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.

All labels observed (8)

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 (585)

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