Bantu languages
From Chalo Chatu, Zambia online encyclopedia
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. |
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).
- ↑ 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)