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Bantu languages: Difference between revisions
From Chalo Chatu, Zambia online encyclopedia
→Notable Bantu languages
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Following are the principal Bantu languages of each country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.org |title=According to Ethnologue |publisher=Ethnologue.org |date= |accessdate=2012-06-29}}</ref> Included are those languages that constitute at least 1% of the population and have at least 10% the number of speakers of the largest Bantu language in the country. | Following are the principal Bantu languages of each country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.org |title=According to Ethnologue |publisher=Ethnologue.org |date= |accessdate=2012-06-29}}</ref> Included are those languages that constitute at least 1% of the population and have at least 10% the number of speakers of the largest Bantu language in the country. | ||
Most languages are best known in English without the class prefix (''Swahili'', ''Tswana'', ''Ndebele''), but are sometimes seen with the (language-specific) prefix (''Kiswahili'', ''Setswana'', ''Sindebele''). In a few cases prefixes are used to distinguish languages with the same root in their name, such as | Most languages are best known in English without the class prefix (''Swahili'', ''Tswana'', ''Ndebele''), but are sometimes seen with the (language-specific) prefix (''Kiswahili'', ''Setswana'', ''Sindebele''). In a few cases prefixes are used to distinguish languages with the same root in their name, such as Tshiluba and Kiluba (both ''Luba''), Umbundu and Kimbundu (both ''Mbundu''). The bare (prefixless) form typically does not occur in the language itself, but is the basis for other words based on the ethnicity. So, in the country of Botswana the people are the ''Batswana'', one person is a ''Motswana'', and the language is ''Setswana''; and in Uganda, centred on the kingdom of ''Buganda'', the dominant ethnicity are the ''Baganda'' (sg. ''Muganda''), whose language is ''Luganda''. | ||
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