derek Nurse, 2008. Tense and aspect in Bantu, p 70 (fn). In many of the Zone A, including Mbam, the verbs are clearly analytic. In Swahili, for example, Mtoto mdogo amekisoma (for comparison, Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga in Shona language) means 'The small child has read it [a book]'. Mtoto 'child' governs the adjective prefix m- (representing the diminutive form of the word) and the verb subject prefix a-. Then comes perfect tense -me- and an object marker -ki- agreeing with implicit kitabu 'book' (from Arabic kitab). Pluralizing to 'children' gives Watoto wadogo wamekisoma (Vana vadoko varikuverenga in Shona), and pluralizing to 'books' (vitabu) gives watoto wadogo wamevisoma.

Bantu words are typically made up of open syllables of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most languages having syllables exclusively of this type. The Bushong language recorded by Vansina, however, has final consonants,Vansina, J. Esquisse de Grammaire Bushong. Commission de Linguistique Africaine, Tervuren, Belgique, 1959. while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi.Turner, Rev. Wm. Y., Tumbuka–Tonga$1–$2 $3ictionEnglish Dictionary  Hetherwick Press, Blantyre, Malawi 1952. pages i–ii. The morphological shape of Bantu words is typically CV, VCV, CVCV, VCVCV, etc.; that is, any combination of CV (with possibly a V- syllable at the start). In other words, a strong claim for this language family is that almost all words end in a vowel, precisely because closed syllables (CVC) are not permissible in most of the documented languages, as far as is understood.

This tendency to avoid consonant clusters in some positions is important when words are imported from English or other non-Bantu languages. An example from Chewa: the word "school", borrowed from English, and then transformed to fit the sound patterns of this language, is sukulu. That is, sk- has been broken up by inserting an epenthetic -u-; -u has also been added at the end of the word. Another example is buledi for "bread". Similar effects are seen in loanwords for other non-African CV languages like Japanese. However, a clustering of sounds at the beginning of a syllable can be readily observed in such languages as Shona,Doke, Clement M., A Comparative Study in Shona Phonetics University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1931. and the Makua languages.Relatório do I Seminário sobre a Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas  NELIMO, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. 1989.

With few exceptions, such as Kiswahili and Rutooro, Bantu languages are tonal and have two to four register tones.

Reduplication
Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem.Abdulaziz Lodhi, "Verbal extensions in Bantu (the case of Swahili and Nyamwezi)". Africa & Asia, 2002, 2:4–26, Göteborg University

Example: in Swahili, piga means "strike", pigapiga means "strike repeatedly".

Well-known words and names that have reduplication include:
Bafana Bafana, a football team
Chipolopolo, a football team
Eric Djemba-Djemba, a footballer
Lomana LuaLua, a footballer

Repetition emphasizes the repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," means "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," means "A slow but steady pace wins the race." The latter repeats "pole" to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. 

As another example, "Haraka haraka" would mean "hurrying just for the sake of hurrying" (reckless hurry), as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry].

In contrast, there are some words in some of the languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, or lower intensity of the action, and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more.

Example 1: In Xitsonga and (Chi)Shona, famba means "walk" while famba-famba means "walk around".
Example 2: in isiZulu and SiSwati hamba means "go", hambahamba means "go a little bit, but not much".
Example 3: in both of the above languages shaya means "strike", shayashaya means "strike a few more times lightly, but not heavy strikes and not too many times".
Example 4: In Shona  means "scratch", Kwenyakwenya means "scratch excessively or a lot".
Example 5: In Luhya cheenda means "walk", cheendacheenda means "take a walk but not far off", as in buying time before something is ready or a situation or time is right.

Noun class
The following is a list of nominal classes in Bantu languages:
 Singular classes Plural classes Typical meaning(s) Number  Prefix Number  Prefix 1  *mʊ- 2  *ba- Humans, animate 3  *mu- 4  *mi- Plants, inanimate 5  *dɪ- 6  *ma- Various; class 6 for liquids (mass nouns) 7  *ki- 8  *bɪ- Various, diminutives, manner/way/language 9  *n- 10  *n- Animals, inanimate 11  *du- Abstract nouns 12  *ka- 13  *tu- Diminutives 14  *bu- Abstract nouns 15  *ku- Infinitives 16  *pa- Locatives (proximal, exact) 17  *ku- Locatives (distal, approximate) 18  *mu- Locatives (interior) 19  *pɪ- Diminutives

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

By country

Following is an incomplete list of the principal Bantu languages of each country. Included are those languages that constitute at least 1% of the population and have at least 10% the number of speakers of the largest Bantu language in the country.

Most languages are referred to in English without the class prefix (Swahili, Tswana, Ndebele), but are sometimes seen with the (language-specific) prefix (Kiswahili, Setswana, Sindebele). In a few cases prefixes are used to distinguish languages with the same root in their name, such as Tshiluba and Kiluba (both Luba), Umbundu and Kimbundu (both Mbundu). The prefixless form typically does not occur in the language itself, but is the basis for other words based on the ethnicity. So, in the country of Botswana the people are the Batswana, one person is a Motswana, and the language is Setswana; and in Uganda, centred on the kingdom of Buganda, the dominant ethnicity are the Baganda (singular Muganda), whose language is Luganda.

Lingua franca
Swahili (Kiswahili) (350,000; tens of millions as L2)

Angola
South Mbundu (Umbundu) (4 million)
Central North Mbundu (Kimbundu) (3 million)
North Bakongo (Kikongo) (576,800)
Ovambo (Ambo) (Oshiwambo) (500,000)
Luvale (Chiluvale) (500,000)
Chokwe (Chichokwe) (500,000)

Botswana
Tswana (Setswana) (1.6 million)
Kalanga (Ikalanga) (150,000)

Burundi
Swahili is a recognized national language
Kirundi (8.5 – 10.5 million)

Cameroon
Beti (1.7 million: 900,000 Bulu, 600,000 Ewondo, 120,000 Fang, 60,000 Eton, 30,000 Bebele)
Basaa (230,000)
Duala (350,000)
Manenguba languages (230,000)

Central African Republic
Mbati (60,000)
Aka (30,000)
Pande (8,870)
Ngando (5,000)
Ukhwejo
Kako
Mpiemo
Bodo 
Kari

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Swahili is a recognized national language
Lingala (Ngala) (2 million; 7 million with L2 speakers)
Luba-Kasai (Tshiluba) (6.5 million)
Kituba (4.5 million), a Bantu creole
Kongo (Kikongo) (3.5 million)
Luba-Katanga (Kiluba) (1.5+ million)
Songe (Lusonge) (1+ million)
Nande (Orundandi) (1 million)
Tetela (Otetela) (800,000)
Yaka (Iyaka) (700,000+)
Shi (700,000)
Yombe (Kiyombe) (670,000)
Lele (Bashilele) (26,000)

Equatorial Guinea
Beti (Fang) (300,000)
Bube (40,000)

Eswatini
Swazi (Siswati) (1 million)

Gabon
Baka
Barama
Bekwel
Benga
Bubi
Bwisi
Duma
Fang (500,000)
Kendell
Kanin
Sake
Sangu
Seki
Sighu
Simba
Sira
Northern Teke
Western Teke
Tsaangi
Tsogo
Vili (3,600)
Vumbu
Wandji
Wumbvu
Yangho
Yasa

Kenya
Swahili and English are national languages
Gikuyu (8 million)
Luhya (6.8 million)
Kamba (4 million)
Meru (Kimeru) (2.7 million)
Gusii (2 million)
Mijikenda
Taita
Embu
Mbeere
Giriama

Lesotho
Sesotho (1.8 million)
Zulu (Isizulu) (300,000)

Malawi
Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (7 million)
Tumbuka (1 million)
Yao (1 million)

Mozambique
Swahili is a recognized national language
Makhuwa (4 million; 7.4 million all Makua)
Tsonga (Xitsonga) (3.1 million)
Shona (Ndau) (1.6 million)
Lomwe (1.5 million)
Sena (1.3 million)
Tswa (1.2 million)
Chuwabu (1.0 million)
Chopi (800,000)
Ronga (700,000)
Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (600,000)
Yao (Chiyao) (500,000)
Nyungwe (Cinyungwe/Nhungue)(400,000)
Tonga (400,000)
Makonde (400,000)
Nathembo (25,000)

Namibia
Ovambo (Ambo, Oshiwambo) (1,500,000)
Herero (200,000)

Nigeria
Jarawa (250,000)
Mbula-Bwazza (100,000)
Kulung (40,000)
Bile (38,000)
Lame (10,000)
Mama (2,000–3,000)
Shiki (1,200)
Gwa
Labir
Dulbu

Republic of the Congo
Kituba (1.2+ million) [a Bantu creole]
Kongo (Kikongo) (1.0 million)
Teke languages (500,000)
Yombe (350,000)
Suundi (120,000)
Mbosi (110,000)
Lingala (100,000; ? L2 speakers)

Rwanda
Swahili, Kinyarwanda, English, and French are official languages
Kinyarwanda (Kinyarwanda) (10 – 12 million)

Somalia
Swahili (Mwini dialect)
Chimwini
Mushungulu

South Africa
According to the South African National Census of 2011South African National Census of 2011
Zulu (Isizulu) (11,587,374)
Xhosa (Isixhosa) (8,154,258)
Sepedi(4,618,576)
Tswana (Setswana) (4,067,248)
Sotho (Sesotho) (3,849,563)
Tsonga (Xitsonga) (2,277,148)
Swazi (Siswati) (1,297,046)
Venda (Tshivenda) (1,209,388)
Southern Ndebele (Transvaal Ndebele) (1,090,223)
Total Nguni: 22,406,049 (61.98%)
Total Sotho-Tswana: 13,744,775 (38.02%)
Total official indigenous language speakers: 36,150,824 (69.83%)

Tanzania
Swahili is the national language
Sukuma (5.5 million)
Gogo (1.5 million)
Haya (Kihaya) (1.3 million)
Chaga (Kichaga) (1.2+ million : 600,000 Mochi, 300,000+ Machame, 300,000+ Vunjo)
Nyamwezi (1.0 million)
Makonde (1.0 million)
Ha (1.0 million)
Nyakyusa (800,000)
Hehe (800,000)
Luguru (700,000)
Bena (600,000)
Shambala (650,000)
Nyaturu (600,000)

Uganda
Swahili and English are official languages
Luganda (9,295,300)
Runyankore (4,436,000)
Lusoga (3,904,600)
Rukiga (3,129,000)
Masaba (Lumasaba) (2.7 million)
Runyoro (1,273,000)
Konjo (1,118,000)
Rutooro (1,111,000)
Lugwere (816,000)
Kinyarwanda (750,000)
Samia (684,000)
Ruuli (250,000)
Talinga Bwisi (133,000)
Gungu (110,000)
Amba (56,000)
Singa

Zambia
Aushi (Unknown)
Bemba (3.3 million)
Tonga (1.0 million)
Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (800,000)
Kaonde (240,000)
Lozi (Silozi) (600,000)
Lala-Bisa (600,000)
Nsenga (550,000)
Tumbuka (Chitumbuka) (500,000)
Lunda (450,000)
Nyiha (400,000+)
Mambwe-Lungu (400,000)

Zimbabwe
Shona languages (15 million incl. Karanga, Zezuru, Korekore, Ndau, Manyika)
Northern Ndebele (IsiNdebele) (estimated 2 million)
Tonga
Chewa/ Nyanja (Chichewa/ChiNyanja)
Venda
Kalanga

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

Bantu words popularised in western cultures
A case has been made out for borrowings of many place-names and even misremembered rhymes – chiefly from one of the Luba varieties – in the USA.

Some words from various Bantu languages have been borrowed into western languages. These include: 

Rubutun Yare
Along with the Latin script and Arabic script orthographies, there are also some modern indigenous writing systems used for Bantu languages:
The Mwangwego alphabet is an abugida created in 1979 that is sometimes used to write the Chewa language and other languages of Malawi.
The Mandombe script is an abugida that is used to write the Bantu languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mainly by the Kimbanguist movement.
The Isibheqe Sohlamvu or Ditema tsa Dinoko script is a featural syllabary used to write the Sintu or Southern Bantu languages.

Duba don Ƙarin Bayani 
Meeussen's rule
Nguni languages
Proto-Bantu Swadesh list

Manazarta

Bibliography

.




 Further reading 



External links
Arte da lingua de Angola: oeferecida [sic] a virgem Senhora N. do Rosario, mãy, Senhora dos mesmos pretos The art of the language of Angola, by Father Pedro Dias, 1697, Lisbon, artedalinguadean
Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary linguistics.berkeley.edu, includes comprehensive bibliography.
Maho, Jouni Filip NUGL Online. The online version of the New Updated Guthrie List, a referential classification of the Bantu languages goto.glocalnet.net, 4 June 2009, 120pp. Guthrie 1948 in detail, with subsequent corrections and corresponding ISO codes. 
Bantu online resources bantu-languages.com, Jacky Maniacky, 7 July 2007, including
List of Bantu noun classes with reconstructed Proto-Bantu prefixes bantu-languages.com (in French)
Ehret's compilation of classifications by Klieman, Bastin, himself, and others pp 204–09, ucla.edu, 24 June 2012
Contini-Morava, Ellen. Noun Classification in Swahili . 1994, Virginia.edu
List of Bantu language names with synonyms ordered by Guthrie number.linguistics.berkeley.edu 529 names
Introduction to the languages of South Africa salanguages.com
Narrow Bantu Journal of West African Languages
Uganda Bantu Languages  ugandatravelguide.com


Category:Synthetic languages
Category:Agglutinative languages