Bantoid is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the

Southern Bantoid languages Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branc ...

, a division which also includes the

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

that constitute the overwhelming majority and to which Bantoid is named after.

History

The term "Bantoid" was first used by Krause in 1895 for languages that showed resemblances in vocabulary to Bantu.

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on ...

, in his 1963 ''

The Languages of Africa ''The Languages of Africa'' is a 1963 book of essays by the linguist Joseph Greenberg, in which the author sets forth a genetic classification of African languages that, with some changes, continues to be the most commonly used one today. It is a ...

'', defined Bantoid as the group to which Bantu belongs together with its closest relatives; this is the sense in which the term is still used today. However, according to

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and w ...

, the Bantoid languages probably do not actually form a coherent group.

Internal classification

A proposal that divided Bantoid into North Bantoid and South Bantoid was introduced by Williamson. In this proposal, the Mambiloid and

Dakoid languages The Dakoid languages are a branch of the Northern Bantoid languages spoken in Taraba Taraba can refer to: * Taraba State * Taraba River The Taraba River is a river in Taraba State, Nigeria, a tributary of the Benue River. It joins the Benue on ...

(and later

Tikar The Tikar (also Tikari, Tige, Tigar, Tigre, Tikali) are a central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau in Cameroon. They are known as great artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of ...

) are grouped together as North Bantoid, while everything else Bantoid is subsumed under South Bantoid; '' Ethnologue'' uses this classification. The phylogenetic unity of the North Bantoid group is sometimes thought to be questionable, and the

are often now placed outside Bantoid. But the work did establish Southern Bantoid as a valid genetic unit. Southern Bantoid includes the well known and numerous

.Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) ''African Languages – An Introduction.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 11–42.

References

External links

Kirill Babaev, Reconstructing Bantoid Pronouns

Journal of West African Languages: Bantoid languages
{{Niger-Congo branches Benue–Congo languages