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Home , Bantoid languages, Bantu languages, Benga language, Ekoid languages, Grassfields languages, Kwasio language

WOCAL 7 7th World Congress of African Linguistics August 20-24, 2012, Buea,

SORTING OUT THE POSITION OF IN BANTOID

Rebecca Grollemund, Jean-Marie Hombert Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, Lyon, France [email protected] [email protected] Williamson & Blench 2000; Schadeberg 2003 Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantoid_languages

• « Bantoid »  Krause 1895 – Guthrie (1948): « Bantoid »  « Semi-Bantu » – Greenberg (1963): « Bantoid » = genetic unit

• Classification widely debated: – Williamson (1971) : “Wide Bantu” versus “Narrow Bantu” – Division Northern versus Southern Bantoid (Watters, 1989) • Northern Bantoid (Hedinger, 1989) • Southern Bantoid (Watters and Leroy, 1989) Simplified classification of Bantoid languages

Bantoid

Northern Hedinger (1989) Southern Watters (1989); Watters and Leroy (1989) Dakoid Mambiloid Fam Tiba

Non-Narrow Narrow Bantu Bantu

Jarawan Tivoid Beboid Ekoid Grassfields Nyang NW Other South-Bantoid and Bantu languages (1) • New classification of South-Bantoid and Bantu languages

• Links between South-Bantoid and Bantu languages (exact delimitation?) – Linguistic frontier between South-Bantoid and Bantu languages?

• Relationships between Bantu and other Southern Bantoid groups South-Bantoid and Bantu languages (2) • Focus on North-Western Bantu languages (A and B10-20-30), closer to some Southern Bantoid languages.

– Degree of these affinities – Special attention to Mbam-Bubi (A40-60+A31) languages – Special focus on Jarawan languages Sample and data • 129 languages: – 2 – 2 Tivoid languages – 6 Beboid languages – 24 – 1 Nyang language – 5 Jarawan languages – 89 Bantu languages (A10-20-30-40-50-60-70-80-90- B10-20-30)

• Data : 100 words belonging to basic vocabulary

New classification

• Classification of South-Bantoid languages using phylogenetic methods

• Based on the identification of number of cognates/lexical item

• Phylogenetic distance: Neighbor-Joining and Neighbor-Net algorithms for building phylogenetic trees South Bantoid

A40-60 (Mbam) + Jarawan

North-Western

Grollemund, 2012 South Bantoid non Bantu

Northwestern Bantu

A40-60 + Jarawan Grollemund, 2012 Nyang Ekoid Tivoid

Beboid

Eastern Grassfields

Momo

Ring

A40-A60 (Mbam)

Jarawan

Grollemund, 2012 A60 A70 A40 A50 A30+20

A10

A90+A80

B20 Ndasa

B20 Ngom

B10-B30

Grollemund, 2012 Yellow : South Bantoid non Bantu Orange : Jarawan Red : A Bantu Blue : B Bantu

By courtesy of Alain Franc Conclusions (1)

• South Bantoid (non Bantu) : Nyang > Ekoid > Beboid-Tivoid > Grassfields > A40-60+ Jarawan+A31

• Bantu languages: North-Western (> Central) 1. A10-20-30 and A40-50-60-70 2. A80-90 and B20 3. B10 and B30 Conclusions (2)

• Division of A40-60 languages: – “First” A40-60 group (linked to Jarawan languages), situated between South Bantoid and Bantu languages – “Second” A40-60 group linked to Bantu (North- Western)

• Explanations: – Some A40-60 languages have been misclassified – The division of the A40-60 languages is linked with the Bantu migration – Nucleus Proto-Bantu

Grollemund (2012)

MERCI!