The Bantu Languages

Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume presents grammatical analyses of individual Bantu languages, comparative studies of their main phonetic, phonological and grammatical characteristics and overview chapters on their history and classification. It is estimated that some 300 to 350 million people, or one in three Africans, are Bantu speakers. Van de Velde and Bostoen bring together their linguistic expertise to produce a volume that builds on Nurse and Philippson’s first edition. The Bantu Languages, 2nd edition is divided into two parts; Part1 contains 11 comparative chapters, and Part 2 provides grammar sketches of 12 individual Bantu languages, some of which were previously undescribed. The grammar sketches follow a general template that allows for easy comparison. Thoroughly revised and updated to include more language descriptions and the latest comparative insights. New to this edition: • new chapters on syntax, tone, reconstruction and language contact •12 new sketch grammars • thoroughly updated chapters on phonetics, aspect-tense-mood and classification • exhaustive catalogue of known languages with essential references This unique resource remains the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Bantu linguistics and languages. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interestin historical linguistics, linguistic typology and grammatical analysis.

Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Contributors Abbreviations 1. Introduction Koen Bostoen & Mark Van de Velde PART 1 2. An inventoryof Bantu languages Harald Hammarström 3. The sounds of the Bantu languages Ian Maddieson & Bonny Sands 4. Segmental phonology Larry Hyman 5. Tone David Odden & Michael Marlo 6. Word formation Thilo Schadeberg & Koen Bostoen 7. Aspect, Tense and Mood Derek Nurse & Maud Devos 8. Nominal Morphology and Syntax Mark Van de Velde 9. Clausal morphosyntax and information structure Laura Downing & Lutz Marten 10. Reconstructing Proto Bant Koen Bostoen 11. Classifying Bantu languages Gérard Philippson & Rebecca Grollemund 12. Language contact Maarten Mous PART 2 13. Kwakum A91 Elisabeth Njantcho & Mark Van de Velde 14. Nsong B85d Joseph Koni Muluwa & Koen Bostoen 15. Pagibete C401 JeDene Reeder 16. Zimba D26 Constance Kutsch Lojenga 17. The Mara languages JE40 Lotta Aunio, Holly Robinson, Tim Roth, Oliver Stegen & John B. Walker 18. Mbugwe F34 Vera Wilhelmsen 19. Kami G36 Malin Petzell & Lotta Aunio 20. Shingazidja G44a Cédric Patin, Kassim Mohamed-Soyir & Charles W. Kisseberth 21. Vwanji G66 Helen Eaton 22. Totela K41 Thera Crane 23. Chimpotot N14 Robert Botne 24. Cuwabo P34 Rozenn Guérois Langage Index Subject Index

Mark Van de Velde is a researcher at LLACAN (CNRS-INaLCO) in Paris, of which he has been the director since 2015. He works on the grammatical analysis and documentation of the north-western Bantu languages and the languages of the Benue valley in Nigeria, especially those currently classified as Adamawa. He is also interested in linguistic typology and in the comparative study and reconstruction of Bantu grammar, particularly in the domain of the noun phrase. Koen Bostoen is Professor of African Linguistics and Swahili at Ghent University and member of the UGent Centre for Bantu Studies.His research focuses on Bantu languages and interdisciplinary approaches to the African past. He obtained an ERC Starting Grant for the KongoKing Project (2012–2016) and an ERC Consolidator’s Grant for the BantuFirst project (2018–2022). Apart from several research articles, he is the author of Des mots et des pots en bantou: une approche linguistique de l’histoire de la céramique en Afrique (2005) and co-editor of Studies in African Comparative Linguistics, with Special Focus on Bantu and Mande (2005), The Kongo Kingdom: Origins, Dynamics and Cosmopolitan Culture of an African Polity (2018) and Une archéologie des provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo (2018). Derek Nurse edited the first edition of The Bantu Languages and has worked on historical linguistics, language contact, phonological change, Bantu and (East) African languages, Swahili, ethnolinguistics, theinterface of linguistics, archaeology, and history tense/aspect systems in Bantu. Gérard Philippson edited the first edition of The Bantu Languages and is emeritus Professor of Bantu Languages at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Paris) and member of the Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (Lyon). He has worked mostly on East African Bantu Languages, Bantu comparative tonology and diachronic phonology, as well as culture history.