Koen Bostoen
List of John Benjamins publications in which Koen Bostoen is involved.
2026 The Comparative Method does not need decolonization Historical Linguistics 2023: Selected papers from the 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics,Heidelberg, 4-8 September 2023, Gvozdanović, Jadranka (ed.), pp. 13–29 | Chapter
Against current popular opinion on knowledge production in the social and human sciences, this essay argues that the Comparative Method in historical linguistics does not require decolonization, also not when applied to languages spoken in regions of the world once subjected to European… read more
2022 Kisikongo (Bantu, H16a) present-future isomorphism Development of Tense and Aspect Systems, Gvozdanović, Jadranka (ed.), pp. 105–141 | Chapter
2022 Erratic velars in West-Coastal Bantu: Explaining irregular sound change in Central Africa Journal of Historical Linguistics 12:3, pp. 381–445 | Article
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… read more
2021 A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15) International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 26:3, pp. 336–369 | Article
This article employs a 4-million-word diachronic corpus to examine how the expression of possibility has evolved in Luganda since the 1890s to the present, by focusing on the language’s three main potential markers -yînz-, -sóból- and -andi-, and their historical interaction. It is shown that… read more
2020 Kisikongo (Bantu, H16a) present-future isomorphism: A diachronic conspiracy between semantics and phonology Development of tense and aspect systems, Gvozdanović, Jadranka (ed.), pp. 251–288 | Article
The North-Angolan Bantu language Kisikongo has a present tense (Ø-R-ang-a; R = root) that is morphologically more marked than the future tense (Ø-R-a). We reconstruct how this typologically uncommon tense-marking feature came about by drawing on both historical and comparative evidence. Our… read more
2017 Chapter 10. Were the first Bantu speakers south of the rainforest farmers? A first assessment of the linguistic evidence Language Dispersal Beyond Farming, Robbeets, Martine and Alexander Savelyev (eds.), pp. 235–258 | Chapter
Popular belief has it that the Bantu Expansion was a farming/language dispersal. However, there is neither conclusive archaeological nor linguistic evidence to substantiate this hypothesis, especially not for the initial spread in West-Central Africa. In this chapter we consider lexical… read more
2015 Linguistic innovation, political centralization and economic integration in the Kongo kingdom: Reconstructing the spread of prefix reduction* Diachronica 32:2, pp. 139–185 | Article
In this article we reconstruct the actuation and transmission of a phonological innovation known as prefix reduction within the Kikongo language cluster situated in the wider Lower Congo region of Central Africa. We argue that this change spread from a focal area coinciding with the heartland of… read more
2015 Antipassive/associative polysemy in Cilubà (Bantu, L31a): A plurality of relations analysis Studies in Language 39:2, pp. 354–385 | Article
Antipassive constructions are commonly associated with languages with a predominantly ergative alignment. In this article, we show that antipassive constructions can also occur in predominantly accusative languages such as Cilubà, a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is… read more
2013 Bantu-Ubangi language contact and the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe (Bantu, C41, DRC) Diachronica 30:4, pp. 435–468 | Article
We examine the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe, a language from the northern Bantu borderland. Labial-velar stops are uncommon in Bantu. It is generally believed that they were acquired through contact with neighbouring non-Bantu speakers, in casu Ubangi languages. We show that the… read more
2011 Vowel split in Hungan (Bantu H42, Kwilu, DRC): A contact-induced language-internal change Journal of Historical Linguistics 1:2, pp. 247–268 | Article
This paper examines the diachronic origin of a vowel split in the Bantu language Hungan. It is shown that the inherited Proto-Bantu seven-vowel (7V) system was first reduced to a classical five-vowel (5V) system before the Kipuka variety of Hungan developed a new kind of 7V system. Such a 7V>5V>7V… read more
2011 Passiveness and inversion in Mbuun (Bantu B87, DRC) Studies in Language 35:1, pp. 72–111 | Article
In this article, we examine two word order inversion constructions in Mbuun, a Bantu language which lacks a true morphological or periphrastic passive. Mbuun uses both an ‘OSV construction’ and an ‘impersonal 3PL construction’ as functional passives. We demonstrate that the pre-posed object in both… read more
2008 Bantu Spirantization: Morphologization, lexicalization and historical classification Diachronica 25:3, pp. 299–356 | Article
This paper examines the irregular application of the sound change commonly known as ‘Bantu Spirantization (BS)’ — a particular type of assibilation — in front of certain common Bantu morphemes. This irregularity can to a large extent be explained as the result of the progressive morphologization… read more