The Bantu languages: sociohistorical perspectives

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486692.004

3 - The Bantu languages: sociohistorical perspectives

from Part I - The main language groupings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009

Robert K. Herbert and

Richard Bailey

Edited by

Rajend Mesthrie

Show author details

Robert K. Herbert: Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York
Richard Bailey: Affiliation:
Department of Speech Therapy, University of Durban-Westville
Rajend Mesthrie: Affiliation:
University of Cape Town

Book contents

Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The present domain of the Bantu languages extends in an eastward progression from the Cameroon–Nigerian borderlands through the equatorial zone to the Kenyan coast and then southwards to the Cape. The geographic expanse is thus enormous, occupying fully one-third of the African continent, as is the degree of linguistic diversity. On account of the well-known problem of distinguishing languages and dialects, a precise count of the Bantu languages is not possible; their number is conservatively reckoned at about four hundred. Some 250 million people speak one or more of the Bantu languages as mother tongues today.

This chapter considers the linguistic sociohistory of southern Africa, with particular attention to the Bantu languages. The term ‘Bantu’ (Bâ-ntu) was coined by W. H. I. Bleek in 1857 or 1858 (Silverstein 1993 [1968]), and popularised through his Comparative Grammar (1862). Bleek noticed certain recurrent patterns among widely distributed languages on the African continent, and he happened upon the composite term Bâ-ntu to name these languages and their speakers. The prefix ba-, the so-called class 2 prefix, is the plural marker for many noun stems with human referents in these languages. The stem *-ntu names representatives of the given class; hence Bantu is conveniently translated as ‘people/persons’. (Cf. Zulu abantu; Northern Sotho batho; Tsonga vanhu; Venda vhathu, etc.) Bleek's coinage follows the frequent onomastic tradition where a group self-identifies itself as ‘(true/real) people’, reserving ethnonyms for outsiders.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Language in South Africa , pp. 50 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486692.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alexander, Neville 1989. Language Policy and National Unity in South Africa/Azania. Cape Town: Buchu Books

Arbousset, Thomas 1991 [1840]. Missionary Excursion into the Blue Mountains, ed. and trans. D. Ambrose and A. Brutsch. Morija, Lesotho: Morija Archives

Bailey, R. 1995a. ‘The Bantu languages of South Africa: towards a sociohistorical perspective’. In R. Mesthrie (ed.), Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 19–38

Bailey, R. 1995b. ‘Sociolinguistic evidence of Nguni, Sotho, Tsonga and Venda origins’. In R. Mesthrie (ed.), Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 39–50

Baumbach, E. J. M. 1987. Analytical Tsonga Grammar. Pretoria: University of South Africa

Bennett, Patrick and Sterk, Jan P. 1977. ‘South Central Niger-Congo: a reclassification’. Studies in African Linguistics, 8: 241–73Google Scholar

Bleek, W. H. I. 1862. A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages. Cape Town: J. C. Juta & Trübner

Blench, Roger 1997. ‘Language studies in Africa’. In J. O. Vogel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, pp. 90–100

Dahl, Otto C. 1954. ‘Le substrar bantou en malgache’. Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, 17: 325–62Google Scholar

Doke, Clement M. 1931. Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects. Government Blue Book, Government of Southern Rhodesia

Doke, Clement M. 1967. The Southern Bantu Languages. London: International African Institute

Doke, Clement M. 1993 [1960]. ‘The growth of comparative Bantu philology’. In R. K. Herbert (ed.), Foundations in Southern African Linguistics. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 71–96

Donnelly, Simon 1999. ‘Southern Tekela Nguni is alive: reintroducing the Phuthi language’. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 136: 97–120CrossRef Google Scholar

Ehret, Christopher 1997. ‘African languages: a historical survey’. In J. O. Vogel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Alta Mira Press, pp. 159–66

Ehret, Christopher 1999. ‘Subclassifying Bantu: the evidence of stem morpheme innovations’. In J. Hombert and L. M. Hyman (eds.), Bantu Historical Linguistics: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. Stanford: CSLI Publications, pp. 43–147

Fortune, George 1993. ‘The contribution of C. M. Doke to written Shona’. African Studies, 52: 103–29CrossRef Google Scholar

Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963. The Languages of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University

Gregersen, Edgar A. 1977. Language in Africa: An Introductory Survey. New York: Gordon & Breach

Grimes, Barbara F. 1996 (ed.). Ethnologue, 13th edn. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics

Guthrie, Malcolm 1948. The Classification of the Bantu Languages. London: Oxford University Press

Guthrie, Malcolm 1967–71. Comparative Bantu: An Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of the Bantu Languages, 4 vols. Farnborough: Gregg

Harries, Patrick 1988. ‘The roots of ethnicity: discourse and the politics of language construction in South-East Africa’. African Affairs, 87: 25–52CrossRef Google Scholar

Herbert, Robert K. 1996. ‘Some problems of ethnonyms for non-Western peoples’. Namenforschung, 2: 1343–8. Handbücher zur Sprach-und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Berlin: de GruyterGoogle Scholar

Herbert, Robert K. and Thomas N. Huffman 1993. ‘A new perspective on Bantu expansion and classification: linguistic and archaeological evidence fifty years after Doke’. In R. K. Herbert (ed.), Not with One Mouth.Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 53–76

Huffman, Thomas N. 1989. ‘Ceramics, settlements and Late Iron Age migrations’. The African Archaeological Review, 7: 155–182CrossRef Google Scholar

Huffman, Thomas N. 1996. Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press

Huffman, Thomas N. and Robert, K. Herbert 1994–5. ‘New perspectives on Eastern Bantu’. Azania, 29–30: 27–36CrossRef Google Scholar

Janson, Tore 1991/2. ‘Southern Bantu and Makua’. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 12/13: 63–106Google Scholar

Janson, Tore 1995. ‘The status, history and future of Sekgalagadi’. In A. Traill, R. Vossen and M. Biesele (eds.), The Complete Linguist: Papers in Memory of Patrick J. Dickens. Köln: Köppe, pp. 399–406

Khuba, Asnath Elelwani 1993. ‘The Significance of the Musanda Language in Venda: A Diglossia’. Unpublished D. Litt. et Phil. dissertation, University of South Africa

Khumalo, J. S. M. 1984. ‘A new term for “Bantu” in linguistics studies’. South African Journal of African Languages, supplement 1, 111–20Google Scholar

Kunene, D. P. 1958. ‘Notes on hlonepha among the Southern Sotho’. African Studies, 17: 159–82CrossRef Google Scholar

Louw, J. A. 1983. ‘The development of Xhosa and Zulu as languages’. In I. Fodor and C. Hagège (eds.), Language Reform: History and Future. Hamburg: Buske Verlag, vol. II, pp. 371–92

Louw, J. A. and Finlayson, Rosalie 1990. ‘Southern Bantu origins as represented by Xhosa and Tswana’. South African Journal of African Languages, 10: 401–10Google Scholar

Maggs, T. 1991. ‘The early history of the black people in southern Africa’. In T. Cameron and S. B. Spies (eds.), A New Illustrated History of South Africa, 2nd edn. Johannesburg: Southern Book Publishers, pp. 37–43

Maho, Jouni 1999. A Comparative Study of Bantu Noun Classes. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis

Msimang, Themba 1998. ‘The nature and history of harmonisation of South African languages’. In K. Kwai Prah (ed.), Between Distinction and Extinction: The Harmonisation and Standardisation of African Languages. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 165–72

Mzamane, Godfrey I. M. 1949. A Concise Treatise on Phuti with Special Reference to its Relationship with Nguni and Sotho. Fort Hare Papers 1(4). Fort Hare: Fort Hare University Press

Ngubane, Sihawukele 1992. ‘The Northern Zululand Dialects’. MA thesis, University of Natal, Durban

Nicolaï, Robert 1998. ‘Thoughts on a model for describing linguistic relationships’. In I. Maddieson and T. J. Hinnebusch (eds.), Language History and Language Description in Africa. Trenton, N. J.: Africa World Press, pp. 55–64

Nurse, Derek 1997. ‘Language of eastern and southern Africa in historical perspective’. In J. O. Vogel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, pp. 166–171

Oliver, Roland 1966. ‘The problem of the Bantu expansion’. Journal of African History, 7: 361–76CrossRef Google Scholar

Phillipson, David W. 1977. ‘The chronology of the Iron Age in Bantu Africa’. Journal of African History, 16: 321–42CrossRef Google Scholar

Phillipson, David W. 1985. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Piron, Pascale 1998. Classification interne du groupe bantoïde, 3 vols. Munich: LINCOM Europa

Poulos, George 1990. A Linguistic Analysis of Venda. Pretoria: Via Afrika

Schapera, Isaac and D. F. van der Merwe 1943. ‘A Comparative Study of Kgalagadi, Kwena and other Sotho Dialects’. Communication No. 9, School of African Studies, University of Cape Town

Silverstein, R. O. 1993 [1968]. ‘A note on the term “Bantu” as first used by W. H. I. Bleek’. In R. K. Herbert (ed.), Foundations in Southern African Linguistics. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 17–18

Vansina, Jan 1979. ‘Bantu in the crystal ball. Part 1’. History in Africa, 7: 287–333CrossRef Google Scholar

Vansina, Jan 1980. ‘Bantu in the crystal ball. Part 2’. History in Africa, 8: 293–325

Vansina, Jan 1995. ‘New linguistic evidence and “the Bantu expansion”’. Journal of African History, 36: 173–95CrossRef

Warmelo, N. J. 1927. ‘Die Gleiderung der südafrikanischen Bantusprachen’. Doctoral dissertation, Hamburg. (Published in Zeitschrift für Eingeborenensprachen, 18, 1: 1–54 and 18, 2: 81–127)Google Scholar

van Warmelo, N. J. 1989. Venda Dictionary: Tshivenda–English. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik

van Warmelo, N. J. 1974. ‘The classification of the cultural groups’. In W. D. Hammond-Tooke (ed.), The Bantu-speaking People of Southern Africa, 2nd edn. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 56–85

Vogel, Joseph O. 1997. ‘Bantu expansion’. In J. O. Vogel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Alta Mira Press, pp. 435–8

Watters, John R. 1989. ‘Bantoid overview’. In J. T. Bendor-Samuel (ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages. New York: University Press of America, pp. 401–20

Werner, Alice 1933. Myths and Legends of the Bantu. London: G. G. Harrap

Wilkes, A. 1999. ‘Language contact and language change – the case of Southern Transvaal Ndebele, a Nguni language spoken in the Republic of South Africa’. In P. F. A. Kotey (ed.), New Dimensions in African Linguistics and Languages. Trenton, N. J.: Africa World Press, pp. 243–51

Williamson, Kay 1971. ‘The Benue-Congo languages and Ijo’. In T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. IV: Sub-Saharan Africa. The Hague: Mouton, pp. 245–306

Williamson, Kay and Roger Blench 2000. ‘Niger-Congo’. In B. Heine and D. Nurse (eds.), African Languages: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11–42

Ziervogel, Derek 1959. A Grammar of Northern Transvaal Ndebele. Pretoria: van Schaik

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.