Bantu languages

E25285
branch of Niger–Congo languages language family

Bantu languages are a large family of closely related languages spoken across much of central, eastern, and southern Africa, known for features like noun class systems and widespread mutual influences among neighboring tongues.

Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (6)

Surface form Occurrences
Bantu 16
Bantu language family 2
Bantu R languages 1

Statements (80)

Predicate Object
instanceOf branch of Niger–Congo languages ⓘ
language family ⓘ
alsoKnownAs Bantu languages ⓘ
surface form: Bantu

Bantu languages ⓘ
surface form: Bantu family
ancestorLanguage Proto-Bantu ⓘ
areKnownFor complex systems of noun classes controlling agreement across the clause ⓘ
widespread mutual influences among neighboring languages ⓘ
areSpokenIn Angola ⓘ
Botswana ⓘ
Burundi ⓘ
Cameroon ⓘ
Comoros ⓘ
Democratic Republic of the Congo ⓘ
Equatorial Guinea ⓘ
Eswatini ⓘ
Gabon ⓘ
Kenya ⓘ
Lesotho ⓘ
Madagascar (some Bantu languages on the island) ⓘ
Malawi ⓘ
Mozambique ⓘ
Namibia ⓘ
Republic of the Congo ⓘ
Rwanda ⓘ
South Africa ⓘ
Tanzania ⓘ
Uganda ⓘ
Zambia ⓘ
Zimbabwe ⓘ
parts of Nigeria ⓘ
parts of Somalia ⓘ
classificationScheme Guthrie classification ⓘ
estimatedNumberOfLanguages over 500 ⓘ
estimatedNumberOfSpeakers hundreds of millions ⓘ
expansionPeriod roughly last 3000 years ⓘ
geographicDistribution African Great Lakes ⓘ
Central Africa ⓘ
East Africa ⓘ
surface form: Eastern Africa

East Africa ⓘ
surface form: Great Lakes region of Africa

Southern Africa ⓘ
parts of Western Africa ⓘ
hasLinguisticFeature agglutinative morphology ⓘ
concord between nouns and modifiers ⓘ
derivational verb extensions ⓘ
extensive agreement morphology ⓘ
extensive mutual lexical borrowing among neighboring languages ⓘ
noun class system ⓘ
prefixal noun classes ⓘ
rich verbal morphology ⓘ
subject–verb–object basic word order in many languages ⓘ
tone in many member languages ⓘ
hasSubgroup Northeast Coast Bantu languages ⓘ
surface form: Eastern Bantu languages

Narrow Bantu ⓘ
Southern Bantu languages ⓘ
Western Bantu languages ⓘ
historicalOrigin associated with Bantu expansion ⓘ
influencedBy Afrikaans (in some southern Bantu languages) ⓘ
Arabic (via Swahili and other coastal languages) ⓘ
English (in many southern and eastern African Bantu languages) ⓘ
Portuguese (in some coastal and southern Bantu languages) ⓘ
majorLanguage Chichewa ⓘ
Northern Ndebele ⓘ
surface form: IsiNdebele

Kikongo ⓘ
Kikuyu ⓘ
Kinyarwanda ⓘ
Kirundi ⓘ
Swahili language ⓘ
surface form: Kiswahili

Lingala ⓘ
Luganda ⓘ
Sesotho ⓘ
Setswana ⓘ
Shona ⓘ
Swahili language ⓘ
surface form: Swahili

Xhosa ⓘ
Zulu ⓘ
researchField Bantu linguistics ⓘ
subfamilyOf Niger–Congo languages ⓘ
usedAs lingua franca in many regions of Central and Eastern Africa ⓘ
national languages in several African countries ⓘ
writingSystem Latin script in most written Bantu languages ⓘ

Referenced by (82)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Bantu languages → alsoKnownAs → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Bantu languages → alsoKnownAs → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu family
Khoe languages → areContactWith → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kinyarwanda → belongsToLinguisticArea → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu languages of East Africa
Khoisan languages → distinctFrom → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kikuyu → geneticClassification → Bantu languages ⓘ
Angolar → hasInfluenceFrom → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Africa → hasLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → hasMajorSubdivision → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Atlantic–Congo languages → hasSubbranch → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → hasSubgroup → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Southern Bantoid → hasSubgroup → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu R languages
Forro → hasSubstrate → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → includes → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → includes → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu language family
African Portuguese → influencedBy → Bantu languages ⓘ
Afrikaans → influencedBy → Bantu languages ⓘ
Hadza language → isNotPartOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu language family
Bube → languageBranch → Bantu languages ⓘ
Lingala → languageBranch → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Thembu people → languageBranch → Bantu languages ⓘ
Atsi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Bembe people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Beti languages → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Bhaca polity → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Bubi people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Chichewa → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Fang language → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Fang → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
subject surface form: Fang language
this entity surface form: Bantu
Fipa people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Ha people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kikuyu → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kimvita → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kirundi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Kituba → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kiunguja → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Lingala → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Lozi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Luganda → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Mekè → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Mvaï → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Myene → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Ndowe → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Ndowe people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Northern Sotho (Sepedi) → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
subject surface form: Northern Sotho
Nzaman → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Nzebi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Okak → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Oshiwambo → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ