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Bantu linguistic studies

Bantu linguistic studies. Italian Capuchin priest Hyacintho Brusciotto à Vetralla Regulae quaedam pro difficillimi congensium idiomatis faciliori captu ad grammaticae norman redactae. Discusses noun class concord.,. Born in Berlin. Student of Karl Lepsius.

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Bantu linguistic studies

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  1. Bantu linguistic studies

  2. Italian Capuchin priest Hyacintho Brusciotto à Vetralla • Regulae quaedam pro difficillimi congensium idiomatis faciliori captu ad grammaticae norman redactae. • Discusses noun class concord.,

  3. Born in Berlin. Student of Karl Lepsius. Dissertation 1851 on noun classes. 1853: Went to Africa; wrote grammar of Zulu. Wrote comparative Bantu grammar 1862, and set up 18 noun class system; focused on Xhosa. Wilhelm Bleek 1827-1875

  4. Carl Meinhof • Prussian pastor • Influenced by August Schleicher • 1899 Grundriss einer Lautlehre der Bantu Sprachen • 1906 Comparative grammar • Had the first clear conception of a proto (“Ur-”) Bantu language to be reconstructed by scholars.

  5. Clement Doke 1893-1980 • Began as a missionary. • U of Witwatersrand 1928 • “Bantu grammars for Bantu languages” • 1928 grammar

  6. 19th century biblically based conceptions of Bantu geneology • Noah • Shem, Japheth, Ham (Cham) youngest son • Canaan was Ham’s son; Noah cursed Canaan to be Shem and Japheth’s servant. • 19th century views sought an account of all Africans as Hamitic, but only some as descendants of Canaan. E.g., Tutsis “Hamitic”. • Karl Lepsius (1810-1877) associated the term Hamitic language with non-Semitic African languages with a gender system, with various interpretations seeing the Hamitic component as derived from the Middle East in some way or other.

  7. Till the late 1940s, the dominant view was one that linked Bantu to the headwaters of the Nile.

  8. Pre-Greenberg • Hamito-Semitic • Hamitic: Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic • Semitic • Greenberg • Egyptian, Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Omotic, Chadic.

  9. Bantu? Semi-Bantu? Bantoid? • Discussion in 1977 (Viviers conference)

  10. Joseph Greenberg (1915-2001) • Student of Melville Herskovits • 1949: Classified Bantu as a part of “Niger-Congo” • Used mass comparison and sought shared innovations • Said Bantu originated in West Africa (southern Nigeria)

  11. Malcolm Guthrie (1903-1972) • School of Oriental and African Studies • Challenged Joseph Greenberg’s view. • The Classification of the Bantu languages: 1948. • Comparative Bantu, 4 volumes: 1967-1971. • Created system of zones: A through T, still used.

  12. Guthrie’s work • Heavily reliance on geography. • Work critical of his will be based on lexical items (influenced by glottochronology in the early 1950s – applied to Bantu by Olmstedt and Meeussen in mid 1950s).

  13. Guthrie’s Bantu • Thought the Bantu origin was in the middle of current Bantu area, and later moved towards West Africa.

  14. Consensus of the 1970s • 3 Waves (B. Heine, lexicostatistics) • North and south from Cameroun • North of the lower Zaire: created 7 groups (western Bantu) • Kasai dispersal (eastern Bantu) (roughly Guthrie’s central dispersion)

  15. Chris Ehret: Central Sudanic loans • Eastern Bantu: arrived western side of Lake Tanganyika around 500 BCE. Lega-Guha and Lacustrine languages split off around 1 CE. • Remainder split: • Kenya/Tanzania (dimple based pottery) • Southern (channeled ware)

  16. D. W. Phillipson 1975 • Urewe (lacustrine area) • Eastern • Western • ??

  17. A. E. Meeussen (1912-1978) • Student of Guthrie.

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