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Sorting out the Position of Bantu Languages in Bantoid

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Sorting out the Position of Bantu Languages in Bantoid WOCAL 7 7th World Congress of African Linguistics August 20-24, 2012, Buea, Cameroon SORTING OUT THE POSITION OF BANTU LANGUAGES 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 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 Ekoid languages – 2 Tivoid languages – 6 Beboid languages – 24 Grassfields languages – 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 Mbam languages Grollemund (2012) MERCI!.
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