Bantu languages

The Bantu languages ​​form a subgroup of the Volta -Congo branch of the Niger -Congo African languages. There are about 500 Bantu languages ​​, which are spoken by about 200 million people. They are widespread throughout central and southern Africa and the most widely spoken languages ​​, when used as an official language, usually English, French or Portuguese there in all states.

In the northwest, the Bantu area borders the other Niger - Congo languages ​​, Nilo-Saharan in the north- east and Afro-Asiatic ( Semitic and Cushitic accurate ) languages. In the southwest of the Khoisan languages ​​form an enclave within the Bantu area ( see map).

The science of the Bantu languages ​​and associated cultures and peoples is called Bantuistik. It is a branch of African studies.

• 4.1 original homeland of the Bantu languages
• 4.2 spread of the Bantu peoples

• 5.1 Phonology
• 5.2 Nominal Morphology 5.2.1 Nominal classes
• 5.2.2 Examples of noun classes
• 5.2.3 Adjectives and concordance in the noun phrase
• 5.2.4 Concordance of subject and predicate
• 5.2.5 possessive
• 5.2.6 Class and meaning
• 5.2.7 pronouns
• 5.2.8 Numerals

• 5.3.1 Verbal derivations, aspect and tense
• 5.3.2 Verbal construction in Swahili

• 7.1 Northwest Bantu
• 7.2 Central South Bantu

• 8.1 Bantu languages
• 8.2 African Languages
• 8.3 encyclopedias

The word Bantu

The word " Bantu " means " people " in the language of the Congo. It was introduced by WHI Bleek 1856 in the linguistic discussion as a term for a widespread African language group, whose languages ​​have many features in common. These include above all a strong noun class system (see below ), but also comprehensive lexical similarities. The following table shows the word for "man" - singular and plural - in a selection of important Bantu languages:

Singular and plural are seemingly mu- and ba - formed by the prefixes. In fact, it is the first two noun classes ( see below), almost all Bantu languages ​​, the people in the singular or plural, respectively. The hyphens are not written in the normal written reproduction of Bantu words, set in this article but for clarity throughout.

The speaker most Bantu languages

The best known and most widely spoken as the common language Bantu language is Swahili (also Swahili, Kiswahili or Swahili ). The following table contains all the Bantu languages ​​with at least 3 million speakers and is the number of its speakers, their status within the Guthrie system ( see below) and their main distribution area of. Some of these languages ​​are so-called traffic languages ​​learned not only the mother tongue ( first language ), but are instead acquired by many speakers as a second or third language to allow communication over a wide area across language borders of individual ethnic groups away.

The class prefix for language names (eg, ki-, Kinya, chi, lu-, se-, isi ) are usually not used in the linguistic literature today. In this article, the short form is used without a prefix, eg Ganda instead Luganda.

There are many other Bantu languages ​​with more than 1 million speakers. An overview of all the Bantu languages ​​with at least 100,000 speakers offers the Appendix " Bantu languages ​​by Guthrie zones " at the end of this article.

Research history and current position of the Bantu languages

Overview of Research History

Already in 1659 published by Giacinto Brusciotto one written in Latin grammar of the language of the Congo. Wilhelm Bleek first described in 1856 the nominal classes of Bantu languages ​​( see below) and coined the term Bantu. Carl Meinhof adopted its first comparative grammar (1901 ). Malcolm Guthrie has classified them in 1948 and 1967-71 divided into 16 geographic areas, which he denoted by the letters A -S ( excluding I, O, Q). Within these zones the languages ​​in ten units are grouped and numbered (see: Classification of Bantu languages ​​by Guthrie ). Guthrie also has the proto- Bantu language reconstructed as hypothetical predecessor of all modern Bantu languages. Joseph Greenberg classified the Bantu group as a sub-sub - unit of the Niger - Congo languages ​​( see below). Previously, the Bantu languages, in particular by Carl Meinhof and his students, a dedicated family of languages ​​considered, which were compared with the Sudan languages ​​in the distribution area of the black African languages.

Development of theories about the origin of the Bantu languages

With the question of the origin ( original home ) and formation of the Bantu languages ​​dealt since 1860, many linguists. Some historically important hypotheses are listed here in order to make the difficult process to today's statement by the Bantu as a subunit of the Niger - Congo languages ​​clearly.

Richard Lepsius

The Egyptologist Richard Lepsius was in 1880 in the introduction to his Nubian grammar in Africa by three language zones, which he did not consider the Khoisan group: (1) Bantu languages ​​in southern Africa, the language of the actual " Negroes ", (2) mixed " Negro languages ​​" between the equator and the Sahara, the Sudan languages ​​, (3) Hamitic languages ​​(Egyptian, Cushitic, Berber ) in northern Africa.

Primary characteristics of these language groups are the class system of Bantu and the gender system of the Hamites who immigrated from West Asia to Africa. Through their advance they pushed parts of the Vorbevölkerung to South Africa from ( just the Bantu, who kept their "pure" form of language ); other groups intermarried with the Hamites and were mixed languages ​​- the languages ​​of Sudan - which is neither a distinct class nor gender system had. Your grammar he described as " informal ", " declined " and " defoliated ".

August Schleicher

The Indo-Europeanist August Schleicher had a completely different idea, which he published in 1891. In his opinion, Africa was initially uninhabited and was populated by Southwest Asia in four major waves:

He assumed that the Sudanese Nigriten had already had a rudimentary, imperfect class system that have perfected and then pronounced the Bantu peoples. For him, that is, the Nigritische or Sudanese was an evolutionary precursor of the Bantu, and not a result of decay as in Lepsius.

Carl Meinhof

The Africanist Carl Meinhof commented 1905-1935 several times about the origin of the Bantu languages; it stands in marked contrast to the hypotheses of Lepsius and Schleicher. For him, not the Bantu language, but the Sudan languages ​​are ur - nigritisch. Bantu is a mixed language with nigritischer "mother" (substrate) and hamitischem "father" ( superstrate ). The colonization of Africa took place after Meinhof so in three linguistic layers: ( 1) the nigritischen Sudan languages ​​, (2) the Hamitic languages ​​, and (3 ) the Bantu languages ​​as a mixed form of Nigritischen and Hamitic.

Diedrich Westermann and Joseph Greenberg

Diedrich Westermann first went out as Meinhof students from a common nigritischen substrate of the Sudan and the Bantu languages. From 1948, however, he was increasingly convinced of the genetic Urverwandtschaft the western Sudan languages ​​and the Bantu languages ​​, as he has pointed out in several publications. He prepared the ground for Greenberg's Niger -Congo approach.

Joseph Greenberg put the approaches Westermann's continued consistently and established 1949, the Niger -Congo phylum as a large family of languages ​​in West and Southern Africa, the Bantu languages ​​with the einbeschließt and the core is " nigritischen " from a westsudanischen emerged. The structure of the family has changed more times since this original approach; the last version Greenberg is his work "Languages ​​of Africa" ​​by 1963.

Even after Greenberg, the internal structure of the Niger -Congo phylum has been changed several more times (see Niger - Congo languages ​​), but all agree versions - the current (eg, Heine Nurse 2000) - agreed that the Bantu languages represent a sub-sub - unit of the Niger - Congo, which are most closely related to the so-called bantoiden languages ​​Ostnigerias and western Cameroon.

The position of the Bantu languages ​​within the Niger - Congo

The importance of Bantu languages ​​within the Niger - Congo languages ​​(and thus in the context of African languages ​​in general) show the following figures:

• Of the 1400 Niger - Congo languages ​​belong to the Bantu group 500; this is more than a third.
• Of the approximately 350 million speakers of Niger-Congo language speaking 200 million - nearly 60 % - a Bantu language.

Nevertheless, according to present knowledge, based mainly on the work of Joseph Greenberg, the Bantu group, only a sub-sub - unit of the Niger - Congo represents the exact position of the Bantu group in the Niger - Congo languages ​​is the following somewhat simplified genetic Chart:

Position of the Bantu within Niger - Congo

• Niger - Congo Kordofanisch
• Mande
• Atlantic
• Dogon
• Ijoid
• Volta - Congo North Volta - Congo Kru
• Gur ( Voltaic )
• Senufo
• Adamawa - Ubangi

• Kwa
• Benue - Congo West Benue - Congo
• East Benue - Congo Platoid (central Nigerian )
• Bantoid - Cross River Cross River
• Bantoid North Bantoid
• South Bantoid various smaller groups
• Grassland
• Bantu

The complex lineage of Bantu languages ​​is so with all the intermediate links:

• Niger - Congo > Volta - Congo > South Volta - Congo > Benue - Congo > East Benue - Congo > Bantoid - Cross River> Bantoid > South Bantoid > Bantu.

For a detailed classification of the Bantu languages ​​within the Guthrie groups with details of the numbers of speakers, see the section at the end of the article " Bantu languages ​​by Guthrie - zones " (for languages ​​with at least 100,000 speakers ) and the below web link (for all Bantu languages).

Homeland and spread

All theories about the origin of the Bantu languages ​​make explicit or implicit statements about their original homeland and later spread to the present settlement areas of the Bantu peoples.

Original homeland of the Bantu languages

According to his classification - Bantu as a subset of the otherwise widespread in Nigeria and Cameroon bantoiden languages ​​- sat Joseph Greenberg on the original homeland of the Bantu languages ​​in the middle Benue valley ( eastern Nigeria ) and western Cameroon. This is the now accepted by most researchers and stated view.

Malcolm Guthrie, however, still expressed in 1962 based on a word - property argument ( relationship between archaeological tangible objects or cultivated plant species and the linguistic terms for it), Proto - Bantu had arisen in an area southeast of the equatorial tropical rainforest. From this core area migrations were carried out in a star shape in the present settlement areas. The problem related bantoiden languages ​​in the far distant West Africa he resolved by the assumption that some pre- Bantu groups have penetrated the jungle by boat, to the north. This position Guthrie is no longer relevant in today's research; generally an original homeland of the Bantu north of the tropical rainforest is believed the vast majority agrees Greenberg's approach to Eastern Nigeria - West Cameroon.

Spread of the Bantu peoples

Western and Eastern propagation routes

The spread of Bantu peoples from their West African homeland to the entire subsaharanische Africa is one of the largest migration of humanity. On the question of which paths have the Bantu groups now taken from their original home of, there are two theories, although not mutually exclusive, but only a different focus. The first states (eg Heine Hoff Vossen 1977) that the early Bantu are mainly inshore "west past the Rainforest" moved to the south, another grouping was initially migrated on the northern edge of the rain forest to the east, then south. The western main group then have a new nucleus in the lower reaches of the Congo formed, from which the majority of the Bantu tribes had emerged in the savannah and in the East African highlands. The second theory focuses mainly from a northern bypass of the rainforest. These groups were then later pulled from the area of the large East African lakes to the south and had then formed the nucleus of the Congo (or united with him ), from which was made from the further colonization of South East and South Africa. Generally, one starts from early Western and Eastern Bantu groups, corresponding to the two main migration routes.

Chronology of the spread

According to Vansina (1995) and Iliffe (1995 ) can be obtained from the reconstructed Proto - Bantu vocabulary (agriculture, ceramics ), the archaeological finds (especially ceramics) and the farmlands of early Bantu groups products (oil palm, yams, but still no grain ) conclude that the first emigration from the west African homeland in eastern Nigeria after the introduction of agriculture and pottery must have taken place. This results from the archeology Ostnigerias and West Cameroon as a likely period approximately 3000-2500 BC as the beginning of the emigration movement. First, the early Bantu migrated into the grasslands of Cameroon, where more terms for agricultural, livestock (goat, beef), fish farming and marine enriched the vocabulary.

1500-1000 BC, there was a migration of Bantu groups west of the dry rainforest becoming south to the lower reaches of the Congo. There Bantu cultures are archaeologically about 500-400 BC tangible. They knew no metal processing. Some of these groups migrated further south to northern Namibia, others waved to the east, attracted by the large river valleys and combined with the eastern group in Congo - nucleus ( see below).

The (probably larger) eastern group moved from 1500 BC by Cameroon on the north edge of the rainforest along to in the Great Lakes region of East Africa. There are from 1000 BC evidence of the first cereal crops ( sorghum), intensive livestock farming and - from 800 BC - first archaeological evidence for metalworking and iron production ( smelting furnaces in Rwanda and Tanzania). Terms for Metals and metal processing are also reflected linguistically in Proto - Western Bantu resist, while the Proto - Bantu she did not know. Perhaps this cultural revival of the Bantu peoples took place in agriculture, livestock and metal processing by the influence nilosaharanischer groups from the upper Nile valley where this culture stage was reached much earlier. The Bantu people make obviously represents the core of the Iron Age EMA - culture that was prevalent in the area of the large East African lakes. With the intensive agricultural use by burning and the need for firewood for iron making an extensive deforestation in the East African Lakes region is associated, ie a first large-scale transformation of the African nature by humans.

From the Great Lakes region from the EMA - Bantu moved ( as evidenced by their specific ceramic) starting around 500 BC gradually in all areas of eastern and southern Africa. On Zambezi EMA - ceramic is detectable from 300 BC. In the first century AD, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are achieved, the 2nd century Mozambique, after around 500 AD South Africa. Sedentary life forms ( with fallow land reclamation ) formed the Bantu peoples until 1000 AD from, before they forced the slash and burn technique to constant Weiterzug and the task of the leached surfaces.

The pressure of the Bantu peoples had to give the Khoisan, the then much larger populated areas of South Africa than it is today. Your retreat were the desert and steppe zones Südangolas, Namibia and Botswana, which were unsuitable for the cultivation of sorghum and thus unsuitable for the Bantu. Also known as " pygmies " combined ethnic groups probably lived in large, contiguous areas of Central Africa, before they were pushed back by the Bantu to a few smaller areas. Today they speak the languages ​​of the neighboring Bantu peoples, but this with some phonetic and lexical features that may go back to earlier own languages.

Linguistic characteristics

Despite their spread over a vast area show the Bantu languages ​​a high degree of grammatical similarity. Especially characteristic is the formation of noun classes - all nouns are divided into ten to twenty classes depending on the language, the class of the noun is indicated by a prefix - the influence of these classes on congruence or concordance of all grammatical categories ( that is, the class of the noun carries over to his attributes, and the subject to the forms of the predicate ) as complex, similarly constructed in all languages ​​verbal forms. Both nominal and verbal form are essentially agglutinative; it can be used both prefixes and suffixes.

The Bantu languages ​​share a large common vocabulary, so that several hundred Proto - Bantu roots could be reconstructed, their descendants occur in almost all areas of the Guthrie scheme. Parts of speech are in the Bantu languages ​​according to their syntactic use, indistinguishable on the external form. Besides the already mentioned nouns and verbs, there are relatively few independent adjectives (most are derivatives of verbs), an incomplete system of number words ( 7, 8, and 9 are usually foreign words ) and a rich inventory of pronouns, the demonstrative can express up to four different levels of proximity and distance ( " this ", "that" and others).

The syntax is strong morphosyntactically determined in particular by the noun class system and the associated concordance in the noun phrase, and between subject and predicate. The usual word order is subject - predicate - object ( SVO).

Phonology

Historically, the Bantu languages ​​have a simple phonetics. The words consist of open syllables, plosives can pränasaliert (eg mb or nd ). The consonant inventory was originally made voiceless, voiced, nasal and pränasalierten closure sounds: / p, b, m, mp, mb; t, d, n, nt, nd /, it also contained / tʃ /. These phonemes were largely retained in the present-day Bantu languages. Proto Bantu apparently had no other fricatives, in the modern Bantu languages ​​, however, are / s, ʃ, z, h, f, v / widespread. Thus, one does not receive the following consonant inventory of the individual languages ​​but all phones have ( for example, / ts / or / tʃ /, / dz / or / dʒ /; Pränasalreihe 1 or 3, 2 or 4):

The Ejektivlaute comply with the German pronunciation of b, d and g The Implosivlaute - in Swahili three, two in Shona, Xhosa and Zulu in only the ɓ - are mostly played in the script with its ejective counterparts. These are partially differentiated orthographically, for example by a trailing h

Some southern Bantu languages ​​have also adopted their clicking sounds by contact with Khoisan languages. This applies especially to languages ​​of Guthrie groups S40 and S50, in particular Zulu (12 clicking sounds ) and Xhosa (15). But Yeyi (or Yeye ) (R40 ) has up to 20 clicks, closely related and neighboring languages ​​, which also had contact with the Khoisan languages ​​and have have while (eg Herero ), no traces of click sounds. This is probably due to the fact that the Herero have come much later than the Xhosa and other east of the Kalahari peoples residing with the Khoisan languages ​​in contact.

The vowel system of Proto- Bantu consisted of the seven vowels / i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u /. It is still preserved in the north-east and north- central Bantu languages ​​, while in the other ( about 60 %) to the five vowels / i, ɛ, a, ɔ, was u / reduced. In several recent Bantu languages ​​, the differences between long and short vowels are relevant phonemic. Whether it is a property of the proto- Bantu or an innovation in specific sub- groups, has not yet been decided.

The proto- Bantu was certainly a tonal language, which means that the pitch of a syllable is meaningless relevant. A large part of the Bantu languages ​​( 97 % according to Nurse, 2003 ) have maintained this property. Most Bantu languages ​​have no more than two differentiating sounds that can be characterized as high-low or high - neutral either. But there are also more complex systems with up to four different pitches. A few languages, including Swahili, have lost their tonal rendition.

In some Bantu languages, there is a form of vowel harmony, the effect on the vocalization of certain Ableitungssuffixen. For example, the Umkehrungssuffix -ura receives in Gikuyu behind the verbal root hung ( " open " ) the form of hung -ura ( " close " ), after the verb Oh ( " bind " ) but the shape oh - ora ( " untie "). A dissimilation anlautender consonants of Nominalklassenpräfixes and the nominal strain shows just the language name Gi- kuyu, which would have formed Ki- kuyu regularly read ( spelling Kikuyu is so wrong).

The accent is in almost all Bantu languages ​​on the penultimate syllable.

Nominal morphology

Noun classes

A special feature of Bantu languages ​​is the division of nouns into so-called classes. However, they share this characteristic with a variety of other Niger -Congo languages ​​and languages ​​with completely different genetic origin, eg Caucasian, jenisseischen or Australian languages. The assignment of a noun to a class was originally about the meaning of a word category, but appears in today's Bantu languages ​​often random. Are nominal classes remotely comparable to the grammatical gender in other languages ​​( so you could understand the Latin as a 6- class language: masculine, feminine and neuter, respectively singular and plural ).

There were about twenty classes in Proto Bantu. This number has been preserved in some of today's Bantu languages ​​(eg Ganda ), in others it was reduced to about ten classes. The noun classes are exclusively marked by prefixes. The classes of nouns and their attributes, as well as subject and predicate must in the construction of a set match ( concordance ), but the prefixes in a class noun, numeral, pronoun and verb may be different. In most Bantu languages ​​form the classes - and they marked prefixes - pairs the singular or plural of a word ( see below the examples from the languages ​​Ganda and Swahili).

Examples of noun classes

Examples of noun classes in the language Ganda:

• To the root - ganda: mu- ganda " one (s) Ganda "
• Ba - ganda " the Ganda people " ( plural of mu- class)
• Bu - ganda "the land of Ganda "
• Lu- ganda " the language of the Ganda "
• Ki- ganda " cultural things Ganda " (eg songs )

• Mu- ntu "man"
• Ba - ntu " people "
• Ka- ntu " little thing "
• Gu - ntu " giant"
• Ga - ntu "giant"

The continuous set in this article to illustrate dashes between prefix and stem are not used in the normal Bantu sensitive.

Examples from the Swahili show the widespread duplication of classes in a singular class and a corresponding plural class.

Adjectives and concordance in the noun phrase

There are relatively few real adjective roots in the Bantu languages ​​, apparently a legacy of the original language. Most adjectives are derived from verbs. In many cases, using relative constructions, eg " the man who is strong ( to be strong from the verb ) " instead of " the strong man ". The attributive adjectives follow their head noun, while the Nominalpräfix the noun class of the noun is preceded by the adjective, so it should be class concordance. These examples from the Swahili:

• M- te - Kubwa " great person " (m -tu "man", Kubwa "large" )
• Wa - wa - tu Kubwa " big people " ( the wa -Class is the plural form of the m- class)
• Ki- ki- kapu Kubwa " large basket " (ki - kapu "Basket " )
• Vi - vi - kapu Kubwa "big chairs" ( vi - class is the plural of the ki- class)

All members of a noun phrase, ie adjacent to the noun and possessive pronouns, adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and numerals, while the subject class concordance ( except for a few number words that have been adopted from foreign languages ​​, see below). Here are some examples:

• Wa -tu wa - wa - zuri wili wa -le " people ( -tu ) good ( - zuri ) two ( - wili ) those ( -le ) ", " those good people two "
• Ki- ki- kapu dogo ki- le "basket (ki - kapu ) smaller ( - dogo ) that ( -le ) ", " that little basket"
• Vi - vi - kapu dogo vi - vi -le tatu " baskets (vi kapu ) small ( - dogo ) three ( - tatu ) those ( -le ) ", " those three little baskets ".

Concordance of subject and predicate

The class of the subject must be included congruent from the predicate of a sentence, so it also prevails here concordance. The following examples from the Swahili show the principle (for details on the verbal construction, see below):

• Ki- ki- kapu Kubwa ki -me- fika " the great basket has arrived " (ki - kapu "basket" - fika " arrive " -me- perfect marker) Note: same class prefix ki- in noun and verb, so-called alliteration
• M- m- toto Kubwa a- me- fika " the big kid (m- toto ) has arrived " Note: a verbal prefix corresponds to the nominal m class; So different Präfixmorpheme with the same class
• Wa -tu wa - wa - zuri wili wa - wa le -me- anguka "those (wa -le ) two (wa - wili ) good (wa - zuri ) people have fallen down ( - anguka ) "
• Wa - wa - geni Zungu w engi - wa -li - fika Kenya lit. "Strangers (wa - geni ) European (wa - Zungu ) many (w- engi < * wa - ingi ) arrived ( -li - past marker) in Kenya "
• " Many Europeans arrived in Kenya "

Possessive

Possessive of the type " the man's house " ( = house owned; Man = owner, the German genitive attribute) have in the Bantu languages ​​generally have the following form:

• Possession [ adjective attribute of ownership ] ( class markers of possession a) owner

The connection of the class marker ( prefix of the noun class ) with the suffixed -a frequently leads to contractions and other phonetic changes of the link.

Examples from the Swahili:

• Wa -tu wa ( < * wa -a) Tanzania " the people of Tanzania "
• Ki- tabu cha ( < * ki -a) m- toto " the book ( Kitabu ) of the Child"
• Vi taboo vya (< * vi -a) wa - toto " children's books "
• Ny - umba ya (< * ny -a) m -tu "the house ( nyumba ) of the man "
• Ny - umba n- dogo ya m -tu " the small ( - dogo ) House of Man"

Class and importance

Although the class membership of nouns today's Bantu languages ​​is very difficult to semantically determined (see examples above ), a list of semantic fields of the different noun classes has been developed in many research on this issue. A summary of these results give Hendrikse and Poulos (1992 ), quoted here from Nurse ( 2003). In addition to the reconstructed Proto - Bantu Klassenpräfixen (after Meeussen 1967 ) are listed as example, the Ganda prefixes, here enhanced by the pre- vocalic prefixes, called augments. The Ganda prefixes correspond - as you can see - the reconstructed Proto- Bantu prefixes largely. Here are some typical sample words are given from the Ganda language. The last column describes the semantic fields of the individual classes.

A glance at this table shows many overlaps between the semantic fields of each class, for example, animals may the classes 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and others are assigned. Thus almost never predictable, the class to which a noun meaning a specific category belongs. An exception are the people names that are almost always assigned to classes 1 and 2.

Pronouns

In addition to the dependent Personalenklitika for pronomiales subject and object, which are used in verbal constructions (see there), there are in the Bantu languages ​​also independent personal pronouns. They are used for special emphasis ( emphasis ) of the person, usually only as a subject. The possessive pronouns are not enclitic, but are to be determined, the noun class with concordance (see above) adjusted as a separate word. The two pronouns are denominated in Swahili:

Some examples of possessive pronouns:

• Vi taboo vy - angu (< * vi - angularis ) " my books "
• Ki- ki- le taboo ni ch- angu (< * ki- angularis ) " that book is mine"
• Ny - umba y- etu "our house"
• Wa - toto w - w angu - ema " my good ( - ema ) Children ( toto ) "

The demonstratives in Proto Bantu offer a differentiated three - or four-level system even far and near the reference ( for example, in German only a two-tier system with " this " and "that" exists):

• Step 1: Reference the immediate vicinity of the speaker: this here
• Step 2: Reference to the relative vicinity of the speaker: this
• Level 3: Reference to the vicinity of the person addressed: those near there
• Level 4: Reference to third parties away from the interlocutors: those back there, in the distance

For example (S20 ) have received all four stages in the language Venda. By phonetic connection with the class markers, demonstratives develop a special form for each class. They read in Venda in classes 1 and 2 ( persons classes, simplified phonetics ):

However, only two levels have in many Bantu languages ​​of which receive, eg in Swahili class marker le "that", hV class marker " this " ("V" vowel in harmony with the class marker). Exceptionally, is used in the near demonstrative hV class marker not as a prefix rather than a suffix. Here are some examples from the Swahili:

• Jiji ki- hi -ki " this village ( - jiji ) "
• Vi - jiji hi - vi " these villages "
• Wa - toto ha - wa " these children "
• Ki- ki- le jiji " that village "
• Vi - vi -le jiji "those villages "
• Wa - wa - toto le " those kids "

While possessive, and demonstrative of the class concordance (see above) are subject to only the categories of " person " and " thing " distinguishes the interrogative pronouns in Bantu languages, such as Swahili nani " who? " Nini " what? ".

Number words

The numerals 1-5 and 10 come in many Bantu languages ​​from Urbantu and are still relatively similar to those for 6-9 are from different backgrounds (Arabic, European Languages ​​, African non- Bantu languages) and vary greatly in the different languages. In Swahili they are:

The numerals 1-5 and 8 are treated as adjectives and participate in the Klassenkordanz part ( see above). The number of words for 6, 7 and 9 ( italics) derived from Arabic and not subject to the concordance, so they get no class prefix ( see above). The tens ( except " 10") and are also hundreds of Arab origin.

Examples from the Swahili:

• Wa - toto wa - nne " Four Children"
• Wa - toto kumi na moja m- " eleven children "

Verbal morphology

Verbal derivations, aspect and tense

Verbal derivations

Through various suffixes on the verb stem derived verbs (derivatives) can be formed, which make the most Bantu languages ​​heavy use. Some of the Derivationsendungen have evolved from proto -language predecessors. Here are two examples:

The proto- linguistic reciprocal marker ( = reciprocal mutually ) " ana" has been preserved in many Bantu languages, such as

• Swahili: pend - ana " love each other "
• Lingala: ling- ana " to love each other"
• Zulu: bon - ana " see each other "
• Ganda: yombag - ana " fight each other "

The causative marker " Vsha " appears as - Vsha in Swahili, ithia in Gikuyu, -isa in Zulu, VTSA in Shona, Vsa in Sotho -isa in Lingala. ( "V " stands for any vowel. )

An overview of the derivational The following table gives some examples (after Möhlig 1980).

Aspect, mood and tense

Aspects and modes are marked by suffixes, most Bantu languages ​​seven aspects or modes: infinitive, indicative, imperative, subjunctive, perfective, continuative and subjunctive. ( In the Bantuistik one usually speaks only of " aspects ". )

Tenses are indicated by prefixes between the class prefix (see above) are inserted and strain ( concrete examples in the next section ). ( In the Africanist literature Tempuspräfixe are often incorrectly referred to as " Tempusinfixe ". ) The tenses and their marking prefixes vary in the different Bantu languages ​​very strong, so that they have hardly developed from the common proto -language morphemes, but only later in the individual branches Bantu languages ​​are more or less developed independently from each.

Verbal construction in Swahili

Below are some verbal constructions of Swahili are presented.

Infinitive

Infinitives are called ku stem final vowel formed; the final vowel is -a, if it is an original Bantuverb, -e/-i/-u when a derived from the Arabic Fremdverb present. Examples:

• Ku - fany -a " do, make "
• Ku - fikr -i "think"

Imperative

The imperative is expressed in the singular by the stem final vowel in the plural by adding- eni to the stem.

• Som -a " lies! "
• Som - eni " read! "

Indicative

Finite verbal forms of the indicative have the form

• Subject marker Tempuspräfix object marker strain

Subject marker is the class prefix (see above) the nominal subject, however, are subjects for classes of persons m / wa - (nominal and pronominal ) used special subject marker. The same applies to the object markers that can be related to a direct or indirect object. Markers of the subject and object persons classes are summarized in the following table.

For all other classes subject and object markers are identical and correspond to the respective class marker, eg ki- " it " vi " you ( pl. )" in the ki-/vi-Klasse. The following table shows the Tempuspräfixe of Swahili together.

Some design examples of the indicative

• A- li -ni -pa SUBJ - TEMP - OBJ - TRIBE " he (m- class) - VERG - me (m- class) - type" > " He gave (it ) to me "
• Ni -li -ki- nunua SUBJ - TEMP - OBJ - TRIBE " I - VERG - something (ki class) - buy " > " I bought something ( what the ki- class belongs to ) "
• Ni -li - m- Sikia " I heard him " ( - Sikia listen )
• A- li -ni - Sikia " he heard me "
• ( "read" -na- present tense prefix - soma ) ni -na- soma " I read ( just ) "
• Ni -ta- soma " I will read " ( -ta- future tense prefix)
• Ki -me- fika " it arrived " ( -me- Perkekt prefix - fika arrive, ki- ki- subject class)
• Ni -ki- kaa " if I wait " ( -ki- conditionalis, kaa " wait " )

Benefaktiv

To clarify that the act for the benefit of a person happens to be in addition to the object marker after the verb stem ( but before the final vowel -a) a so-called Benefaktivsuffix -i ​​- or -e- pasted. example:

• A- li -ni - andik - i-a barua Analysis: SUBJ (s) - TEMP ( Carb ) - OBJ ( me) - STEM ( andik "write" ) - BENEFAK - final vowel OBJ ( barua " letter " )
• " He wrote me a letter "

Relative construction

Relative constructions of the form " the child who was reading a book " be Relativpräfix -ye - expressed in Swahili by following the Tempuspräfix. Examples:

• M- toto a- li -ye - soma Kitabu " the child who was reading a book "
• Ni -na -ye -ki- soma Kitabu " I, the ( I ) just read the book"

Passive

The passive is marked with transitive verbs by inserting -w- or - uliw - before the infinitive - final vowel (usually -a). Examples:

• Ku - som -a 'read' > ku - som - wa " to read "
• Ku -ju -a "know" > ku -ju - LIW -a ( < * ku -ju - uliw -a) " be known "

Causatives

Causatives are formed by adding the suffix -sha on the trunk. example:

• Ku - telem -ka " go down " > ku - telem -sha " humiliate ".

The examples are partly taken from Campbell ( 1995).

Comments on writing and literature

No Bantu language has developed its own font. Only Swahili had been in pre-colonial times - perhaps as early as the 10th century - adopted the Arabic script for fixing a predominantly Islamic religious literature. In addition to theological explanations, there were also legal texts, chronicles, Geographica, fairy tales, songs and epics. These epics (eg, " The Secret of Secrets ", the " Herkal epic" ) are created in form and content after Arab role models, but also have influences of the East African Bantu culture. The importance of Arabized Swahili literature can be compared with the literature in the languages ​​of Hausa, Fula, Kanuri and Berbers who were also early transliterated Arabic ( in the 10th - 14th century). Since the late 19th century Swahili was written like all other Bantu languages ​​verschriftlichten in Latin script.

Also had no writing and have the Bantu peoples a rich oral literature, myths, fairy tales, fables, proverbs, songs and stories includes tribal. Under European - especially missionary - Influence of the Latin alphabet was introduced (usually with smaller language-specific modifications ), especially for the larger Bantu languages ​​since the mid-19th century, were often translations of the Bible, the first written texts in one language. Since that time began also a keen collector of missionaries, administrators and linguists who compiled sacred and profane songs, Banner and puzzle seals, myths, fairy tales, legends and epics of the Bantu peoples and chronicled in the original languages ​​. In Europe, only translations thereof have become generally known.

Meanwhile, a rather extensive and versatile new black African literature has developed, however, most modern authors prefer a colonial languages ​​as vehicles of their works, as they can use it to reach a much larger audience. The Bantu oral literature plays but both content and form an important role as a basis for large areas of the neo-African literature.

The classification of the Bantu languages ​​by Guthrie zones

Malcolm Guthrie has the Bantu languages ​​in 1948 in 16 groups ( "zones" ) divided, he with the letters A - S ( excluding I, O, Q) described, for example, Zone A = Bantu languages ​​of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Within each zone, the languages ​​are grouped into ten units, so are about A10 = Lundu - Balong group and A20 = Duala group. The individual languages ​​are numbered in each group of ten; For example, A11 = A15 = Londo and Mbo. Dialects are characterized by small letters, eg A15a = Northeast - Mbo.

The system of Guthrie is primarily geographically oriented, it has a genetic significance according to current knowledge, hardly. However, it is still commonly used as a reference system of the Bantu languages.

The individual zones are listed with their groups of ten, and the languages ​​to be at least 100,000 speakers within the groups of ten. On the individual numbering of languages ​​is waived, as they differs with each author. Details of these languages ​​can be found in Ethnologue, which is also the main source for the numbers of speakers. Zones A, B and C are as Northwest Bantu, the remaining classified as Central South Bantu. Languages ​​with at least one million speakers are indicated in bold. In general, the number of native speakers S1 is specified, S2 is the number of speakers including a second language (only given if it differs significantly from S1).

Northwest Bantu

• Zone A - Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea - 53 languages ​​with 5.1 million speakers A10 Lundu - Balong: Akoose (100 thousand); Oroko (100 thousand)
• A20 Duala: Duala
• A30 Bube - Benga
• A40 Basaa: Basaa (230 thousand)
• A50 Bafia: Bafia
• A70 Beti- Fang: Beti ( 2 million); Catch (450 thousand), Ewondo (600 thousand), Bulu (860 thousand)
• A80 Makaa - Njem
• A90 Kako: Kako (120 thousand)

• B10 Myene
• B20 Kele Kele
• B30 Tsogo: Tsogo
• B40 Shira: Punu (130 thousand)
• B50 Njebi: Njebi (130 thousand)
• B60 Mbere: Mbere (100 thousand)
• B70 Teke Teke (200 thousand); Teke Tsaayi (130 thousand)
• B80 Yansi: Mpuono (160 thousand), Ding (150 thousand), Yansi

• C10 Ngando
• C20 Ngundi
• C30 Mbosi: Mbosi (110 thousand)
• C40 Lingala - Ntomba: Lingala (2 million, S2 9 million), Budza (250 thousand); Ntomba (100 thousand); Bangi (110 thousand), Bolia (100 thousand)
• C50 Ngombe: Ngombe (200 thousand), Bwa ( Libua ) ( 200k )
• C60 Kele Kele (200 thousand)
• C70 Mongo: Mongo Nkundu (400 thousand), Ngando (220 thousand)
• C80 Tetela: Tetela (750 thousand), Kela (200 thousand)
• C90 Bushong: Bushong (160 thousand)

Central South Bantu

• Zone D - Congo, Uganda, Tanzania - 36 languages ​​with 2.3 million speakers D10 Enya: Mbole (100 thousand), Lengola (100 thousand)
• D20 Lega - Kalanga: Lega - Shabunda (400 thousand), Zimba (120 thousand)
• D30 - Bira Huku: Komo (400 thousand), Budu (200 thousand), Bera (120 thousand)
• D40 Nyanga: Nyanga (150 thousand)
• D50 Bembe: Bembe (250 thousand)

• E10 Kuria: Gusii ( Kisii ) ( 2 million), Kuria (350 thousand); Suba (160 thousand)
• E20 Kikuyu Meru: Gikuyu ( Kikuyu ) (5.5 million), Kamba (2.5 million), Embu - Mbere (450 thousand); Meru ( 1.3 million), Tharaka (120 thousand)
• E30 Chagga: Chagga (400 thousand), Machame (300 thousand), Vunjo (300 thousand), Mochi (600 thousand), Rwa (100 thousand)
• E40 Nyika: Nyika ( Giryama ) (650 thousand), Digo (300 thousand), Duruma (250 thousand), Chonyi (120 thousand); Taita (200 thousand)

• F10 Tongwe: Mambwe - Lungu (400 thousand), FIPA (200 thousand)
• F20 Sukuma - Nyamwezi: Sukuma (3.2 million), Nyamwezi ( 1.2 million), Sumbwa (200 thousand)
• F30 Nyilamba - Langi: Nyaturu (550 thousand), Nilamba ( Ramba ) (450 thousand), Langi ( Rangi ) ( 350 thousand)

• G10 Gogo Gogo ( 1.3 million), Kagulu (200 thousand)
• G20 Shambala Shambala (700 thousand), Asu (500 thousand)
• G30 Zigula - Zalamo: Luguru ( Ruguru ) (700 thousand), Zigula (350 thousand), Ngulu (130 thousand), Kwere (100 thousand)
• G40 Swahili Swahili ( Swahili, Kiswahili, Kiswahili ) (2 million, S2 80 million), Comorian (650 thousand)
• G50 Pogoro: Pogoro (200 thousand)
• G60 Bena - Kinga: Hehe ( Hehet ) (750 thousand), Bena (700 thousand), Pangwa (100 thousand), Kinga (140 thousand)

• H10 Congo Congo ( Kikongo ) (1.5 million), Yombe ( 1 million), Suundi (120 thousand); Kituba ( Munuktuba ) ( 5.4 million, 6.2 million S2 ) creole
• H20 Mbundu: Luanda Mbundu ( Kimbundu, Loanda ) ( 3 million)
• H30 Yaka Yaka ( 1 million), probe (100 thousand)
• H40 Hungana

• J10 Nyoro - Ganda: Ganda ( Luganda ) (3 million, S2 4 million), Chiga (1.5 million), Nyankore ( Nkole ) ( 1.7 million ), Soga (1.4 million), Nyoro (500 thousand), Tooro (500 thousand), Kenyi (400 thousand), Gwere (300 thousand), Hema (130 thousand)
• J20 Haya - Jita: Haya ( OluHaya, Ziba ) ( 1.2 million), Nyambo (440 thousand), Jita (200 thousand), Zinza (150 thousand), Kara (100 thousand), Kerebe (100 thousand), Kwaya (100 thousand), Talinga - Bwisi (100 thousand)
• J30 Luyia: Luyia (3.6 million), Bukusu (650 thousand), Idhako - Isukha - Tiriki (300 thousand), Logooli (200 thousand), Nyore (120 thousand); Masaba (750 thousand), Nyole (250 thousand)
• J40 - Konzo Nandi: Nandi ( 1 million), Konzo (350 thousand)
• J50 Shi- Havu: Shi (650 thousand), Havu (500 thousand), Fuliiru (300 thousand), dogs (200 thousand), Tembo (150 thousand)
• J60 - Rundi Rwanda: Rwanda ( Kinyarwanda ) (7.5 million), Rundi ( Kirundi ) (5 million), Ha ( 1 million), Hangaza (150 thousand), Shubi (150 thousand)

• K10 Holu: Phende (450 thousand)
• K20 Chokwe: Chokwe ( 1 million), Luvale (700 thousand), Luchazi (200 TASD ) Mbunda (250 thousand), Nyemba (250 thousand), Mbewela (220 thousand)
• K30 Salampasu - Lunda: Lunda ( Chilunda ) (400 thousand), Ruund (250 thousand)
• K40 Kwangwa: Luyana (110 thousand)
• K50 Subia
• K60 Mbala: Mbala ( Rumbala ) ( 200k )
• K70 Diriku

• L10 Bwile
• L20 Songye: Songe ( 1 million), Bangubangu (170 thousand), Binji (170 thousand)
• L30 Luba: Luba - Kasai ( Chiluba, Western Luba, Luba - Lulua, Luva ) (6.5 million), Luba - Katanga ( Kiluba, Luba - Shaba ) (1.5 million), Sanga (450 thousand), Kanyok (200 thousand), Hemba (180 thousand)
• L40 Kaonde: Kaonde (300 thousand)
• L50 Nkoya

• M10 FIPA - Mambwe
• M20 Nyika Safwa: Nyiha ( Nyika ) (650 thousand), Nyamwanga (250 thousand), Ndali (220 thousand), Safwa (200 thousand)
• M30 Nyakyusa - Ngonde: Nyakyusa - Ngonde ( 1 million)
• M40 Bemba: Bemba ( Chibemba, IchiBemba, Wemba ) (3.6 million), Taabwa (300 thousand), Aushi (100 thousand)
• M50 Bisa - Lamba: Lala - Bisa (400 thousand), Seba (170 thousand); Lamba (200 thousand)
• M60 Tonga Lenje: Tonga ( ChiTonga ) (1.5 million), Lenje (170 thousand)

• N10 Manda: Ngoni (200 thousand), Tonga (170 thousand), Matengo (150 thousand)
• N20 Tumbuka: Tumbuka ( Chitumbuka ) ( 1.3 million)
• N30 Nyanja: Nyanja ( Chinyanja, Chewa, Chichewa ) (9.5 million)
• N40 Sena Senga: Sena ( 1.2 million), Nyungwe (250 thousand), Kunda (200 thousand); Nsenga ( Senga ) (600 thousand)

• P10 Matumbi: Ngindo (220 thousand), Rufiji (200 thousand), Ndengerenko (110 thousand), Ndendeule (100 thousand)
• P20 Yao Yao ( 2 million), Makonde (1.4 million), Mwera (500 thousand)
• P30 Makua: Makhuwa ( Makua, EMakua ) (5 million), Lomwe ( Ngulu ) (1.5 million), Chuwabo (600 thousand), Kokola (200 thousand), Takwane (150 thousand), Lolo (150 thousand), Manyawa (150 thousand)

• R10 South Mbundu: Umbundu ( 4 million), Nyaneka (300 thousand), Nkhumbi (150 thousand)
• R20 Ndonga: Ndonga (700 thousand), Kwanyama ( Ovambo, Oshivambo ) (400 thousand)
• R30 Herereo: Herero (150 thousand)
• R40 Yeye

• S10 Shona: Shona ( Chishona ) ( 11 million) (including Manyika ( 1 million) and Kalanga (850 thousand) ), Ndau (700 thousand), Tewe (250 thousand), Nambya (100 thousand)
• S20 Venda Venda ( ChiVenda ) ( 1 million)
• S30 Sotho - Tswana: Sotho ( Southern Sotho, Sesotho ) (5 million), Pedi ( Northern Sotho, Sepedi, Transvaal Sotho ) ( 4 million), South Ndebele (600 thousand); Tswana ( Setswana ) ( 4 million); Lozi (600 thousand)
• S40 Nguni Zulu ( isiZulu ) (10 million), Xhosa ( isiXhosa ) (7.5 million), Northern Ndebele (1.6 million), Swati ( Swati, Swazi ) ( 1.7 million )
• S50 Tswa - Ronga: Tsonga ( Xitsonga, Thonga, Shangaan ) ( 3.3 million ), Tswa (700 thousand), Ronga (700 thousand)
• S60 Chopin: Chopin ( 800 thousand), Gitonga - Inhambane (250 thousand)