Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Patterns in Linguistic Geography and the Bantu Origins Controversy |
Author: | Bennett, Patrick R. |
Year: | 1983 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 10 |
Pages: | 35-51 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | ethnogenesis Bantu-speaking peoples African languages Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171689 |
Abstract: | The Bantu languages of Africa constitute a large cluster of languages sharing so many common features that their probable relationship was recognized very early. The studies of Doke and Cole, Meinhof, Meeussen and Guthrie have made possible detailed reconstructions of Bantu phonology (including tonology and intonation), morphology, syntax, and lexicon. The problems that remain are those of internal and external relationships. In this context the following questions are discussed here: What are the subgroups of Bantu and what is the history of their development from the hypothetized ancestral language? What languages are related to Bantu, and what is the status of Bantu in any larger language grouping? Both questions together may be put as: does 'Bantu' exist? That is, do the languages recognized as Bantu - all and only those languages - constitute a well-defined linguistic group? Fig., notes. |