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.

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All labels observed (8)

Label Occurrences
Bantu languages canonical 509
Bantu 63
Bantu language family 7

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 (585)

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

Northern Ndebele → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
Afrikaans → influencedBy → Bantu languages ⓘ
Khoisan languages → distinctFrom → Bantu languages ⓘ
Equatorial Guinea → nationalLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Fang language → subgroup → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Fang language → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Pichi language → substrateLanguage → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Africa → hasLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Tanzania → nationalLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kiunguja → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Central Africa → majorLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kimvita → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
African Portuguese → influencedBy → Bantu languages ⓘ
Sesotho → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Xhosa → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Tshivenda → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Setswana → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Setswana → subfamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Southern Bantu languages
Bantu languages → alsoKnownAs → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Bantu languages → alsoKnownAs → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu family
Southern Bantu → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
nde → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Nguni languages → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → includes → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → includes → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu language family
Southern Bantoid → hasMajorSubdivision → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Southern Bantoid → hasSubgroup → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Southern Bantoid → hasSubgroup → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu R languages
Southern Ndebele → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Shona → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Tswana people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Ha people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Bembe people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Fipa people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Sukuma people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Northern Sotho (Sepedi) → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
subject surface form: Northern Sotho
Zulu people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kirundi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Nzebi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Lozi → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Thembu people → languageBranch → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kituba → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Punu → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
Punu → languageSubgroup → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Myene → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
this entity surface form: Bantu
Venda → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kikuyu → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kikuyu → geneticClassification → Bantu languages ⓘ
Chichewa → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Khoe languages → areContactWith → Bantu languages ⓘ