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{{Infobox language family
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The technical term Bantu, meaning "human beings" or simply "people", was first used by Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), as this is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as ''muntu'' or ''mutu'' for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and the plural prefix for human nouns starting with ''mu-'' (class 1) in most languages is ''ba-'' (class 2), thus giving ''bantu'' for "people". Bleek, and later Carl Meinhof, pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages.
The technical term Bantu, meaning "human beings" or simply "people", was first used by Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), as this is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as ''muntu'' or ''mutu'' for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and the plural prefix for human nouns starting with ''mu-'' (class 1) in most languages is ''ba-'' (class 2), thus giving ''bantu'' for "people". Bleek, and later Carl Meinhof, pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages.
==Classification==
{{main|Guthrie classification of Bantu languages}}
[[File:Bantu zones.png|thumb|350px|The approximate locations of the sixteen Guthrie Bantu zones, including the addition of a zone J around the Great Lakes. The Jarawan languages are spoken in Nigeria.]]
The term 'narrow Bantu'  was coined by the ''Benue–Congo Working Group'' to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Malcolm Guthrie in his 1948 classification of the Bantu languages, from the Bantoid languages not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie (1948). In recent times, the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other Southern Bantoid groups has been called into doubt (cf. Piron 1995, Williamson & Blench 2000, Blench 2011), but the term is still widely used. A coherent classification of Narrow Bantu will likely need to exclude many of the Zone A and perhaps Zone B languages.
There is no true genealogical classification of the (Narrow) Bantu languages. Most attempted classifications are problematic in that they consider only languages that happen to fall within traditional Narrow Bantu, rather than South Bantoid, which has been established as a unit by the comparative method.  The most widely used classification, the alphanumeric coding system developed by Guthrie, is mainly geographic. 
At a broader level, the family is commonly split in two depending on the reflexes of proto-Bantu tone patterns:  Many Bantuists group together parts of zones A through D (the extent depending on the author) as ''Northwest Bantu'' or ''Forest Bantu'', and the remainder as ''Central Bantu'' or ''Savanna Bantu''. The two groups have been described as having mirror-image tone systems:  Where Northwest Bantu has a high tone in a cognate, Central Bantu languages generally have a low tone, and vice versa. 
Northwest Bantu is more divergent internally than Central Bantu, and perhaps less conservative due to contact with non-Bantu Niger–Congo languages; Central Bantu is likely the innovative line cladistically. Northwest Bantu is clearly not a coherent family, but even for Central Bantu the evidence is lexical, with little evidence that it is a historically valid group.
The only attempt at a detailed genetic classification to replace the Guthrie system is the 1999 "Tervuren" proposal of Bastin, Coupez, and Mann.<ref>The Guthrie, Tervuren, and SIL lists are compared side by side in [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/maho/downloads/bantulineup.pdf Maho 2002].</ref> However, it relies on lexicostatistics, which, because of its reliance on similarity rather than shared innovations, may predict spurious groups of conservative languages that are not closely related. Meanwhile, ''Ethnologue'' has added languages to the Guthrie classification that Guthrie overlooked, while removing the Mbam languages (much of zone A), and shifting some languages between groups (much of zones D and E to a new zone J, for example, and part of zone L to K, and part of M to F) in an apparent effort at a semi-genetic, or at least semi-areal, classification. This has been criticized for sowing confusion in one of the few unambiguous ways to distinguish Bantu languages.  Nurse & Philippson (2006) evaluate many proposals for low-level groups of Bantu languages, but the result is not a complete portrayal of the family. ''Glottolog'' has incorporated many of these into their classification.<ref name=Glottolog/>
Nonetheless, some version of zone S (Southern Bantu) does appear to be a coherent group. The languages that share Dahl's Law may also form a valid group, Northeast Bantu. The infobox at right lists these together with various low-level groups that are fairly uncontroversial, though they continue to be revised. The development of a rigorous genealogical classification of many branches of Niger–Congo, not just Bantu, is hampered by insufficient data.
==Language structure==
Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu.
The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class, and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with the noun. Plural is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix.
The verb has a number of prefixes, though in the western languages these are often treated as independent words.<ref>Derek Nurse, 2008. ''Tense and aspect in Bantu'', p 70 (fn). In many of the Zone A, including Mbam, the verbs are clearly analytic.</ref> In Swahili, for example, ''Mtoto mdogo amekisoma'' (also ''Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga'' in Shona language) means 'The small child has read it [a book]'. ''Mtoto'' 'child' governs the adjective prefix ''m-'' and the verb subject prefix ''a-''. Then comes perfect tense ''-me-'' and an object marker ''-ki-'' agreeing with implicit ''kitabu'' 'book' (from Arabic ''kitab''). Pluralizing to 'children' gives ''Watoto wadogo wamekisoma'' (''Vana vadoko vakaverenga'' in Shona), and pluralizing to 'books' (''vitabu'') gives ''Watoto wadogo wamevisoma''.
Bantu words are typically made up of open syllables of the type CV (consonant-vowel) with most languages having syllables exclusively of this type. The Bushong language recorded by Vansina, however, has final consonants,<ref>Vansina, J. ''Esquisse de Grammaire Bushong''. Commission de Linguistique Africaine, Tervuren, Belgique, 1959.</ref> while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi.<ref>Turner, Rev. Wm. Y., ''Tumbuka–Tonga$1–$2 $3ictionEnglish Dictionary''  Hetherwick Press, Blantyre, Malawi 1952. pages i–ii.</ref> The morphological shape of Bantu words is typically CV, VCV, CVCV, VCVCV, etc.; that is, any combination of CV (with possibly a V- syllable at the start). In other words, a strong claim for this language family is that almost all words end in a vowel, precisely because closed syllables (CVC) are not permissible in most of the documented languages, as far as is understood.
This tendency to avoid consonant clusters in some positions is important when words are imported from English or other non-Bantu languages. An example from [[Chewa language|Chewa]]: the word "school", borrowed from English, and then transformed to fit the sound patterns of this language, is ''sukulu''. That is, ''sk-'' has been broken up by inserting an epenthetic ''-u-''; ''-u'' has also been added at the end of the word. Another example is ''buledi'' for "bread". Similar effects are seen in loanwords for other non-African CV languages like Japanese. However, a clustering of sounds at the beginning of a syllable can be readily observed in such languages as Shona,<ref>Doke, Clement M., ''A Comparative Study in Shona Phonetics'' University of Witwatersrand, Johannesberg, 1931.</ref> and the Makua languages.<ref>''Relatório do I Seminário sobre a Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas''  NELIMO, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. 1989.</ref>
===Reduplication===
Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem.<ref>Abdulaziz Lodhi, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/aa/pdfs/aa02004.pdf Verbal extensions in Bantu (the case of Swahili and Nyamwezi)]". ''Africa & Asia,'' 2002, 2:4–26, Göteborg University</ref>
*Example: in Swahili ''piga'' means "strike", ''pigapiga'' means "strike repeatedly".
Well-known words and names that have reduplication include
*Bafana Bafana, a football team
*[[Zambia national football team|Chipolopolo]], a football team
Repetition emphasizes the repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," has two to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. The meaning of the former in translation is, "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," and that of the latter is, "A slow but steady pace wins the race." Haraka haraka would mean hurrying just for the sake of hurrying, reckless hurry, as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry].
In contrast, there are some words in some of the languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, and or lower intensity of the action and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more.
*Example 1: In Xitsonga and Shona, ''famba'' means "walk" while ''famba-famba'' means "walk around".
*Example 2: in isiZulu and SiSwati ''hamba'' means "go", ''hambahamba'' means "go a little bit, but not much".
*Example 3: in both of the above languages ''shaya'' means "strike", ''shayashaya'' means "strike a few more times lightly, but not heavy strikes and not too many times".
*Example 4: In Xitsonga, ''hasahasa'' means "chaos". ''Hasa'' does not have a meaning.
*Example 5: In Shona ''kwenya'' means "scratch", ''Kwenyakwenya'' means "scratch excessively or a lot".
==Notable Bantu languages==
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 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''.
{{Col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
'''Lingua franca'''
*[[Swahili language|Swahili]] (Kiswahili) (350,000; tens of millions as L2)
'''Angola'''
*Umbundu (Umbundu) (4 million)
*Kimbundu (Kimbundu) (3 million)
*Ovambo language (Oshiwambo) (500,000)
*[[Luvale language|Luvale]] (Chiluvale) (500,000)
*[[Chokwe language|Chokwe]] (Chichokwe) (500,000)
'''Botswana'''
*Tswana (Setswana) (1 million)
*Kalanga language (Ikalanga) (150,000)
'''Burundi'''
*Kirundi (8.5 - 10.5 million)
'''Cameroon'''
*Beti language (1.7 million: 900,000 Bulu language, 600,000 Ewondo language, 120,000 Fang language, 60,000 Eton language, 30,000 Bebele)
*Basaa language (230,000)
*Duala language (350,000)
'''Central African Republic'''
*Mbati language (60,000)
'''Democratic Republic of the Congo'''
*Lingala (2 million; 7 million with L2 speakers)
*Luba-Kasai language (Tshiluba) (6.5 million)
*Kituba language (4.5 million), a Bantu creole
*Kongo language (Kikongo) (3.5 million)
*Luba-Katanga language (Kiluba) (1.5+ million)
*Songe language (Lusonge) (1+ million)
'''Equatorial Guinea'''
*Beti language (Fang language) (300,000)
*Bube language (40,000)
'''Gabon'''
*Baka language
*Barama language
*Bekwel language
*Benga language
*Bubi language
*Bwisi language
*Duma language
*Fang language (500,000)
*Kande language
*Kaningi language
*Sake language
*Sangu language
*Seki language
*Sighu language
*Simba language
*Sira language
*Northern Teke language
*Western Teke language
*Tsaangi language
*Tsogo language
*Vili language(3,600)
*Vumbu language
*Wandji language
*Wumbvu language
*Yangho language
*Yasa language
*Nande language (Orundandi) (1 million)
*Tetela language(Otetela) (800,000)
*Yaka language  (Iyaka) (700,000+)
*Shi language (700,000)
*Kongo language (Kiyombe) (670,000)
'''Kenya'''
:''Swahili and English are national languages''
*Gikuyu language (7 million)
*Luhya language (5.4 million)
*Kamba language (4 million)
*Meru language (Kimeru) (2.7 million)
*Gusii language (2 million)
'''Lesotho'''
*Sotho language (Sesotho) (1.8 million)
*Zulu language (Isizulu) (300,000)
'''Malawi'''
*[[Chewa language|Chewa (Nyanja)]] (Chichewa) (7 million)
*[[Tumbuka language|Tumbuka]] (1 million)
*Yao language(1 million)
'''Mozambique'''
*Makhuwa language(3 million; 5.5 million all Makua )
*Tsonga language (Xitsonga) (1.7 million)
*Ndau language (1.6 million)
*Lomwe language (1.5 million)
*Sena language (1.3 million)
*Tswa language (1.2 million)
*Chuwabu language (1.0 million)
*Chopi language (800,000)
*Ronga language (700,000)
*Chewa language (Chichewa) (600,000)
*Yao language (Chiyao) (500,000)
*Nyungwe language (Cinyungwe/Nhungue)(400,000)
*[[Tonga language|Tonga]] (400,000)
*Makonde language (400,000)
{{col-2}}
'''Nigeria'''
*Ejagham language (1,900,000, 60,000)
*Ibibio language 50,000,230,000)
*Efik language  (30,000,350,000)
*Tiv language (13,200,000)
'''Namibia'''
*Ovambo language (1 500,000)
*Herero language (200,000)
'''Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)'''
*Kituba language (1.2+ million) [a Bantu creole]
*Kongo language (Kikongo) (1.0 million)
*Teke languages (500,000)
*Kongo language (350,000)
*Suundi language (120,000)
*Mboshi language (110,000)
*Lingala (100,000; ? L2 speakers)
'''Rwanda'''
*Kinyarwanda (Kinyarwanda) (10 - 12 million)
'''South Africa'''
*Zulu language (Isizulu) (10 million)
*Xhosa language(Isixhosa) (8 million)
*Sotho language(Sesotho) (4 million)
*Northern Sotho language (Sepedi) (4 million)
*Tswana language (Setswana) (3.5 million)
*Tsonga language (Xitsonga) (2 million)
*Swazi language (Siswati) (1 million)
*Venda language (Tshivenda) (1 million)
*Southern Ndebele language (Isindebele)
'''Swaziland'''
*Swati language (Siswati) (1 million)
'''Tanzania'''
:''Swahili is the national language''
*Sukuma language (5.5 million)
*Gogo language (1.5 million)
*Haya language (Kihaya) (1.3 million)
*Chaga languages (Kichaga) (1.2+ million : 600,000 Mochi, 300,000+ Machame, 300,000+ Vunjo)
*Nyamwezi language (1.0 million)
*Makonde language (1.0 million)
*Ha language (1.0 million)
*Nyakyusa language (800,000)
*Hehe language (800,000)
*Luguru language (700,000)
*Bena language (600,000)
*Shambala language (650,000)
*Turu language (600,000)
'''Uganda'''
*Luganda (Luganda) (7.5 million)
*Nkore language (3.5 million : 2.3 million Nkore-Kiga language , 1.2 million Kiga language (Chiga))
*Soga language (Lusoga) (2 million)
*Masaba language (Lumasaba) (1.1 million)
*Nyoro language-Tooro language (1.1 million)
*Kinyarwanda (Kinyarwanda) (750,000)
*Konjo language  (600,000)
*Gwere language (400,000)
'''Zambia'''
*[[Bemba language|Bemba]] (3.3 million)
*[[Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe)|Tonga]] (1.0 million)
*[[Chewa language|Chewa (Nyanja)]] (Chichewa) (800,000)
*[[Lozi language|Lozi]] (Silozi) (600,000)
*[[Lala-Bisa language|Lala-Bisa]] (600,000)
*[[Nsenga language|Nsenga]] (550,000)
*[[Tumbuka language|Tumbuka]] (Chitumbuka) (500,000)
*[[Lunda language|Lunda]] (450,000)
*[[Nyiha language|Nyiha]] (400,000+)
*[[Mambwe-Lungu language|Mambwe-Lungu]] (400,000)
'''Zimbabwe'''
*Shona languages (15.4 million incl. Karanga, Zezuru, Korekore, Ndau, Manyika)
*Northern Ndebele language (2 million)
*[[Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe)|Tonga]]
*Venda language
*Kalanga language
{{Col-end}}
This list is incomplete; an attempt at a full list of Bantu languages (with various conflations and a puzzlingly diverse nomenclature) was found in ''The Bantu Languages of Africa'', 1959.<ref>Bryan, M.A. (compiled by), ''The Bantu Languages of Africa''. Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press, 1959.</ref>
==Geographic areas==
{{multiple image|align=none
|image1=Niger-Congo map.png
|width1=300
|image2=Nigeria Benin Cameroon languages.png
|width2=310
|footer=Localization of the Niger–Congo languages
}}
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography==
*Biddulph, Joseph, ''Bantu Byways''  Pontypridd 2001. ISBN 978-1-897999-30-1.
*{{cite book|last1=Finck|first1=Franz Nikolaus|title=Die Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse der Bantusprachen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ph1WGXroFWoC|accessdate=25 August 2012|year=1908|publisher=Vandenhoek und Ruprecht}}
*[[Malcolm Guthrie|Guthrie, Malcolm]]. 1948. ''The classification of the Bantu languages.'' London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.
*Guthrie, Malcolm. 1971. ''Comparative Bantu'', Vol 2. Farnborough: Gregg International.
*[[Bernd Heine|Heine, Bernd]]. 1973. Zur genetische Gliederung der Bantu-Sprachen. ''Afrika und Übersee'', 56: 164&ndash;185.
*Maho, Jouni F. 2001. The Bantu area: (towards clearing up) a mess. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/aa/pdfs/aa01040.pdf ''Africa & Asia'', 1:40&ndash;49].
*Maho, Jouni F. 2002. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/maho/downloads/bantulineup.pdf Bantu lineup: comparative overview of three Bantu classifications]. Göteborg University: Department of Oriental and African Languages.
*Nurse, Derek, & Gérard Philippson. 2006. ''The Bantu Languages''.  Routledge.
*Piron, Pascale. 1995. [http://www.journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/Volume25.aspx Identification lexicostatistique des groupes Bantoïdes stables.] ''Journal of West African Languages'', 25(2): 3&ndash;39.
*{{cite web |author =Stanford|year=2013 |title=KISWAHILI|url=http://swahililanguage.stanford.edu/|accessdate=2013-06-20 | ref = harv}}
==External links==
*[http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/CBOLD/ Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary] – includes a comprehensive bibliography.
*[http://goto.glocalnet.net/mahopapers/nuglonline.pdf Maho 2009]. Guthrie 1948 in detail, with subsequent corrections and corresponding ISO codes
*[http://www.bantu-languages.com/en/ Bantu online resources by Jacky Maniacky], including
**[http://www.bantu-languages.com/fr/classes.html List of Bantu noun classes with reconstructed Proto-Bantu prefixes (in French)]
*[http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/ehret/kinship/BantuClassification%204-09.pdf Ehret's compilation of classifications by Klieman, Bastin, himself, and others]
*Contini-Morava, Ellen. ''[http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/swahili/ Noun Classification in Swahili]''. 1994.
*[http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/CBOLD/Lgs/LgsbyGN.html List of Bantu language names with synonyms ordered by Guthrie number].
*[http://salanguages.com Introduction to the languages of South Africa]
*[http://www.journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/NarrowBantu.aspx Journal of West African Languages: Narrow Bantu]
*[http://www.ugandatravelguide.com/bantu-people.html  Bantu Languages of Uganda]
*[https://ia600405.us.archive.org/20/items/artedalinguadean00dias/artedalinguadean00dias.pdf The art of the language of Angola, author Father Pedro Dias, published in 1697]
[[Category:Synthetic languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Bantu languages| ]]
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