Cultural Vocabulary Research Articles

The Prehistorical Implications of Guthrie's Comparative Bantu. Part II: Interpretation of Cultural Vocabulary

The second part of this article opens with a general caveat about the use and misuse of linguistic evidence. Guthrie, on the other hand, presented his data in a way which leaves subsequent scholars free to arrive at their own interpretations. The complexity of his data makes it difficult to achieve a necessary overview, however, and a stylized grid is therefore proposed, enabling the relative distribution of individual items of Common Bantu vocabulary to be plotted and compared. This is particularly important in the case of cultural vocabulary, where geographical distribution is normally related to levels of historical origin or diffusion. Groups of these vocabulary grids, based on Guthrie's corpus of data and his referential zones, are assembled and presented for the following semantic areas: fishing and watercraft, metal-working, pottery, livestock and cultivation (including cereals). Much of the remainder of the article is devoted to an exposition of the way in which these grids may be interpreted historically, including the need to distinguish—as far as possible—between likely cognates and likely loan-words. Attention is drawn to the possibilities (i) that Bantu languages may have begun to diverge substantially in linguistic terms before they began to move widely apart from their secondary and tertiary nucleus south of the forest, and (ii) that there may have been a differential layering, or overlapping waves, of Bantu expansion in the east.

Some Food Plant Names in the Niger Delta

Previous articleNext article No AccessSome Food Plant Names in the Niger DeltaKay WilliamsonKay Williamson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 36, Number 2Apr., 1970Hans Wolff Memorial Issue: Fascicle II Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/465107 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 12Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Kayode A. Arowora, Folasade B. Oluwaba, ChineduImo ., Ayobami J. Kukoyi, Kenneth C. Ugwuoke, Victor O. Eneji Proximate Composition and Aflatoxin Levels in Some Selected Grain Crops Sold in Taraba and Benue States, Nigeria, Journal of Biological Sciences 20, no.33 (Apr 2020): 112–115.https://doi.org/10.3923/jbs.2020.112.115Philippe Cubry, Christine Tranchant-Dubreuil, Anne-Céline Thuillet, Cécile Monat, Marie-Noelle Ndjiondjop, Karine Labadie, Corinne Cruaud, Stefan Engelen, Nora Scarcelli, Bénédicte Rhoné, Concetta Burgarella, Christian Dupuy, Pierre Larmande, Patrick Wincker, Olivier François, François Sabot, Yves Vigouroux The Rise and Fall of African Rice Cultivation Revealed by Analysis of 246 New Genomes, Current Biology 28, no.1414 (Jul 2018): 2274–2282.e6.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.066Ilaria M. Grimaldi, Tinde R. van Andel Food and Medicine by What Name? Ethnobotanical and Linguistic Diversity of Taro in Africa, Economic Botany 72, no.22 (May 2018): 217–228.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-018-9413-7Ozo-mekuri Ndimele, Robin Horton Kay Ruth M. Williamson (1935–2005), Africa 80, no.11 (May 2011): 168–176.https://doi.org/10.3366/E000197200900134XKoen Bostoen What comparative Bantu pottery vocabulary may tell us about early human settlement in the Inner Congo Basin, Afrique & histoire vol. 5, no.11 (Jul 2006): 221–263.https://doi.org/10.3917/afhi.005.0221 Staple Foods: Domesticated Plants and Animals, (Dec 2000): 73–74.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521402149.010Patricia J. O'Brien Sweet Potatoes and Yams, (Dec 2000): 207–218.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521402149.025Sonpie Kpone-Tonwe Property reckoning and methods of accumulating wealth among the Ogoni of the eastern Niger delta, Africa 67, no.11 (Dec 2011): 130–158.https://doi.org/10.2307/1161273H. O. Edeoga, B. E. Okoli Apomictic behaviour inCostus afer – C. lucanusianus (Costaceae) complex in Nigeria, Feddes Repertorium 107, no.1-21-2 (May 1996): 75–82.https://doi.org/10.1002/fedr.4921070110H. O. Edeoga, B. E. Okoli Apomictic behaviour in Costus afer – C. lucanusianus (Costaceae) complex in Nigeria, Feddes Repertorium 107, no.1-21-2 (Apr 2008): 75–82.https://doi.org/10.1002/fedr.19961070110Stanley B. Alpern The European Introduction of Crops into West Africa in Precolonial Times, History in Africa 19 (May 2014): 13–43.https://doi.org/10.2307/3171994Jean-Pierre Warnier Histoire du Peuplement et Genèse des Paysages dans l'Ouest Camerounais, The Journal of African History 25, no.44 (Jan 2009): 395–410.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700028450

Cultural Material and Vocabulary in the Study of Romance Languages

Cultural Material and Vocabulary in the Study of Romance Languages

Cultural Material and Vocabulary in the Study of Romance Languages

Cultural Material and Vocabulary in the Study of Romance Languages