Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 12:3 (2022) ► pp.381–445

Erratic velars in West-Coastal Bantu

Explaining irregular sound change in Central Africa

| Ghent University
| Ghent University
In this article, we present the first quantitative study of what we call multiple unconditioned reflexes (MUR) in Bantu, more specifically of Proto-Bantu velar stops *k and *g in the West-Coastal Bantu (WCB) branch of the Bantu language family. MUR, also known as “doubles reflexes” in Bantu studies, represent a situation where one and the same proto-sound has two or more reflexes in a given language which cannot be accounted for by phonological conditioning and/or lexical borrowing. This diachronic irregularity has been explained in Bantu historical linguistics, and Niger-Congo studies more broadly, by reconstructing either an additional series of consonants (phonemic merger) or a latent conditioning that went lost (phonemic split). We show that MUR should not be explained, but rather taken as an indicator of the same pervasive irregularity of sound change reported in other parts of the world that are highly multilingual and lack a neat overlap between distinct languages and communities. Along with widespread multilingualism, we assess lexical diffusion, substrate influence, and spread-over-spread events in Bantu language history as complementary explanations for the rise of MUR in WCB.
Keywords: multiple unconditioned reflexes, irregular sound change, West-Coastal Bantu, substrate interference, small-scale multilingualism, spread-over-spread events, lexical diffusion
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Zero reflexes
    • 3.2Dorsal fricative reflexes
    • 3.3Excluding phonological conditioning as an explanation for MUR
    • 3.4Excluding lexical borrowing as an explanation for MUR
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Lexical diffusion
    • 4.2Substrate influence
    • 4.3Intrinsic multilingualism as the norm
    • 4.4Spread-over-spread events in Bantu language history
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 June 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.20054.bos
References (190)
References
Bachmann, Armin R. 1989. Zum Fortis/Lenis-Kontrast in den nordwestlichen Bantusprachen. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 191.23–31.Google Scholar
Bahuchet, Serge. 2012. Changing Language, Remaining Pygmy. Human Biology 841.11–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bancel, Pierre. 1988. Double Reflexes in Bantu A.70 Languages. Pholia 31.7–16.Google Scholar
Bastin, Yvonne, André Coupez & Michael Mann. 1999. Continuity and Divergence in the Bantu Languages: Perspectives from a Lexicostatistic Study. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.Google Scholar
Bastin, Yvonne, André Coupez, Evariste Mumba & Thilo C. Schadeberg, eds. 2002. Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa, online database. [URL]
Batini, Chiara, Joao Lopes, Doron M. Behar, Francesc Calafell, Lynn B. Jorde, Lolke van der Veen, Lluis Quintana-Murci, Gabriella Spedini, Giovanni Destro-Bisol & David Comas. 2010. Insights into the Demographic History of African Pygmies from Complete Mitochondrial Genomes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 28:2.1099–1110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bissila, Sylvie. 1991. Description phonologique du ilaale (dialecte teke du Congo). Brazzaville: Université Marien Ngouabi, Mémoire de Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures.Google Scholar
Biton, Alexandre. 1969. Dictionnaire ndumu-mbede-français et français-ndumu-mbede. Petite flore de la région de Franceville (Gabon). Grammaire ndumu-mbede. Bar-le-Duc: Imprimerie St-Paul pour l’Archevêché de Libreville.Google Scholar
Blanchon, Jean Alain. 1991. Le pounou (B 43), le mpongwe (B 11a) et l’hypothèse fortis/lenis. Pholia 61.49–83.Google Scholar
. 2008. Dictionnaire punu. Manuscript. Lyon, Université Lumière – Lyon 2, DDL – Dynamique Du Langage UMR 5596.Google Scholar
Blust, Robert. 1996. The Neogrammarian Hypothesis and Pandemic Irregularity. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 135–156. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bostoen, Koen. 2001. Osculance in Bantu Reconstructions: A Case Study of the Pair °-kádang-/°-káng- (’fry’, ’roast’) and Its Historical Implications. Studies in African Linguistics 301.121–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. Bantu Plant Names as Indicators of Linguistic Stratigraphy in the Western Province of Zambia. In Selected Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference on African Linguistics ed. by Doris L. Payne & Jaime Peña, 16–29. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
. 2014. Wild Trees in the Subsistence Economy of Early Bantu Speech Communities: A Historical-Linguistic Approach. Archaeology of African Plant Use ed. by C. J. Stevens, S. Nixon, Mary Anne Murray & Dorian Q. Fuller, 129–140. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
. 2018. The Bantu Expansion. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History ed. by Thomas Spear. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford Research Encyclopedias Online. [URL]. DOI logo
. 2019. Reconstructing Proto-Bantu. The Bantu Languages ed. by Mark Van de Velde, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 308–334. 2nd ed. Oxford: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen & Yvonne Bastin. 2016. Bantu Lexical Reconstructions. Oxford Handbooks Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [URL]
Bostoen, Koen, Bernard Clist, Charles Doumenge, Rebecca Grollemund, Jean-Marie Hombert, Joseph Koni Muluwa & Jean Maley. 2015. Middle to Late Holocene Paleoclimatic Change and the Early Bantu Expansion in the Rain Forests of West Central-Africa. Current Anthropology 56:3.354–384. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen & Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. 2018a. Langues et évolution linguistique dans le royaume et l’aire kongo. Une archéologie des provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo ed. by Bernard Clist, Pierre de Maret & Koen Bostoen, 51–55. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
. 2018b. Seventeenth-Century Kikongo Is Not the Ancestor of Present-Day Kikongo. The Kongo Kingdom: The Origins, Dynamics and Cosmopolitan Culture of an African Polity ed. by Koen Bostoen & Inge Brinkman, 60–102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen & Heidi Goes. 2019. Was Proto-Kikongo a 5 or 7 Vowel Language? Bantu Spirantization and Vowel Merger in the Kikongo Language Cluster. Linguistique et langues africaines 51.25–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen & Joseph Koni Muluwa. 2011. Vowel Split in Hungan (Bantu H42, Kwilu, DRC): A Contact-Induced Language-Internal Change. Journal of Historical Linguistics 1:2.247–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014. Umlaut in the Bantu B70/80 languages of the Kwilu (DRC). Transactions of the Philological Society 112:2.209–230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen & Léon Mundeke. 2011. The Causative/Applicative Syncretism in Mbuun (Bantu B87, DRC): Semantic Split or Phonemic Merger? Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 32:2.179–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Botne, Robert. 1992. Double Reflexes in Eastern and Southern Bantu. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 291.131–148.Google Scholar
Burssens, Nico. 1999. Dictionnaire français-buma. Bandundu: Centre d’Etudes Ethnologiques de Bandundu.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2001. Phonology and Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2002. Word Frequency and Context of Use in the Lexical Diffusion of Phonetically Conditioned Sound Change. Language Variation and Change 141.261–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 1996. On Sound Change and Challenges to Regularity. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 72–89. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 1998. Historical Linguistics : An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Coupez, André, Yvonne Bastin & Evariste Mumba (eds.). 1998. Reconstructions lexicales bantoues 2 / Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 2. Electronic database. Tervuren: Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale.Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie, Larry M. Hyman & Simon Nsielanga Tukumu. 2011. A Grammar of Nzadi (B.865) A Bantu Language of the Democratic Republic of Congo with an Appendix of Proto-Bantu – Nzadi Sound Correspondences by Clara Cohen. Berkeley: University of California Publications.Google Scholar
Cser, András. 2015. Basic Types of Phonological Change. The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology ed. by Patrick Honeybone & Joseph Salmons, 193–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Currie, Thomas E., Andrew Meade, Myrtille Guillon & Ruth Mace. 2013. Cultural Phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of Sub-Saharan Africa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) 280.2013069520130695, DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Daeleman, Jan. 1977. A Comparison of Some Zone B Languages in Bantu. Africana Linguistica 71.93–144. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1983. Les réflexes du proto-bantu en ntandu (dialecte koongo). Mélanges de culture et de linguistique africaines publiés à la mémoire de Leo Stappers ed. by Clémentine Faïk-Nzuji Madiya & Erika Sulzmann, 331–397. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.Google Scholar
. n.d. Kikoóngo wordlists classified according to their respective tones. Manuscript.
de Filippo, Cesare, Chiara Barbieri, Mark Whitten, Sununguko Wata Mpoloka, Ellen D. Gunnarsdóttir, Koen Bostoen, Terry Nyambe, Klaus Beyer, Henning Schreiber, Peter de Knijff, Donata Luiselli, Mark Stoneking & Brigitte Pakendorf. 2011. Y-Chromosomal Variation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights into the History of Niger-Congo Groups. Molecular Biology and Evolution 28:3.1255–1269. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Grauwe, Jan. 2009. Lexique yoómbe-français, avec index français-yoómbe (bantu H16c). Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.Google Scholar
de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice, Rebecca Grollemund, Simon Branford & Koen Bostoen. 2015. Introducing a State-of-the-Art Phylogenetic Classification of the Kikongo Language Cluster. Africana Linguistica 211.87–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Witte, P. 1955. Taalstudie bij de Basakata. Tervuren: Koninklijk Museum van Belgisch-Congo.Google Scholar
De Wulf, Chris, Johannes Goossens & Johan Taeldeman (eds). 2005. Fonologische atlas van de Nederlandse dialecten (FAND): deel IV: de consonanten. Gent: Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde.Google Scholar
Destro-Bisol, Giovanni, Francesco Donati, Valentina Coia, Ilaria Boschi, Fabio Verginelli, Alessandra Caglià, Sergio Tofanelli, Gabriella Spedini & Cristian Capelli. 2004. Variation of Female and Male Lineages in Sub-Saharan Populations: The Importance of Sociocultural Factors. Molecular Biology and Evolution 211.1673–1682. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dibata Mimpiya, Iliku. 1977. Le substantif mbuun: étude d’une forme nominale. Lubumbashi: Université de Lubumbashi, travail de fin d’études de graduat.Google Scholar
Durie, Mark & Malcolm Ross (eds.). 1996. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ebalantshim Masuwan. 1980. Esquisse grammaticale de la langue idiŋ à Káantsa. Lubumbashi: Université Nationale du Zaïre, M.A.Google Scholar
Ellington, John Ernest. 1977. Aspects of the Tiene Language. Madison: University of Wisconsin, PhD thesis.
Fabian, Johannes. 1986. Language and Colonial Power. The Appropriation of Swahili in the Former Belgian Congo 1880–1938. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fortes-Lima, Cesar, Carina Schlebusch, Leon Mundeke, Sara Pacchiarotti & Koen Bostoen. 2021. New Genetic Light on Old Linguistic Questions from the West-Coastal Bantu Homeland. Paper presented at “Extracting the Past from the Present”, Interdisciplinary Conference on African Precolonial History, March 1–5, 2021, Brussels, Université libre de Bruxelles.
Garrett, Andrew. 2015. Sound Change. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics ed. by Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans, 227–248. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gerhardt, Ludwig. 1986. The Fortis/Lenis Contrast in Pre-Bantu? Some North-Western Bantu Evidence. Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 39:5.540–547. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goes, Heidi & Koen Bostoen. 2019. Progressive Vowel Height Harmony in Proto-Kikongo and Proto-Bantu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. 40:3.1–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grace, George W. 1996. Regularity of Change in What?. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 157–179. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph Harold. 1948. The Tonal System of Proto-Bantu. Word 4:3.196–208. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grégoire, Claire. 2003. The Bantu Languages of the Forest. The Bantu Languages ed. by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 349–370. London New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grollemund, Rebecca, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti & Mark Pagel. 2015. Bantu Expansion Shows That Habitat Alters the Route and Pace of Human Dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112:43.13296–13301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Güldemann, Tom. 2011. Proto-Bantu and Proto-Niger-Congo: Macro-Areal Typology and Linguistic Reconstruction. Geographical Typology and Linguistic Areas with Special Reference to Africa ed. by Osamu Hieda, Christa König & Hiroshi Nakagawa, 109–141. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, Malcolm. 1962. A Two-Stage Method of Comparative Bantu Study. African Language Studies 31.1–24.Google Scholar
. 1967. Comparative Bantu: An Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of the Bantu languages. Volume 1: The Comparative Linguistics of the Bantu Languages. London: Gregg International.Google Scholar
. 1971. Comparative Bantu: An Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of the Bantu languages. Volume 2: Bantu Prehistory, Inventory and Indexes. London: Gregg International.Google Scholar
Harrison, Shelly P. 2003. On the Limits of the Comparative Method. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics ed. by Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda, 213–243. Malden: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hedinger, Robert. 1987. The Manenguba Languages (Bantu A.15, Mbo cluster) of Cameroon. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.Google Scholar
Hombert, Jean-Marie & Médard Mouélé. 1988. Éléments de phonologie diachronique du wanzi (langue bantu du Gabon, groupe B50). Pholia 31.183–205.Google Scholar
Huffman, Tom N. 2007. Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.Google Scholar
Hyman, Larry M. 2004. How to Become a Kwa Verb. Journal of West African Languages 30:2.69–88.Google Scholar
2010. Affixation by Place of Articulation: The Case of Tiene. Rara & Rarissima: Documenting the Fringes of Linguistic Diversity ed. by Jan Wohlgemuth & Michael Cysouw, 145–184. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Idiata-Mayombo, Daniel-Franck. 1993. Eléments de phonologie diachronique du isangu (B.42). Pholia 81.67–108.Google Scholar
Impubi Mukwa, Mfum. 1987. Le syntagme nominal en yans B85d. Parler de Mikingi Kiakia – Collectivité de Nkara/Niadi. Kikwit: Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Kikwit, travail de fin d’études.Google Scholar
Janssens, Baudouin. 1986. Eléments de phonologie et de morphologie historique du basaa (bantou A43a). Africana Linguistica 101.149–211. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1991. Doubles réflexes apparents en ewondo ou les chassés croisés de la dérivation. Pholia 61.155–179.Google Scholar
. 1993. Doubles réflexes consonantiques : quatre études sur le bantu de zone A (bubi, nen, bafia, ewondo). Bruxelles: Université libre de Bruxelles, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Kanyamibwa, Melchior. 1982. Confrontation historique du lexique du protobantu avec le cokwe (zone K), le sanga (zone L) et le rwanda (zone J). Ruhengeri: Université nationale du Rwanda, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
Khang Levy, Nyi-m’shum. 1979. Eléments de grammaire morphologique de la langue lwel. Lubumbashi: Université Nationale du Zaïre, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
Kibwenge India’Ane, Passy. 1985. Langue mpur B85e. Phonologie et morphologie synthématique : parler de Mikingi, collectivité Dwe. Kikwit: ISP de Kikwit, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
Kikusawa, Ritsuko. 2015. The Austronesian Language Family. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics ed. by Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans, 657–674. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kinkade, M. Dale. 1973. The Alveopalatal Shift in Cowlitz Salish. International Journal of American Linguistics 39:4.224–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koni Muluwa, Joseph. 2010. Plantes, animaux et champignons en langues bantu. Etude comparée de phytonymes, zoonymes et myconymes en nsong, ngong, mpiin, mbuun et hungan (Bandundu, RD Congo). Bruxelles: Université libre de Bruxelles, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
. 2014. Noms et usages de plantes, animaux et champignons chez les Mbuun, Mpiin, Ngong, Nsong et Hungan en RD Congo. Tervuren: Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale.Google Scholar
. 2015a. Lexicon English- French-Ngong (Kwenge dialect). Manuscript. Ghent, Ghent University, DoBes Kwilu Bantu project. [URL]
. 2015b. Petit lexique français-anglais-nsambaan (parlers de Kikongo et Kwilumpia) – nsambaan-français-anglais. Manuscript. Gand, Université de Gand, projet DoBes Kwilu Bantu. [URL]
Koni Muluwa, Joseph & Koen Bostoen. 2011. Umlaut in the Bantu B70/80 Languages of the Kwilu (DRC): Where Did the Final Vowel Go? Paper presented at 41th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden.
. 2012. La diphtongaison dans les langues bantu B70–80 (Bandundu, RDC): typologie et classification historique. Africana Linguistica 181.355–386. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015. Lexique comparé des langues bantu du Kwilu (République démocratique du Congo). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1981. Resolving the Neogrammarian Controversy. Language 57:2.267–308. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1999. Principles of Linguistic Change: Internal Factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labroussi, Catherine. 1999. Vowel Systems and Spirantization in Southwest Tanzania. Bantu Historical Linguistics: Theoretical and empirical perspectives ed. by Jean-Marie Hombert & Larry M. Hyman, 335–377. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Laman, Karl Edward. 1936. Dictionnaire kikongo-français, avec une étude phonétique décrivant les dialectes les plus importants de la langue dite kikongo. Bruxelles: Librairie Falk.Google Scholar
. 1912. Grammar of the Kongo Language (Kikongo). New York: Christian Alliance Publishers.Google Scholar
Laman, Karl Edward & Carl Meinhof. 1928–1929. An Essay in Kongo Phonology. Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 191.12–40.Google Scholar
Lane, Bryan David. 1989. Toward Understanding Multilingualism Among the Mbete of Northern Congo. Arlington: University of Texas, MA thesis.
Li, Paul Jen-Kuei. 1982. Linguistic Variation of Different Age Groups in the Atayalic Dialects. The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 141.167–191.Google Scholar
Loftus, Emma, Peter J. Mitchell & Christopher Bronk Ramsey. 2019. An Archaeological Radiocarbon Database for Southern Africa. Antiquity 93:370.870–885. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loubelo, Fidèle. 1987. Description phonologique du itsaangi, parler de Madouma-Mossendjo. Libreville: Université Marien Ngouabi, mémoire de D.E.S.Google Scholar
Maho, Jouni Filip. 2009. NUGL Online: The Online Version of the New Updated Guthrie List, a Referential Classification of the Bantu Languages (4 June 2009). [URL]
Makouta-Mboukou, Jean-Pierre. 1969. Vocabulaire fumu-français. Brazzaville: Centre d’Enseignement Superieur de Brazzaville (polycopié).Google Scholar
. 1976. Étude descriptive du fumu, dialecte teke de Ngamaba, Brazzaville. Paris: Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle, thèse de doctorat d’état.Google Scholar
Marchal-Nasse, Colette. 1989. De la phonologie à la morphologie du nzebi, langue bantoue (B52) du Gabon. Bruxelles: Université libre de Bruxelles, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Masele, Balla F. Y. P. & Derek Nurse. 2003. Stratigraphy and Prehistory: Bantu Zone F. Language Contacts in Prehistory: Studies in Stratigraphy ed. by Henning Andersen, 115–134. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mavoungou, Paul Achille & Bernard Plumel. 2010. Dictionnaire yilumbu-français. Libreville: Éditions Raponda Walker.Google Scholar
Mayanga, Tayeye. 1985. Grammaire yansi (Rép. du Zaïre). Bandundu Centre d’Études Ethnologiques de Bandundu.Google Scholar
Medjo Mvé, Pither. 1989. Exploration morpho-syntaxique du dialecte le nyani ou contribution à l’étude du verbe ndumu. Libreville: Université Omar Bongo, mémoire de maîtrise.Google Scholar
Meeussen, Achiel Emiel. 1967. Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions. Africana Linguistica 31.79–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1969. Bantu Lexical Reconstructions. Manuscript. Tervuren.Google Scholar
Meinhof, Carl. 1899. Grundriß einer Lautlehre der Bantusprachen nebst Anleitung zur Aufnahme von Bantusprachen – Anhang : Verzeichnis von Bantuwortstämmen. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.Google Scholar
. 1906. Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Bantusprachen. Berlin: Reimer.Google Scholar
Mickala-Manfoumbi, Roger. 1988. Eléments de description du duma, langue bantu du Gabon (B51). Bruxelles: Université libre de Bruxelles, mémoire de licence spéciale.Google Scholar
Miehe, Gudrun. 1989. Zur Genese von fortis und lenis im Volta-Congo. Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter 11.30–43.Google Scholar
Milroy, James. 1992. Linguistic Variation and Change: On the Historical Sociolinguistics of English. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Peter. 2013. Early Farming Communities of Southern and South-Central Africa. Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology ed. by Peter Mitchell & Paul Lane, 657–670. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Peter & Gavin Whitelaw. 2005. The Archaeology of Southernmost Africa from c. 2000 BP to the Early 1800s: A Review of Recent Research. The Journal of African History 46:2.209–241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Möhlig, Wilhelm J. G. 1977. Zur frühen Siedlungsgeschichte der Savannen-Bantu aus lauthistorischer Sicht. Zur Sprachgeschichte und Ethnohistorie in Afrika ed. by Wilhelm Möhlig, Franz Rottland & Bernd Heine, 166–193. Berlin: D. Reimer.Google Scholar
1979. The Bantu Nucleus: Its Conditional Nature and Its Prehistorical Significance. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 11.109–141.Google Scholar
1981a. Stratification in the History of the Bantu Languages. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 251–317.Google Scholar
Möhlig, Wilhelm Johann Georg. 1981b. Lineare und hybride Lautverschiebungen im Bantu. Berliner afrikanistische Vorträge (XXI. deutscher Orientalistentage, Berlin, 24.-29. 3. 1980 ed. by Herrmann Jungraithmayr & Gudrun Miehe, 81–102. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar
Mokrani, Soraya. 2016. Étude comparée des parlers du groupe bantu kota-kele (B20) du Gabon: À la recherche de nouveaux critères classificatoires. Lyon: Université Lumière-Lyon 2, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Motingea Mangulu, André. 2004. Divergences en dialectes tiene (bantou B.81): origine disparate ou perte séparée d’identité linguistique?. Annales Aequatoria 251.151–202.Google Scholar
. 2021. Vers une écologie linguistique des anciens chasseurs-cueilleurs du bassin central congolais: Traces d’une proto-population ancestrale homogène. Anthropos 116:1.137–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mouandza, Jean-Daniel. 2001. Éléments de description du iyaa (parler bantu du Congo-Brazzaville). Nice: Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Mouélé, Médard. 1997. Étude synchronique et diachronique des parlers dúmá (groupe bantu B.50). Lyon: Université Lumière Lyon 2, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Mouguiama-Daouda, Patrick & Lolke van der Veen. 2005. B10-B30: conglomérat phylogénétique ou produit d’une hybridation?. Studies in African Comparative Linguistics, with Special Focus on Bantu and Mande ed. by Koen Bostoen & Jacky Maniacky, 91–122. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.Google Scholar
Mufanga-Dzmar, Kitoko. 1977. Contribution à la phonologie ding. Lubumbashi: Université Nationale du Zaïre, travail de fin de cycle de graduat.Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mula, Emy. 1977. Esquisse de grammaire kiding munken : phonologie et morphologie (parler de Bantsiona). Lubumbashi: Université Nationale du Zaïre, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
Mundeke, Léon. 1979. Esquisse grammaticale de la langue mbúún (parler de Éliob). Lubumbashi: Université Nationale du Zaïre, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
. 2011. Etude morphosyntaxique de la langue mbuun (B87) (parler d’Elyob). Lubumbashi: Université de Lubumbashi.Google Scholar
Munkyen Okab, Saan Lakin. 1990. Etude contrastive phonetico-phonologique entre le français et le ding B86. Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Mwan Mesongolo, Mekani. 1984. Phonologie et morphologie de kedeŋ-Lesye (B86). Parler de Mateko-Mfwaay. Lubumbashi: Université Nationale de Zaïre, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
Narciso Cobe, Francisco. 2010. Novo Dicionário Português-Kikongo. Luanda: Mayamba.Google Scholar
Ndongo Ibara, Yvon Pierre. 2000. The Phonology of Tsambitsɔ: Embɔsi dialect. Brazzaville Université Marien Ngouabi, MA thesis.
Ndouli, Guy Blaise. 2001. Description phonologique du mbere: parler de Tsama. Brazzaville: Université Marien Ngouabi, mémoire de maîtrise.Google Scholar
Nguimbi-Mabiala, Jean-Noël. 1999. Phonologie comparative et historique du koongo. Lyon: Université Lumiere Lyon 2, thèse de doctorat.Google Scholar
Nguma, Wendo. 1986. Dictionnaire français-yansi (Rép. du Zaïre). Bandundu: CEEBA.Google Scholar
Nkouanda, Blaise Pépin. 1997. Description phonologique du kiga:ngala, parler bantou du Congo (Groupe H). Brazzaville: Université Marien Ngouabi, mémoire de maîtrise.Google Scholar
Nsuka-Nkutsi, François. 1980. Quelques réflexes du protobantou en punu. Eléments de description du punu ed. by François Nsuka-Nkutsi, 128–178. Lyon: Centre de Recherches Linguistiques et Sémiologiques (CRLS), Université Lumière-Lyon 2.Google Scholar
Nurse, Derek & Balla F. Y. P. Masele. 2003. Stratigraphy and Prehistory: Bantu Zone F. Language Contacts in Prehistory: Studies in Stratigraphy ed. by Henning Andersen, 115–134. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nurse, Derek & Gérard Philippson. 2003. Towards a Historical Classification of the Bantu Languages. The Bantu Languages ed. by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 164–181. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Okoudowa, Bruno. 2016. Morfologia verbal do Lèmbáámá: Língua banta falada no Gabaõ (África Central). Saarbrücken: Novas Edições Acadêmicas.Google Scholar
Pacchiarotti, Sara & Koen Bostoen. 2020. The Proto-West-Coastal Bantu Velar Merger. Africana Linguistica 261.139–195.Google Scholar
. 2021. Final Vowel Loss in Lower Kasai Bantu (DRC) as a Contact-Induced Change. Journal of Language Contact 141.437–474. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pacchiarotti, Sara, Natalia Chousou-Polydouri & Koen Bostoen. 2019. Untangling the West-Coastal Bantu Mess: Identification, Geography and Phylogeny of the Bantu B50–80 Languages. Africana Linguistica 251.155–229.Google Scholar
Pacchiarotti, Sara, Lorenzo Maselli, and Koen Bostoen. 2021. The Emergence of Interior Vowels and Heterosyllabic Vowel Sequences in Ngwi (Bantu B861, DRC). Papers in Historical Phonology 61. 107–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patin, Etienne, Marie Lopez, Rebecca Grollemund, Paul Verdu, Christine Harmant, Hélène Quach, Guillaume Laval, George H. Perry, Luis B. Barreiro, Alain Froment, Evelyne Heyer, Achille Massougbodji, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Florence Migot-Nabias, Gil Bellis, Jean-Michel Dugoujon, Joana B. Pereira, Verónica Fernandes, Luisa Pereira, Lolke Van der Veen, Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda, Carlos D. Bustamante, Jean-Marie Hombert & Lluís Quintana-Murci. 2017. Dispersals and Genetic Adaptation of Bantu-Speaking Populations in Africa and North America. Science 356:6337.543–546. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patin, Etienne, Katherine J. Siddle, Guillaume Laval, Hélène Quach, Christine Harmant, Noémie Becker, Alain Froment, Béatrice Régnault, Laure Lemée, Simon Gravel, Jean-Marie Hombert, Lolke Van der Veen, Nathaniel J. Dominy, George H. Perry, Luis B. Barreiro, Paul Verdu, Evelyne Heyer & Lluís Quintana-Murci. 2014. The Impact of Agricultural Emergence on the Genetic History of African Rainforest Hunter-Gatherers and Agriculturalists. Nature Communications 51.3163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paulian, Christiane. 1975. Le kukuya, langue teke du Congo: phonologie- classes nominales. Paris: Société des Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques.Google Scholar
Philippson, Gérard. 1999. *HH and *HL tone patterns in Bemba and the Bemba tone systems. Bantu Historical Linguistics: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives ed. by Jean-Marie Hombert & Larry M. Hyman, 395–411. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
. 2018. Double Reflexes’ Revisited: Implications for the Proto-Bantu Consonant System. Paper presented at International Conference on “Reconstructing Proto-Bantu Grammar”, Ghent University. [URL]
Philippson, Gérard & Rebecca Grollemund. 2019. Classifying Bantu Languages. The Bantu Languages ed. by Mark Van de Velde, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 335–354, 2nd ed Oxford: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Phillips, Betty S. 1984. Word Frequency and the Actuation of Sound Change. Language 60:2.320–342. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006. Word Frequency and Lexical Diffusion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pokoso, Kayabu-Koko. 1986. Essai d’anthroponymie ngongo (parler Lukula sud). Kikwut: Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Kikwit, mémoire de licence.Google Scholar
Pour, Ansari Naser, Christopher A. Plaster & Neil Bradman. 2013. Evidence from Y-Chromosome Analysis for a Late Exclusively Eastern Expansion of the Bantu-Speaking People. European Journal of Human Genetics 21:4.423–429. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quintana-Murci, Lluís, Hélène Quach, Christine Harmant, Fracesca Luca, Blandine Massonnet, Etienne Patin, Lucas Sica, Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda, David Comas, Shay Tzur, Oleg Balanovsky, Kenneth K. Kidd, Judith R. Kidd, Lolke van der Veen, Jean-Marie Hombert, Antoine Gessain, Paul Verdu, Alain Froment, Serge Bahuchet, Evelyne Heyer, Jean Dausset, Antonio Salas & Doron M. Behar. 2008. Maternal Traces of Deep Common Ancestry and Asymmetric Gene Flow between Pygmy Hunter-Gatherers and Bantu-Speaking Farmers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:5.1596–1601. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raharimanantsoa, Ruth. 2012a. Aspects of Phonology in Eboo-Nzikou (Bantu B74). Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, preparatory research course paper.Google Scholar
. 2012b. Processes of Vowel Change Due to Second Consonant Loss in Boma-Nzikou (Bantu B74). Paper presented at the 42nd Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics, University of Leiden.
. 2016. Réduction syllabique, rallongement compensatoire et syllabes trimoraïques en engungwel (bantou B72a). Journal of West African Languages 43:2.61–98.Google Scholar
. 2017. The Prosody of Tense Marking in Teke-Eboo: A Bantu B70 language of Congo-Brazzaville. Gothenburg: Gothenburg University, MA thesis.
Raharimanantsoa, Ruth & Wilfrid Edouard Ntsiba Ngolo. 2015. Petit guide d’orthographe et de grammaire du Téké du sud-ouest parlé dans le Pool, la Bouenza et la Lékoumou, en République du Congo. Brazzaville: SIL-Congo.Google Scholar
Ricquier, Birgit & Koen Bostoen. 2008. Resolving Phonological Variability in Bantu Lexical Reconstructions: The Case of ‘To Bake in Ashes’. Africana Linguistica 141.109–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ross, Malcolm D. 1996. Contact-Induced Change and the Comparative Method: Cases from Papua New Guinea. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 180–217. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rossel, Gerda. 1998. Taxonomic-Linguistic Study of Plantain in Africa. Wageningen: Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen, PhD thesis.
Rottland, Franz. 1977. Reflexes of Proto-Bantu Phonemes in Yanzi (B85). Africana Linguistica 71.375–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rurangwa, Innocent Moïse. 1982. Éléments de description du ngungwel, langue bantoue du Congo. Bruxelles: Université Libre de Bruxelles, mémoire de licence spéciale.Google Scholar
Ruttenberg, Piet. 2000. Lexique yaka-francais, français-yaka. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Schadeberg, Thilo C. 1995. Spirantization and the 7-to-5 Vowel Merger in Bantu. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 91.71–84.Google Scholar
2002. Progress in Bantu Lexical Reconstruction. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 23:2.183–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003. Historical Linguistics. The Bantu Languages ed. by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 143–163. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schoeman, Alex. 2013. Southern African Late Farming Communities. Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology ed. by Peter Mitchell & Paul Lane, 928–941. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seidensticker, Dirk, Wannes Hubau, Dirk Verschuren, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Pierre de Maret, Carina M. Schlebusch & Koen Bostoen. 2021. Population Collapse in Congo Rainforest from 400 CE Urges Reassessment of the Bantu Expansion. Science Advances 7:7.eabd8352. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stappers, Leo. 1986. Boma: eine Sprachskizze. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar
Stewart, John Massie. 1973. The Lenis Stops of the Potou Lagoon Languages and their Significance for Pre-Bantu Reconstruction. Papers in Ghanaian Linguistics ed. by M. E. Kropp Dakubu, 1–49. Legon: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.Google Scholar
. 1989. Fortis/Lenis and Vowel Length in Proto-Bantu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 11:1.45–88.Google Scholar
. 1993. The Second Tano Consonant Shift and its Likeness to Grimm’s Law. Journal of West African Languages 23:1.3–39.Google Scholar
Swartenbroeckx, Pierre. 1973. Dictionnaire kikongo et kituba-français. Bandundu: Ceeba.Google Scholar
. 1948. Dictionnaire kiyansi ou kiyei, langage des bayansi ou bayey de territoire de Banningville (district du Lac Léopold II) au Congo Belge. Manuscript. Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah G. 2007. Language Contact and Deliberate Change. Journal of Language Contact Thema 11.41–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Coetsem, Frans. 1988. Loan Phonology and the Two Transfer Types in Language Contact. Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van de Velde, Mark. 1999. The Two Language Maps of the Belgian Congo. Annales Aequatoria 201.475–489.Google Scholar
Van Den Eynde, Karel. 1968. Éléments de grammaire yaka : phonologie et morphologie flexionnelle. Kinshasa: Université Lovanium, Publications Universitaires.Google Scholar
van der Veen, Lolke. 1991. Étude comparée des parlers du groupe okani (B.30 Gabon). Lyon: Université Lumière Lyon 2, thèse de doctorat nouveau régime.Google Scholar
. 2003. The B30 Language Group. The Bantu Languages ed. by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 371–391. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Van Gheel, Joris. 1652. Vocabularium Latinum, Hispanicum, e Congense. Ad Usum Missionariorû transmittendorû ad Regni Congo Missiones. Rome: National Central Library, Fundo Minori 1896, MS Varia 274.Google Scholar
Van Leynseele, Hélène & John Massie Stewart. 1980. Harmonie consonantique en pré-nen. L’expansion bantoue. Actes du Colloque International du CNRS, Viviers (France), 4–16 avril 1977, vol. 2 ed. by Luc Bouqiaux, 387–400. Paris: Société des Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques.Google Scholar
Vansina, Jan. 1995. New Linguistic Evidence and the Bantu Expansion. Journal of African History 36:2.173–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Verdu, Paul, Noemi S. A. Becker, Alain Froment, Myriam Georges, Viola Grugni, Lluis Quintana-Murci, Jean-Marie Hombert, Lolke J. Van der Veen, Sylvie Le Bomin, Serge Bahuchet, Evelyne Heyer & Frédéric Austerlitz. 2013. Sociocultural Behavior, Sex-Biased Admixture, and Effective Population Sizes in Central African Pygmies and Non-Pygmies. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30:4.918–937. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, William. 1969. Competing Sound Changes as a Cause of Residue. Language 451.9–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Michael. 2015. The Comparative Method. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics ed. by Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans, 127–146. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Winford, Donald. 2003. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wood, Elizabeth T., Daryn A. Stover, Christopher Ehret, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Gabriella Spedini, Howard McLeod, Leslie Louie, Mike Bamshad, Beverly I. Strassmann, Himla Soodyall & Michael F. Hammer. 2005. Contrasting Patterns of Y Chromosome and mtDNA Variation in Africa: Evidence for Sex-Biased Demographic Processes. European Journal of Human Genetics 131.867–876. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Dimmendaal, Gerrit J.
2023. Review article: messages from (not so distant) relatives in the Nuba Mountains: on how (not) to reconstruct Proto-Bantu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 44:2 ► pp. 241 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.