Bantu Languages Research Articles

Reflexive-Reciprocal Syncretism in Eastern Bantu Languages of Tanzania: Distribution and Origins

This paper presents an overview of the distribution of reflexive-reciprocal syncretism in Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Tanzania. Most Bantu languages encode reflexive and reciprocal constructions by means of two distinct verbal affixes. However, the Tanzanian Eastern Bantu languages under study have developed reflexive-reciprocal syncretism, in which the originally reflexive prefix has developed into a polyfunctional morpheme coding both reflexive and reciprocal constructions, to the detriment of the original reciprocal suffix. In a sample of 79 languages, reflexive-reciprocal syncretism is attested in 27 neighboring languages, thus constituting a clear areal feature. We propose that reflexive-reciprocal syncretism is not a language-internal innovation but was rather adopted from neighboring non-Bantu languages and subsequently spread out to its current distribution. We locate the heart of this contact-induced spread in the Tanzanian Rift Valley, a convergence zone in north-central Tanzania where languages from multiple African language families are spoken and have been in contact for an extensive period.

Diminutivization and expressive lateralization in Tiania

AbstractIn this paper we provide a descriptive account of the interacting morphological, phonological, and lexical factors determining how diminutives are marked in Tiania [etianíá], an understudied variant of the Central Kenya Bantu language Kimeru. As in other languages, diminutivization in Tiania can indicate a decrease in size or quantity or express positive endearment or negative scorn, depending on the noun and the context. We will show that diminutivization is effected by transferring nouns into singular noun class 12 and plural class 13, as in other Bantu languages, but with two interesting variations: First, depending on the lexical class of the input noun, the diminutive prefixes will either replace or precede the noun’s prefix. In the latter case, the diminutive plural prefix may be added to either the singular or plural form of the base noun, again depending on the latter’s noun class. The second interesting variation is that the majority of nouns which have an /r/ in their stem or prefix replace such /r/’s by [l], something we refer to as “expressive lateralization”, e.g. e-rinyá ‘pit, cave (class 5)’ → ka-linyá ‘a small pit (class 12)’, ri-étwa˚ ‘name (class 5)’ → ka-li-étwa˚ ‘a sweet name’. To study the first variation, we systematically survey the diminutivization of nouns from all noun classes, singular and plural. To study the second variation, we track every one of 330 nouns with /r/ with respect to lateralization. In attempting to explain why such lateralization should occur, we consider augmentative and depreciative noun to noun derivations which also undergo /r/ → [l] as well as other derived word classes, e.g. adjectives, which sometimes undergo expressive lateralization, depending on whether they are denominal or deverbal (verbs never show such effects). Being that this is the only reported case we know of expressive lateralization, Tiania is both of typological interest as well as a mystery within Bantu and beyond.

Que estandardização para o português: pluricêntrica ou panlusófona?

Portuguese is a pluricentric language with two well-established national varieties – European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) – and varieties in development, such as Mozambican Portuguese (MP) and Angolan Portuguese (AP). In the present study, we aim to address the normative and political question of whether the most appropriate path of standardization for Portuguese in the 21st century is a pluricentric model of several norms combined, each with its own dynamics, or a pan-Lusophone model consisting of one supranational standard norm, a sort of global Portuguese, or even a combination of the two models. We will start by analyzing past and current processes of both formal and informal standardization in Portuguese, focusing on the endo(exo)normative standardization of BP and the role of Globo TV in the strengthening of informal endonormativity, the lectometrically confirmed divergent BP-PE bicentrism and its (a)symmetries – including the more advanced endonormativity of EP and the greater global influence of BP – and the processes of nativization of African varieties, characterized by contacts with Bantu languages and EP exonormativity, with particular emphasis on the more advanced stage of nativization of MP as well as the strong population increase projected for Angola and Mozambique. We will then discuss the two models of a pluricentric or pan-Lusophone path of standardization for Portuguese, along with their opportunities and threats, and point out guidelines for their operationalization. By adopting the Cognitive Sociolinguistics’ view on pluricentricity and based on previous socio-cognitive and lectometric studies on the pluricentricity of Portuguese, we will argue for the adequacy and necessity of a socio-cognitively oriented, fully pluricentric standardization of Portuguese, which could potentially serve as a basis for the development of a pan-Lusophone norm, especially useful for the internationalization of Portuguese.

Categories of Lukabarasi Nominal Compounds and their Pragmatic Functions

Although the categories of nominal compounds in many Bantu languages have been described in the literature, their pragmatic functions are often unexplained. This paper examines this phenomenon in Lukabarasi language of Western Kenya, based on the Generative Morphological Theory (GMT) (Bochner, 1992). The study employed a descriptive research design. Data was collected from native speakers using purposive sampling and snowballing techniques. The collected data was analyzed using a content analysis to identify and describe emerging themes. We identified these types of Lukabarasi nominal compounds; Noun+ Noun, Noun+ Verb, and Verb+ Verb. The study established the process of acquiring compounds in Lukabarasi involves prefix deletion, vowel duplication, and nominalization of verbs. The study also found that pragmatic processes modify the meaning of the compound based on context. Lukabarasi has commonly prefixes of singular and plural nouns. The singular prefixes include omu-, eshi- and eli- while the plural prefixes are eva-, efu- and ofu-. We analyzed the pragmatic functions of compounds, finding they serve metaphoric, attitudinal, identification, and classifying functions. This study contributes to understanding the pragmatic functions of nominal compounds in Lukabarasi.

Advancements in Natural Language Understanding- Driven Machine Translation: Focus on English and the Low Resource Dialectal Lusoga

This review explores recent advancements in Natural Language Understanding-driven Machine Translation (NLU-MT) with a focus on English and the low-resource dialectal Lusoga. A Low-resource language, such as Lusoga, faces significant challenges in Machine Translation (MT) due to the scarcity of high-quality parallel corpora, the complex morphology inherent in Bantu languages, and the dialectal variations within Lusoga itself, particularly between Lutenga and Lupakoyo. This paper examines the role of NLU-based MT systems in overcoming these challenges by shifting from word-for-word mapping to meaning-based translations, enabling better handling of these dialectal differences. We highlight the success of leveraging linguistic similarities between Lusoga and related languages, such as Luganda, to improve translation performance through multilingual transfer learning techniques. Key advancements include the use of transformer-based architectures such as Multilingual Bidirectional and Auto-Regressive Transformer (mBART) and Multilingual Text-To-Text Transfer Transformer (mT5), specifically selected for their effectiveness in NLU-driven contexts, which have shown promise in enhancing translation accuracy for African low-resource languages. However, the review also identifies ongoing obstacles, including historical low demand and the lack of well-developed corpora, which hinder scalability. The paper concludes by emphasizing the potential of hybrid approaches that combine community-driven corpus-building initiatives with improved model architectures to drive further progress in low-resource MT. Ultimately, NLU-MT is positioned as a crucial tool not only for bridging communication gaps but also for preserving linguistic diversity and cultural heritage.

New perspectives on morphosyntactic variation in African youth language practices

Abstract Recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention paid to youth language practices in Africa, with studies examining a range of linguistic phenomena. A parallel development has seen the emergence of work studying morphosyntactic microvariation in Bantu languages, with a view to better understanding structural variation in closely related languages or varieties. This special collection brings together those working in the fields of youth language practices and morphosyntactic variation in Bantu, with a view to exploring the synergies in these areas, as well as moving this domain of inquiry forward. The contributions are united by the authors’ commitment to addressing specific morphosyntactic phenomena which may have otherwise gone unnoticed, or which are less documented in the existing literature – in particular, in the scholarship on the respective base language or dominant language. We hope that the collection of papers both contributes to this body of work and inspires others to take up some of these issues in future research.

Você + 2SG in Cabindan Portuguese (Angola): Two effects of language contact

This article describes the system of address forms in Cabindan Portuguese (Angola), particularly the widespread use of você (largely displacing both o senhor and tu) and the formation of a paradigm that –only if our interest is diachronic– can be characterized as hybrid. This paradigm is marked by the combination of the independent(/oblique) pronoun você with at least some forms derived from the tu-paradigm (object clitics, possessives, and, to a much lesser extent, verb endings). Additionally, it is proposed that the adaptative success of both features was, to some extent, determined by Kikongo, a continuum of genetically and typologically related Bantu languages, which provides structural and pragmatic models that seem to have been transferred to Portuguese in the usage of bilingual speakers. Finally, it is suggested that these features might be particularly well represented within the Romania Bantu, i.e. the Bantu-influenced areas of the Romance-speaking world.

Noun classes, variation, and creativity in youth language practices in Zimbabwe and Tanzania

Abstract While classical accounts of Bantu linguistics often depict noun classes as an inherent feature of nouns, more recent studies show there is greater variation in the use of noun classes, especially in terms of their discursive and pragmatic context. Youth language practices, often characterized by creativity and conscious changes, are of particular interest in this regard. This paper explores whether Bantu youth language practices exhibit conscious variation in their noun class systems and agreement. I discuss data from Bantu-based youth language practices in Southern and Eastern Africa, especially Lugha ya mtaani (Tanzania) and S’ncamtho (Zimbabwe), looking at noun classes and agreement. The paper features a short discussion of variation in noun class usage in Bantu languages in general, including insights into relevant aspects such as information structure, the use of loan words, noun classes in multilingual or translanguaging situations, and semantics. The latter is particularly important, as speakers can make conscious use of noun classes as part of contextualized meaning making processes that reflect semantic nuances and stylistic choices. The objective of this contribution is to highlight the role of semantics and conscious meaning making in the choice of grammatical devices and the manifestations of microvariation in youth language practices.

Understanding Chichewa Noun Classes and Morphological Structure

This paper explores the complex noun classification system of Chichewa, a Bantu language primarily spoken in Malawi and surrounding regions, with approximately 15 million speakers. This system, which categorizes nouns based on both semantic and morphological criteria, profoundly impacts subject-verb agreement and concord usage, thereby shaping Chichewa sentence structure. Nouns are divided into various classes, each marked by specific prefixes that change with singular and plural forms. For example, class 5 and 6 nouns typically begin with consonants such as b-, d-, and dz-, with singular forms prefixed by "li-" and plural forms by "ma-". A distinctive feature of some class 6 nouns is their retention of the "ma-" prefix in both singular and plural contexts. The paper also discusses classes 7 and 8, which differentiate nouns starting with "ch-" in singular and "z-" in plural, and classes 9 and 10, where nouns generally maintain the same form between singular and plural, using "i-" for singular and "zi-" for plural. Diminutive prefixes "ka-" and "ti-" classify nouns into classes 12 and 13, while nouns beginning with "u-" or forming plurals with "ma-" are assigned to classes 14 and 6, respectively. The study further explores locative prefixes, with class 15 involving gerund forms with "ku- ", class 16 using "pa-" for "on", class 17 using "ku-" for "at", and class 18 using "mu-" for "in". These classifications not only highlight the morphological complexity and systematic nature of Chichewa grammar and syntax but also provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and effectively using the language, offering valuable insights for linguists, language learners, and educators.

Swahili personality-trait vocabulary: A psycho-lexical study using dictionary and day-to-day conversations by indigenous speakers

Human social behavior is a function of peoples’ personalities and individual differences. As humans engage in social behaviors, peoples’ traits and other unique attributes come out and get noticed, and community members may feel tempted to talk about these attributes and either encourage them or discourage them: words are created and they become part of the community’s lexicon. In this study we employed the psycho-lexical approach to hunt for those words that describe people’s traits and unique attributes and that have thus become encoded in the lexicon, in particular of the Swahili language, an eastern Africa Bantu language. We used two resources for this purpose, (1) a Swahili dictionary, as the tangible repository of the lexicon, and (2) free descriptions. As a final result we concluded that the trait vocabulary of the Swahili language contains a useful set of 1,338 trait terms, of which 4% are adjectives, 55% are nouns, and 41% are verbs. Thus, nouns form the largest number of trait terms, followed by verbs, while adjectives occupy an insignificant third position in the Swahili trait vocabulary.

Expanding the neighbourhood watch: Orthographic neighbours in isiXhosa reading and spelling

Background: Lexical properties such as orthographic neighbours have been shown to have an influence on reading and writing; however, this phenomenon is yet to be explored in the Southern Bantu languages.Objectives: We investigate the role of orthographic neighbourhood density and neighbourhood frequency in reading and spelling in Grade 3 isiXhosa home-language learners. The aim is to establish whether orthographic neighbours facilitate or hinder reading and spelling. The dual-route model of orthographic processing is used to interpret our findings.Method: Data were collected from 97 Grade 3 isiXhosa home-language learners. Lexical decision, word reading, and spelling tasks were administered. Tasks included both real and pseudowords varying in orthographic neighbourhood density and neighbourhood frequency, while controlling for word length and word frequency.Results: Findings show a significant inhibitory effect of orthographic neighbourhood frequency and word length for spelling accuracy. Longer words with higher frequency neighbours were more likely to be spelt incorrectly. No effect was recorded for the lexical decision and word reading tasks.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that spelling in isiXhosa relies partially on lexical processing strategies, which allows for the inhibitory effects of orthographic neighbours to be observed. While in reading, sublexical processing is more prominent, therefore mitigating the effect of orthographic neighbours.Contribution: Empirical evidence for the effects of orthographic neighbours, specifically in a Southern Bantu language, provides a clearer picture of the underlying cognitive-linguistic processes involved in reading and writing. This evidence may contribute to the development of targeted pedagogical practices to address spelling errors.

Sound change versus lexical change for subgrouping

Abstract This article focuses on languages of the Kwilu-Ngounie subbranch within a branch of the Bantu language family known as West-Coastal Bantu. Within Kwilu-Ngounie, B70 and B80 languages emerge as paraphyletic in the most comprehensive lexicon-based phylogeny of the branch. We assess whether the impossibility to group them into lexicon-based monophyletic subgroups can be bypassed by using the phonological innovation of word-final loss of Proto-Bantu *ŋg as diagnostic of a new subgroup. It is hard to tell whether this new subgroup is a clade by descent or instead a taxon resulting from a contact-induced innovation affecting related varieties. The unconditioned reflexes of *ŋg across varieties signal that both language-internal lexical diffusion and contact-induced crosslinguistic spread of phonological innovation thwart the Neogrammarian axiom of flawlessly regular sound change. Beyond its relevance for low-level Bantu subgrouping, this article contributes to the methodological issue of conflicting lexical and diachronic phonological evidence for internal classification.

Information structure in Makhuwa: Electrophysiological evidence for a universal processing account

There is evidence from both behavior and brain activity that the way information is structured, through the use of focus, can up-regulate processing of focused constituents, likely to give prominence to the relevant aspects of the input. This is hypothesized to be universal, regardless of the different ways in which languages encode focus. In order to test this universalist hypothesis, we need to go beyond the more familiar linguistic strategies for marking focus, such as by means of intonation or specific syntactic structures (e.g., it-clefts). Therefore, in this study, we examine Makhuwa-Enahara, a Bantu language spoken in northern Mozambique, which uniquely marks focus through verbal conjugation. The participants were presented with sentences that consisted of either a semantically anomalous constituent or a semantically nonanomalous constituent. Moreover, focus on this particular constituent could be either present or absent. We observed a consistent pattern: Focused information generated a more negative N400 response than the same information in nonfocus position. This demonstrates that regardless of how focus is marked, its consequence seems to result in an upregulation of processing of information that is in focus.

Accessing the Greek Verbal System Through the Shona Verb: Toward a Bantu Approach to Biblical Languages

Abstract As with any other language, mastering biblical languages such as Greek remains a challenge in Africa. Meanwhile, many African languages hold keys to a better experience in teaching and learning biblical languages. Accordingly, this study proposes a Bantu-based approach to teaching and learning biblical Greek for effective delivery and better mastery. In this study, by means of comparative linguistics, the verbal system of Shona, one of the numerous Bantu languages spoken in Southern Africa, is used to demonstrate correspondences with the biblical Greek verbal system. Elements of special interest in the two languages’ verbal systems relate to signification codes for tense, voice, mode, person, and number. The study is premised on the understanding that the verb is the heart of any language. The basic assumption of the study is that since both Shona and biblical Greek verbal systems are conjugated in comparable ways, something which English lacks, using Shona to teach or learn biblical Greek in the Zimbabwean context should be effective. The study proposes that this method be similarly tried with other Bantu languages and the other two biblical languages: Hebrew and Aramaic. In the end, there may be a need to produce biblical language grammar written with Bantu languages as their base, especially considering there is no substitute for learning in one’s own language.

Remaking the Late Holocene Environment of Western Uganda: Archaeological Perspectives on Kansyore and Later Settlers

AbstractArchaeological and environmental research by an international and interdisciplinary team opens new perspectives into the settlement histories of Kansyore, Early Iron Age, and Bigo period peoples in the once forested regions of the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda. The research examines the role of Kansyore agropastoralists and their Early Iron Age and Bantu-speaking contemporaries in remaking a once forested environment into a forest-savannah mosaic from circa 500 BC to the end of the first millennium AD. Archaeological settlement and subsistence evidence is examined within a framework of social interaction of Sudanic speakers with Bantu speakers, drawing on historical linguistics and environmental studies to arrive at a new synthesis of late Holocene history in western Uganda. This perspective also unveils the significance and chronology of Boudiné ware, a long enigmatic ceramic tradition that we identify as contemporary to Transitional Urewe and deeply influenced through social interactions with those making Kansyore ceramics and inhabiting the same landscape. Using archaeological evidence from fifteen sites and multiple burials spanning from 400 to 1650 calAD, new views of ceramic histories, lifeways, and symbolic values are revealed, including Bigo period settlements that arose in what was an environmental refugium beginning in the early fourteenth century AD. This research also shows that the Kansyore of the forested region east of the Rwenzori Mountains had greater affinities to late Holocene archaeological evidence from western Equatoria, in the southern South Sudan, and Kansyore Island, Uganda, than it does to the Kansyore in eastern Kenya.

Socio-pragmatic Aspects of the Kurya Nicknames against First Names Given after Birth

This study investigated the socio-pragmatic aspects of nicknames in Kurya, a Bantu language spoken in northwestern Tanzania. The study was motivated by the fact that the available literature on personal names does not offer adequate information about what determines the selection of a Nicknames assigned to a person in the Kurya community and whether nicknames are semantically related to the personal names given after birth. The study employed a qualitative approach and a case study design. Its data were collected through interviews and critical documentary analysis whereby a total of six Kurya nicknames were obtained. The data were then analysed on the basis of Cognitive Semantics Theory and construal principles in particular. The findings indicated that Kidanga, Isokhero, Engoko, Iriraghiri, Esalighoko, Irongo, Bhulenya, Etena, Inchupa, Inchughu, Amaghuha, and Kerabhoko are Kurya nicknames whose assignment was influenced by behaviour, color, structure or articulation. It was noted that most of the Kurya nicknames do not have any symbiotic relationship with their bearers’ first names given after birth; the few which appear to be in a semantic relationship with first names come just by chance. Based on the findings, the study concludes that nicknames have a very important role in any community since they reflect the construal cognition of human nature and nurture. So, communities are advised to value their personal names even though nicknames have taken over. This is because personal names are our official identities and are the ones that are supposed to appear in official documents such as identity cards unless it is stated otherwise.

Corpus Construct: A Research Tool in Syntactic Analysis of Bantu Languages

Syntax of languages is understood to be shaped by syntactic universals principles. Despite operating within the constraints of these universals, languages have managed to display their unique syntactic features. This is explained by specificity in the ranking of these universals across languages. To establish the unique features, researchers have to use data collected using a variety of methods some of which are corpus studies, linguistic elicitation, introspection and experimentation. Each of these methods requires a research tool whose development or adoption is dependent on the research question(s)formulated to fill a study gap. The use of corpus construct to generate data, as other research tools, requires an understanding of what type of data is needed to answer which questions on which linguistic features. The construction of a corpus can be done from plain texts or annotated texts. The question is: how can corpus construct be used as a tool in the study of languages whose corpus is yet to be compiled and made available online? This article, therefore, intends to answer this question with biases on Bantu languages. It will be necessary to make databases from the corpus constructs available by building corpora for the languages in question. The findings of this article are deemed important in offering knowledge on building of corpus and how to use the built corpus to investigate a syntactic feature in a Bantu language.

Morphosyntactic retention and innovation in Sheng, a youth language or stylect of Kenya

Abstract This paper examines the morphosyntax of the East African Swahili-based urban youth language or stylect Sheng. Research on urban youth languages has often focused on these varieties as sites of rapid change and linguistic creativity. However, we show that many of the structural features which appear to make Sheng stand out when compared to (Standard) Swahili are widespread across East African Bantu languages. We examine nominal and verbal domains, as well as clausal syntax, and highlight areas in which Sheng exhibits features in common with its contact languages, as well as features which appear to reflect instances of independent innovation. The study shows that Sheng is not a “simplified” version of Swahili which deviates from the grammar of Swahili in a range of ad hoc ways. Rather, the language exhibits features of retention and contact-induced borrowing, as well as systematic changes which are reflective of variation across the Bantu languages.

Deep history of cultural and linguistic evolution among Central African hunter-gatherers

Human evolutionary history in Central Africa reflects a deep history of population connectivity. However, Central African hunter-gatherers (CAHGs) currently speak languages acquired from their neighbouring farmers. Hence it remains unclear which aspects of CAHG cultural diversity results from long-term evolution preceding agriculture and which reflect borrowing from farmers. On the basis of musical instruments, foraging tools, specialized vocabulary and genome-wide data from ten CAHG populations, we reveal evidence of large-scale cultural interconnectivity among CAHGs before and after the Bantu expansion. We also show that the distribution of hunter-gatherer musical instruments correlates with the oldest genomic segments in our sample predating farming. Music-related words are widely shared between western and eastern groups and likely precede the borrowing of Bantu languages. In contrast, subsistence tools are less frequently exchanged and may result from adaptation to local ecologies. We conclude that CAHG material culture and specialized lexicon reflect a long evolutionary history in Central Africa.

When ‘father’ means ‘husband’ and ‘sister’ means ‘cattle’: lexicalization of kinship terms and address forms in Tanzanian Bantu languages

When ‘father’ means ‘husband’ and ‘sister’ means ‘cattle’: lexicalization of kinship terms and address forms in Tanzanian Bantu languages