Bantu languages

E25285

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.

All labels observed (8)

How this entity was disambiguated

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

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (585)

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

Rozi languageFamily Bantu languages
Rotse languageFamily Bantu languages
Kololo language languageFamily Bantu languages
Kingdom of Mapungubwe languageFamily Bantu languages
Luyana languageFamily Bantu languages
this entity surface form: Bantu
Swahili people languageFamily Bantu languages
Mijikenda languageFamily Bantu languages
Motswana ethnicLanguageFamily Bantu languages
linguist Christopher Ehret languageFamilyResearched Bantu languages
subject surface form: Christopher Ehret
Hlubi people languageFamily Bantu languages
Bantoid hasSubgroup Bantu languages
this entity surface form: Bantu
Lumbu languageFamily Bantu languages
Lumbu languageFamily Bantu languages
subject surface form: Lumbu language
Yipunu languageFamily Bantu languages
Ipunu languageFamily Bantu languages
Pounou languageFamily Bantu languages
mye languageFamily Bantu languages
subject surface form: Myene
this entity surface form: Bantu
Omyènè subFamily Bantu languages
Omyènè subFamily Bantu languages
subject surface form: Myene
Luvenda languageFamily Bantu languages
Venda people languageFamily Bantu languages
Bhaca people languageFamily Bantu languages
Kerewe language subfamily Bantu languages
Nyeri dialect languageFamily Bantu languages
Embu language languageFamily Bantu languages
Meru language languageBranch Bantu languages
Kamba language languageFamily Bantu languages
Gikuyu languageFamily Bantu languages
subject surface form: Kikuyu
Gĩkũyũ languageFamily Bantu languages
Kikuyu language languageFamily Bantu languages
siSwati languageFamily Bantu languages
Black South African hasLanguageFamily Bantu languages
Thembuland associatedLanguageFamily Bantu languages
Pygmy peoples languageFamily Bantu languages
Proto-Niger–Congo isAncestorOf Bantu languages
Chewa people languageFamily Bantu languages
Hatsa isNotGeneticallyRelatedTo Bantu languages
Sango hasLoanwordsFrom Bantu languages
Zanaki people languageFamily Bantu languages
Isanzu languageFamily Bantu languages
this entity surface form: Bantu
Baganda languageFamily Bantu languages
Ganda languageFamily Bantu languages
Runyankole languageFamily Bantu languages
this entity surface form: Bantu
Thembu languageFamily Bantu languages
Baka–Gundi languages contactWith Bantu languages
Kivili languageFamily Bantu languages
Kisolongo languageFamily Bantu languages
Kizombo languageFamily Bantu languages
Kikamba-Doondo languageFamily Bantu languages
this entity surface form: Bantu
Oluganda languageFamily Bantu languages