The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The total number of Bantu languages ranges in the hundreds, depending on the definition of "language" versus "dialect", and is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages."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". For Bantuic, Linguasphere has 260 outer languages (which are equivalent to languages, inner languages being dialects). John McWhorter said, using a comparison of 16 languages from Bangi-Moi, Bangi-Ntamba, Koyo-Mboshi, Likwala-Sangha, Ngondi-Ngiri and Northern Mozambiquean, mostly from Guthrie Zone C, that many varieties are

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

. The total number of Bantu speakers is in the hundreds of millions, estimated around 350 million in the mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the total population of Africa or roughly 5% of world population). Bantu languages are largely spoken southeast of Cameroon, throughout Central Africa, Southeast Africa and Southern Africa. About one-sixth of Bantu speakers, and about one-third of Bantu languages, are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone (c. 60 million speakers as of 2015). See

list of Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Southern A ...

. The Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers is

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...

. Swahili is one of the official languages of the founding members of the east african community ie Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda( L1: c. 16 million, L2: 80 million, as of 2015). Other major Bantu languages include Xhosa with 13 million speakers ( South Africa and Zimbabwe), Zulu with 12 million speakers and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included); Zimbabwe has Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya and Xhosa speakers. ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'' separates the largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, which together have 20 million speakers. Being close, the bantu languages like the romance languages borrow words from each other and bantu speakers can recognise some words from other bantu languages

Name

The similarity among dispersed Bantu languages had been observed as early as the 17th century. The term ''Bantu'' as a name for the group was coined (as ''Bâ-ntu'') by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858, and popularised 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. 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). 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". 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. In addition, '' Kintu'' is a figure in some mythologies. 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 The Bantu expansion is a hypothesis about the history of the major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu-speaking group, which spread from an original nucleus around Central Africa across much of sub-Saharan Africa. In the process, t ...

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.

Classification

The most widely used classification is an alphanumeric coding system developed by

Malcolm Guthrie Malcolm Guthrie (10 February 1903 – 22 November 1972) was an English linguist who specialized in Bantu languages. Guthrie was a foremost professor of Bantu languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He is know ...

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 Bantoid is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages, a division which also includes the Bantu languages that constitute the overwhelming majority and to ...

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 clearly 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. 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, ''

'' 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 ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute for ...

'' 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): Other computational phylogenetic analyses of Bantu include Currie et al. (2013), Grollemund et al. (2015), Rexova et al. 2006, Holden et al., 2016, and Whiteley et al. 2018.

Glottolog classification

(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 Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language *Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for Nationali ...

, Central-Western Bantu,

East Bantu East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and Mbam-Bube-Jarawan).

Language structure

Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu. The most prominent

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...

characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...

es (see

Sotho grammar This article presents a brief overview of the grammar of the Sesotho and provides links to more detailed articles. Typology The Sesotho language may be described in several ways depending on the aspect being considered. *It is an agglutinative ...

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. Plural 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. In

, for example, ''Mtoto mdogo amekisoma'' (for comparison, ''Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga'' in

Shona language Shona (; sn, chiShona) is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It was codified by the colonial government in the 1950s. According to ''Ethnologue'', Shona, comprising the Zezuru, Korekore and Karanga dialects, is spoken by about 7 ...

) means 'The small child has read it 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, while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi. 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, and the Makua languages. With few exceptions, such as Kiswahili and Rutooro, Bantu languages are tonal and have two to four register tones.

Reduplication

Reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwa ...

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 The Zambia national football team represents Zambia in men's international association football and it is governed by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ). During the 1980s, they were known as the KK 11, after founding president Dr. Kennet ...

, 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," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," has two to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. The meaning of the former in translation is, "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," and that of the latter is, "A slow but steady pace wins the race." Haraka haraka would mean hurrying just for the sake of hurrying, reckless hurry, as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka"

ome here! Hurry, hurry Ome may refer to: Places * Ome (Bora Bora), a public island in the lagoon of Bora Bora * Ome, Lombardy, Italy, a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brescia * Ōme, Tokyo, a city in the Prefecture of Tokyo * Ome (crater), a crater on Mars Tran ...

In contrast, there are some words in some of the languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, and or lower intensity of the action and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more. *Example 1: In Xi tsonga and (Chi)Shona, ''famba'' means "walk" while ''famba-famba'' means "walk around". *Example 2: in isiZulu and Si Swati ''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".

Noun class

The following is a list of nominal classes in Bantu languages:

Syntax

Virtually all Bantu languages have a Subject–verb–object word order with some exceptions such as the

Nen language Nen language may refer to: *Nen language (Cameroon) The Nen language, ''Tunen'' (''Banen''), is a Bantu language of Cameroon. Maho (2009) considers Aling'a to be a distinct language. Unlike all other Bantu languages The Bantu languages (Engli ...

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 Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu or 'North Mbundu' (see Umbundu), is the second-most-widely-spoken Bantu language in Angola. Its speakers are concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Lua ...

(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 Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Buganda's Districts of Uganda, Central Region, inclu ...

'', the dominant ethnicity are the '' Baganda'' (singular ''Muganda''), whose language is ''

Luganda The Ganda language or Luganda (, , ) is a Bantu language spoken in the African Great Lakes region. It is one of the major languages in Uganda and is spoken by more than 10 million Baganda and other people principally in central Uganda including ...

''.

Lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

(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 Chokwe may refer to: *Chokwe people, a Central African ethnic group ** Chokwe language, a Bantu language * Chokwe or Tshokwe, Botswana, a village * Chokwe, Malawi * Chókwè District, Mozambique **Chokwe, Mozambique Chokwé, and earlier known a ...

(Chichokwe) (500,000) Botswana * Tswana (Setswana) (1.6 million) * Kalanga (Ikalanga) (150,000) Burundi :''Swahili is recognized national language'' * Kirundi (8.5 - 10.5 million) Cameroon *

Beti Beti may refer to: People * Mongo Beti (1932–2001), Cameroonian writer * Beti George (born 1939), Welsh television and radio broadcaster * Beti Jones (1919–2006), Scottish social worker * Beti Kamya-Turwomwe (born 1955), Ugandan business ...

(1.7 million: 900,000 Bulu, 600,000 Ewondo, 120,000

Fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fang ...

, 60,000 Eton, 30,000 Bebele) *

Basaa Basaa (also spelled ''Bassa, Basa, Bissa''), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions. Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects. B ...

(230,000) *

Duala Duala or Douala can refer to: Relating to Cameroon * Duala people, an ethnic group in Cameroon * Duala language, part of the Bantu languages * Douala, the largest city in Cameroon, founded by the Duala people * Rudolf Duala Manga Bell (1873–1914 ...

(350,000) *

Manenguba languages The Manenguba languages, also known as the Mbo cluster, are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken on and around the Manenguba mountain range in south-western Cameroon. The people speaking the various Manenguba languages belong to t ...

(230,000) Central African Republic * Mbati (60,000) *

Aka Aka, AKA or a.k.a. may refer to: * "Also known as", used to introduce an alternative name Languages * Aka language (Sudan) * Aka language, in the Central African Republic * Hruso language, in India, also referred to as Aka * a prefix in the n ...

(30,000) *

Pande Pandey, Pande, or Panday (Hindi: पाण्डेय/पाण्डे/पाँडे/पाण्डेय) ( Nepali: पाण्डे/पाँडे/पाण्डेय) is a surname found among the communities of Brahmins in India an ...

(8,870) * Ngando (5,000) * Ukhwejo * Kako * Mpiemo *

Bodo Bodo may refer to: Ethnicity * Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India * Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people Culture and language * Boro cu ...

* Kari Democratic Republic of the Congo :''Swahili is recognized national language'' * Lingala (Ngala) (2 million; 7 million with L2 speakers) * Luba-Kasai (Tshiluba) (6.5 million) *

Kituba ''Kituba'' is a small genus of central African ground spiders. It was first described by B. V. B. Rodrigues and C. A. Rheims in 2020, and it has only been found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. it contains only two species: '' K. langala ...

(4.5 million), a Bantu creole * Kongo (Kikongo) (3.5 million) *

Luba-Katanga Luba-Katanga, also known as Luba-Shaba and ''Kiluba'' ( lu, Kiluba), is a Bantu language ( Zone L) of Central Africa. It is spoken mostly in the south-east area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Luba people. Kiluba is spoken in ...

(Kiluba) (1.5+ million) *

Songe Songe is a village in Tvedestrand municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located along the European route E18, about northeast of the town of Tvedestrand and about south of the village of Akland (in neighboring Risør munici ...

(Lusonge) (1+ million) *

Nande Nande is a village in Mulshi taluka of Pune District in the state of Maharashtra, India.Talukas surrounding the village are Karjat taluka, Talegaon Dabhade Taluka, Mawal taluka and by Khalapur taluka. Districts closest to the village are Raigad ...

(Orundandi) (1 million) * Tetela (Otetela) (800,000) * Yaka (Iyaka) (700,000+) * Shi (700,000) * Yombe (Kiyombe) (670,000) * Lele (Bashilele) (26,000) Equatorial Guinea *

(

) (300,000) * Bube (40,000) Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) * Swazi (Siswati) (1 million) Gabon *

Baka Baka, baká or BAKA may refer to: Ethnicities and languages * Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), an African ethnic group * Baka people (Congo and South Sudan), an African ethnic group * Baka language, a dialect cluster of Cameroon and Gabon * Baka ...

* Barama *

Bekwel Bekwel (Bekwil) is a Bantu language of the Republic of the Congo. There are some 10,000 speakers there, with a quarter that number across the border in Gabon, and perhaps a similar on the opposite side in Cameroon. It is rather close to Nzime ...

* Benga * Bubi * Bwisi * Duma *

(500,000) * Kendell * Kanin * Sake *

Sangu Sangu may refer to: * Sangu language (Gabon) * Sangu language (Tanzania) * Sanghu, Taplejung, Nepal * Sangu River, Bangladesh * Sangu (armour) ''Sangu'' is the term for the three armour components that protected the extremities of the samurai cl ...

* 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 Luhya or Abaluyia may refer to: * Luhya people The Luhya (also known as ''Abaluyia'' or Luyia) comprise a number of Bantu ethnic groups native to western Kenya. They are divided into 20 culturally and linguistically related tribes. ''Luhya'' ref ...

(6.8 million) * Kamba (4 million) * Meru (Kimeru) (2.7 million) * Gusii (2 million) *

Mijikenda Mijikenda may refer to: *Mijikenda peoples *Mijikenda language Mijikenda is a Bantu dialect cluster spoken along the coast of East Africa, mostly in Kenya, where there are 1.9 million speakers (2009 census) but also in Tanzania, where there are ...

* Taita *

Embu Embu may refer to: Places ; in Brazil * Embu das Artes * Embu-Guaçu ; in Kenya * Embu, Kenya * Embu County Other * Embu people of Kenya *Embu language Embu, also known as Kîembu, is a Bantu language of Kenya. It is spoken by the Embu peopl ...

Mbeere The Mbeere or Ambeere people are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting the former Mbeere District in the now-defunct Eastern Province of Kenya. According to the 2019 Kenya National census, there are 195,250 Ambeere who inhabit an area of 2,093 km� ...

* 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 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 Sena may refer to: Places * Sanandaj or Sena, city in northwestern Iran * Sena (state constituency), represented in the Perlis State Legislative Assembly * Sena, Dashtestan, village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Sena, Huesca, municipality in Huesc ...

(1.3 million) *

Tswa Tswa (''Xitswa'') is a South-Eastern Bantu language in Southern Mozambique. Its closest relatives are Ronga and Tsonga, the three forming the Tswa–Ronga family of languages. Tswa is mainly spoken in the rural areas west of Inhambane. Its l ...

(1.2 million) * Chuwabu (1.0 million) * Chopi (800,000) *

Ronga Ronga (XiRonga; sometimes ShiRonga or GiRonga) is a Bantu language of the Tswa–Ronga branch spoken just south of Maputo in Mozambique. It extends a little into South Africa. It has about 650,000 speakers in Mozambique and a further 90,000 ...

(700,000) * Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (600,000) * Yao (Chiyao) (500,000) * Nyungwe (Cinyungwe/Nhungue)(400,000) * Tonga (400,000) * Makonde (400,000) *

Nathembo Nathembo, or Sakati (Sangaji), is a Bantu language spoken by the Makua people of Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located ...

(25,000) Namibia * Ovambo (Ambo, Oshiwambo) (1,500,000) *

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...

(200,000) Nigeria * Jarawa (250,000) *

Mbula-Bwazza Mbula-Bwazza is one of the Bantu languages spoken in Nigeria. It is a dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually ...

(100,000) *

Kulung Kulung may refer to: * Kulung people, an ethnic group of Nepal * Kulung language (Nepal), a Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal * Kulung language (Chad), a Chadic language of Chad * Kulung language (West Chadic), a Chadic language of Nigeria * Kulung l ...

(40,000) *

Bile Bile (from Latin ''bilis''), or gall, is a dark-green-to-yellowish-brown fluid produced by the liver of most vertebrates that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is produced continuously by the liver (liver bile ...

(38,000) * Lame (10,000) * Mama (2,000-3,000) * Shiki (1,200) * Gwa * Labir * Dulbu Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) *

(1.2+ million) Bantu creole* Kongo (Kikongo) (1.0 million) * Teke languages (500,000) * Yombe (350,000) * Suundi (120,000) *

Mbosi Mbosi (Mboshi) is a Bantu language spoken by the Mbochi people in the Republic of Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply eithe ...

(110,000) * Lingala (100,000; ? L2 speakers) Rwanda :''Swahili, Kinyarwanda, English and French are official languages'' * Kinyarwanda (Kinyarwanda) (10 - 12 million) Somalia *

(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) * Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa) (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 Go go or Gogo may refer to: Geography * Ghogha, India, a town once also known as Gogo * Gogo, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso, a town * Gogo, Zoundwéogo, Burkina Faso, a city * Gogo Department, a department in central Burkina Faso * Gogo Formatio ...

(1.5 million) *

Haya Haya may refer to: Biology * ''Haya'' (dinosaur), a genus of basal ornithopod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous from Mongolia * ''Haya'' (plant), a genus of plants in the family Caryophyllaceae * Haya de Herguijuela (Spanish: beech ...

(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'' *

(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 Gwere, or ''Lugwere,'' is the language spoken by the Gwere people (''Bagwere''), a Bantu people found in the eastern part of Uganda. It has a close dialectical resemblance to Soga and Ganda Ganda may refer to: Places * Ganda, Angola * Ganda, ...

(816,000) * Kinyarwanda (750,000) * Samia (684,000) * Ruuli (250,000) * Talinga Bwisi (133,000) * Gungu (110,000) * Amba (56,000) * Singa Zambia *

Aushi Aushi, known by native speakers as ''Ikyaushi'', is a Bantu language primarily spoken in the Luapula_Province, Lwapula Province of Zambia and the Haut-Katanga_Province, (Haut-)Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although many sc ...

(Unknown) *

Bemba Bemba may refer to: * Bemba language (Chibemba), a Bantu language spoken in Zambia * Bemba people (AbaBemba), an ethnic group of central Africa * Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-President of the Democratic Republic of Congo * A Caribbean drum, ...

(3.3 million) * Tonga (1.0 million) * Chewa (Nyanja) (Chichewa) (800,000) *

Kaonde Kaonde (''kiiKaonde'') is a Bantu language spoken primarily in Zambia but also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kaonde and its dialects are spoken and understood by perhaps 350,000 people or more. It is estimated that approximately 2.3% ...

(240,000) *

Lozi Lozi may refer to: * Lozi language * Lozi people Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi or Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily ...

(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 *

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

Geographic areas

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:

Writing systems

Along with the Latin script and

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

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 Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambique and Zambia. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for ...

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.

References

Bibliography

*Biddulph, Joseph, ''Bantu Byways'' Pontypridd 2001. . * * Guthrie, Malcolm. 1948. ''The classification of the Bantu languages.'' London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute. . *Guthrie, Malcolm. 1971. ''Comparative Bantu'', Vol 2. Farnborough: Gregg International. *. *Maho, Jouni F. 2001
The Bantu area:(towards clearing up) a mess
''Africa & Asia'', 1:40–49. *Maho, Jouni F. 2002
Bantu lineup: comparative overview of three Bantu classifications
Göteborg University: Department of Oriental and African Languages. * . * . *

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 Pedro Dias may refer to: * Pedro Dias (footballer, born 1973), Portuguese football manager and former forward * Pedro Dias (judoka) (born 1982), Portuguese judoka * Pedro Dias (footballer, born 1992), Brazilian football forward See also * Pedro D� ...

, 1697, Lisbon, artedalinguadean
Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary
linguistics.berkeley.edu, includes comprehensive bibliography. *Maho, Jouni Fili
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

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

linguistics.berkeley.edu 529 names
Introduction to the languages of South Africa
salanguages.com
Narrow Bantu
Journal of West African Languages

ugandatravelguide.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bantu languages Synthetic languages Agglutinative languages