Bantu languages

E25285

Bantu languages are a large family of closely related languages spoken across much of central, eastern, and southern Africa, known for features like noun class systems and widespread mutual influences among neighboring tongues.

AI illustration

How this image was made

AI-generated illustration of Bantu languages

This AI-generated illustration was produced by black-forest-labs/FLUX.2-dev (1024x1024) from a prompt written by openai/gpt-oss-120b from the entity's label + description.

Prompt

Generate an image of Bantu languages (Bantu languages are a large family of closely related languages spoken across much of central, eastern, and southern Africa, known for features like noun class systems and widespread mutual influences among neighboring tongues.)

All labels observed (9)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (80)

Predicate Object
instanceOf branch of Niger–Congo languages ⓘ
language family ⓘ
alsoKnownAs Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages

Bantu family ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
ancestorLanguage Proto-Bantu ⓘ
areKnownFor complex systems of noun classes controlling agreement across the clause ⓘ
widespread mutual influences among neighboring languages ⓘ
areSpokenIn Angola ⓘ
Botswana ⓘ
Burundi ⓘ
Cameroon ⓘ
Comoros ⓘ
Democratic Republic of the Congo ⓘ
Equatorial Guinea ⓘ
Eswatini ⓘ
Gabon ⓘ
Kenya ⓘ
Lesotho ⓘ
Madagascar (some Bantu languages on the island) ⓘ
Malawi ⓘ
Mozambique ⓘ
Namibia ⓘ
Republic of the Congo ⓘ
Rwanda ⓘ
South Africa ⓘ
Tanzania ⓘ
Uganda ⓘ
Zambia ⓘ
Zimbabwe ⓘ
parts of Nigeria ⓘ
parts of Somalia ⓘ
classificationScheme Guthrie classification ⓘ
estimatedNumberOfLanguages over 500 ⓘ
estimatedNumberOfSpeakers hundreds of millions ⓘ
expansionPeriod roughly last 3000 years ⓘ
geographicDistribution African Great Lakes ⓘ
Central Africa ⓘ
Eastern Africa ⓘ
linked to: East Africa

Great Lakes region of Africa ⓘ
linked to: East Africa

Southern Africa ⓘ
parts of Western Africa ⓘ
hasLinguisticFeature agglutinative morphology ⓘ
concord between nouns and modifiers ⓘ
derivational verb extensions ⓘ
extensive agreement morphology ⓘ
extensive mutual lexical borrowing among neighboring languages ⓘ
noun class system ⓘ
prefixal noun classes ⓘ
rich verbal morphology ⓘ
subject–verb–object basic word order in many languages ⓘ
tone in many member languages ⓘ
hasSubgroup Eastern Bantu languages ⓘ
Narrow Bantu ⓘ
Southern Bantu languages ⓘ
Western Bantu languages ⓘ
historicalOrigin associated with Bantu expansion ⓘ
influencedBy Afrikaans (in some southern Bantu languages) ⓘ
Arabic (via Swahili and other coastal languages) ⓘ
English (in many southern and eastern African Bantu languages) ⓘ
Portuguese (in some coastal and southern Bantu languages) ⓘ
majorLanguage Chichewa ⓘ
IsiNdebele ⓘ
linked to: Northern Ndebele

Kikongo ⓘ
Kikuyu ⓘ
Kinyarwanda ⓘ
Kirundi ⓘ
Kiswahili ⓘ
linked to: Swahili language

Lingala ⓘ
Luganda ⓘ
Sesotho ⓘ
Setswana ⓘ
Shona ⓘ
Swahili ⓘ
linked to: Swahili language

Xhosa ⓘ
Zulu ⓘ
researchField Bantu linguistics ⓘ
subfamilyOf Niger–Congo languages ⓘ
usedAs lingua franca in many regions of Central and Eastern Africa ⓘ
national languages in several African countries ⓘ
writingSystem Latin script in most written Bantu languages ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (881)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Northern Ndebele → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
Afrikaans → influencedBy → Bantu languages ⓘ
Khoisan languages → distinctFrom → Bantu languages ⓘ
Equatorial Guinea → nationalLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Fang language → subgroup → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Fang language → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Pichi language → substrateLanguage → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Africa → hasLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Tanzania → nationalLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kiunguja → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Central Africa → majorLanguageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kimvita → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
African Portuguese → influencedBy → Bantu languages ⓘ
Sesotho → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Xhosa → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Tshivenda → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Setswana → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Setswana → subfamily → Southern Bantu languages ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Bantu languages → alsoKnownAs → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Bantu languages → alsoKnownAs → Bantu family ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Southern Bantu → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
nde → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Nguni languages → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → includes → Bantu languages ⓘ
Southern Bantoid → includes → Bantu language family ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Southern Bantoid → hasMajorSubdivision → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Southern Bantoid → hasSubgroup → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Southern Bantoid → hasSubgroup → Bantu R languages ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Southern Ndebele → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Shona → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Tswana people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Ha people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Bembe people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Fipa people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Sukuma people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Northern Sotho → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
subject linked to: Northern Sotho (Sepedi)
Zulu people → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kirundi → languageFamily → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Nzebi → languageFamily → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Lozi → languageFamily → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Thembu people → languageBranch → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kituba → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Punu → subclassOf → Bantu languages ⓘ
Punu → languageSubgroup → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Myene → languageFamily → Bantu ⓘ
linked to: Bantu languages
Venda → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kikuyu → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Kikuyu → geneticClassification → Bantu languages ⓘ
Chichewa → languageFamily → Bantu languages ⓘ
Khoe languages → areContactWith → Bantu languages ⓘ