The history of Bantu languages
- Author
- Koen Bostoen (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
-
- BANTUFIRST (The First Bantu Speakers South of the Rainforest: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Human Migration, Language Spread, Climate Change and Early Farming in Late Holocene Central Africa)
- Abstract
- Bantu languages constitute the biggest language family in Africa. Their origins are situated in the border area of Nigeria and Cameroon around 4000–5000 years ago. Their spread through Central, Eastern and Southern Africa was driven by the migration of West Africans who admixed with local populations, many of whose ancestral languages went extinct. Bantu speakers settled across the Congo rainforest in the first millennium BCE, while they reached Eastern Africa as early as the second half of the first millennium BCE and Southern Africa in the first centuries CE. The earliest Bantu written records are in Kikongo and go back to the 17th century CE. Bantu linguistics as a scientific discipline emerged in the 19th century CE.
- Keywords
- Bantu, Africa, Central Africa, Congo rainforest, African linguistics, African archaeology, Niger-Congo, migration, Bantu Expansion, Kikongo, demic expansion
Downloads
-
(...).pdf
- full text (Published version)
- |
- UGent only
- |
- |
- 269.09 KB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01KAG492RFD67Q5J7Z5E4P7YA7
- MLA
- Bostoen, Koen. “The History of Bantu Languages.” International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 3 : Diachrony and Language Evolution, edited by Hilary Nesi and Petar Milin, 3rd ed., Elsevier, 2026, pp. 294–300, doi:10.1016/b978-0-323-95504-1.01176-5.
- APA
- Bostoen, K. (2026). The history of Bantu languages. In H. Nesi & P. Milin (Eds.), International encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 3 : diachrony and language evolution (3rd ed., pp. 294–300). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-95504-1.01176-5
- Chicago author-date
- Bostoen, Koen. 2026. “The History of Bantu Languages.” In International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 3 : Diachrony and Language Evolution, edited by Hilary Nesi and Petar Milin, 3rd ed., 294–300. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-95504-1.01176-5.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Bostoen, Koen. 2026. “The History of Bantu Languages.” In International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 3 : Diachrony and Language Evolution, ed by. Hilary Nesi and Petar Milin, 294–300. 3rd ed. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/b978-0-323-95504-1.01176-5.
- Vancouver
- 1.Bostoen K. The history of Bantu languages. In: Nesi H, Milin P, editors. International encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol 3 : diachrony and language evolution. 3rd ed. Elsevier; 2026. p. 294–300.
- IEEE
- [1]K. Bostoen, “The history of Bantu languages,” in International encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 3 : diachrony and language evolution, 3rd ed., H. Nesi and P. Milin, Eds. Elsevier, 2026, pp. 294–300.
@incollection{01KAG492RFD67Q5J7Z5E4P7YA7,
abstract = {{Bantu languages constitute the biggest language family in Africa. Their origins are situated in the border area of Nigeria and Cameroon around 4000–5000 years ago. Their spread through Central, Eastern and Southern Africa was driven by the migration of West Africans who admixed with local populations, many of whose ancestral languages went extinct. Bantu speakers settled across the Congo rainforest in the first millennium BCE, while they reached Eastern Africa as early as the second half of the first millennium BCE and Southern Africa in the first centuries CE. The earliest Bantu written records are in Kikongo and go back to the 17th century CE. Bantu linguistics as a scientific discipline emerged in the 19th century CE.}},
author = {{Bostoen, Koen}},
booktitle = {{International encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 3 : diachrony and language evolution}},
editor = {{Nesi, Hilary and Milin, Petar}},
isbn = {{9780323955041}},
keywords = {{Bantu,Africa,Central Africa,Congo rainforest,African linguistics,African archaeology,Niger-Congo,migration,Bantu Expansion,Kikongo,demic expansion}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{294--300}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
title = {{The history of Bantu languages}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-95504-1.01176-5}},
year = {{2026}},
}
- Altmetric
- View in Altmetric