Bantu languages
From Chalo Chatu, Zambia online encyclopedia
The Bantu languages (/ˈbæntuː/),[2] technically the Narrow Bantu languages (as opposed to "Wide Bantu", a loosely defined categorization which includes other Bantoid languages), constitute a traditional branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility,[3] though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages.[4] Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of present-day Cameroon, that is, in the regions commonly known as Central Africa, Southeast Africa, and Southern Africa. Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families (see map).
Bantu | |
---|---|
Narrow Bantu | |
Ethnicity: | Bantu peoples |
Geographic distribution: | Subsaharan Africa, mostly Southern Hemisphere |
Linguistic classification: | Niger–Congo
|
Proto-language: | Proto-Bantu |
Subdivisions: |
|
ISO 639-2 / 5: | bnt |
Glottolog: | narr1281[1] |
Map showing the distribution of Bantu vs. other African languages. The Bantu area is in orange. |
- ↑ Lua error in ...ribunto/includes/engines/LuaCommon/lualib/mwInit.lua at line 23: bad argument #1 to 'old_ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ "Bantu". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ↑ Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
- ↑ Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid. The figure of 535 includes the 13 Mbam languages considered Bantu in Guthrie's classification and thus counted by Nurse (2006)