Large language family spoken in Sub-Saharan Africa
Bantu
Geographic distribution
Central Africa, Southeast Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Southern Somalia
Linguistic classification
Niger–Congo?
Atlantic–Congo
Volta–Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantoid
Southern Bantoid
Bantu
Proto-language
Proto-Bantu
Subdivisions
Zones A–S (geographic)
Mbam–Bube–Jarawan
Manenguba
Sawabantu
Basaa
Bafia
Beti
Makaa–Njem
Kele–Tsogo
Teke–Mbede
Mboshi–Buja
Bangi–Tetela
Mbole–Enya
Lega–Binja
Boan
Lebonya
Nyanga–Buyi
Northeast Bantu
Tongwe-Bende
Mbugwe–Rangi
Kilombero
Kongo–Yaka–Sira
Kimbundu
Chokwe–Luchazi
Luyana
Mbukushu
Pende
Luban
Lunda
Rukwa
Sabi–Botatwe
Nyaturu-Nilamba-Isanzu
Nyasa
Rufiji–Ruvuma
Umbundu
Kavango–Southwest Bantu
Yeyi
Shona
Southern Bantu
Pedi
ISO 639-2 / 5
bnt
Glottolog
narr1281
The Bantu languages shown within the Niger–Congo language family. Non-Bantu languages are greyscale.
The Bantu languages (English: UK: /ˌbænˈtuː/, US: /ˈbæntuː/ Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀)[1][2] are a language family of about 600 languages that are spoken by the Bantu peoples of Central, Southern, Eastern and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The total number of Bantu languages is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of "language" versus "dialect".[3] Many Bantu languages borrow words from each other, and some are mutually intelligible.[4] Some of the languages are spoken by a very small number of people, for example the Kabwa language was estimated in 2007 to be spoken by only 8500 people but was assessed to be a distinct language.[5]
The total number of Bantu speakers is estimated to be around 350 million in 2015 (roughly 30% of the population of Africa or 5% of the world population).[6] Bantu languages are largely spoken southeast of Cameroon, and throughout Central, Southern, Eastern, and Southeast Africa. About one-sixth of Bantu speakers, and one-third of Bantu languages, are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The most widely spoken Bantu language by number of speakers is Swahili, with 16 million native speakers and 80 million L2 speakers (2015).[7] Most native speakers of Swahili live in Tanzania, where it is a national language, while as a second language, it is taught as a mandatory subject in many schools in East Africa, and is a lingua franca of the East African Community.
Other major Bantu languages include Lingala with more than 20 million speakers (Congo, DRC), Zulu with 12 million speakers (South Africa), Xhosa with 8.2 million speakers (South Africa and Zimbabwe), and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included), while Sotho-Tswana languages (Sotho, Tswana and Pedi) have more than 15 million speakers (across Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and Zambia). Zimbabwe has Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya, and Xhosa speakers.[8][9]Ethnologue separates the largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, which together have 20 million speakers.[10]
^Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
^Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
^"Guthrie (1967–71) names some 440 Bantu 'varieties', Grimes (2000) has 501 (minus a few 'extinct' or 'almost extinct'), Bastin et al. (1999) have 542, Maho (this volume) has some 660, and Mann et al. (1987) have c. 680." Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, p. 2. :Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid" Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine lists a total of 535 languages. The count includes 13 Mbam languages, which are not always included under "Narrow Bantu".
^McWhorter, J. 2001. The Power of Babel (pp. 81–82). New York: Freeman-Times-Henry Holt.
^Overton, Rebekah; Walker, John B.; Robinson, Holly (2017a). Kabwa orthography statement. SIL International.
^Total population cannot be established with any accuracy due to the unavailability of precise census data from Sub-Saharan Africa. A number just above 200 million was cited in the early 2000s (see Niger-Congo languages: subgroups and numbers of speakers for a 2007 compilation of data from SIL Ethnologue, citing 210 million). Population estimates for the region of West-Central Africa were recognized as significantly too low by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2015 ("World Population Prospects: The 2016 Revision – Key Findings and Advance Tables" (PDF). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. July 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2017.). Population growth in Central-West Africa as of 2015 is estimated at between 2.5% and 2.8% p.a., for an annual increase of the Bantu population by about 8 to 10 million.
^"Swahili" Archived 2018-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015): "47,000,000 in Tanzania, all users. L1 users: 15,000,000 (2012), increasing. L2 users: 32,000,000 (2015 D. Nurse). Total users in all countries: 98,310,110 (as L1: 16,010,110; as L2: 82,300,000)."
The Bantulanguages (English: UK: /ˌbænˈtuː/, US: /ˈbæntuː/ Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a language family of about 600 languages that are spoken by the Bantu...
Southern Bantulanguages are a large group of Bantulanguages, largely validated in Janson (1991/92). They are nearly synonymous with Guthrie's Bantu zone...
word "people", common to many of the Bantulanguages. The Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes "Bantu", when used in a contemporary usage...
Northeast Bantulanguages are a group of Bantulanguages spoken in East Africa. In Guthrie's geographic classification, they fall within Bantu zones E50...
The Bantu peoples are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native African ethnic groups who speak Bantulanguages. The languages are...
The Great Lakes Bantulanguages, also known as Lacustrine Bantu and Bantu zone J, are a group of Bantulanguages of East Africa. They were recognized as...
Bantu languages Classification of Pygmy languages List of endangered languages in Africa Hammarström, Harald (2019). An inventory of Bantulanguages. In:...
become the standard for identifying Bantulanguages; it was a practical way to distinguish many ambiguously named languages before the introduction of ISO...
The Nguni languages are a group of closely related Bantulanguages indigenous to southern Africa (mainly South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kingdom of eSwatini)...
original speakers. The linguistic core of the Bantulanguages, which comprise a branch of the Atlantic-Congo language family, was located in the southern regions...
found in Africa (see Languages of Africa). Languages spoken locally belong to three broad language families: Niger-Congo (Bantu branch) and Nilo-Saharan...
Tswa–Ronga family of languages. Tswana is a Bantulanguage that is one of Zimbabwe's official languages. Venda is a Bantulanguage that is one of Zimbabwe's...
Look up Bantu or bantu in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikiquote has quotations related to Bantu. Bantu may refer to: Bantulanguages, constitute...
The Northeast Coast Bantulanguages are the Bantulanguages spoken along the coast of Tanzania and Kenya, and including inland Tanzania as far as Dodoma...
Southern Bantulanguage of the Sotho–Tswana ("S.30") group, spoken in Lesotho, and South Africa where it is an official language; Like all Bantulanguages, Sesotho...
basic denominator of all BantuLanguages. All Bantulanguages comes from Shona, which gives the base bantulanguage, the language has grown and widely spread...
The Somali Bantus (also known as Gosha, or Jareerweyne locally) are a Bantu ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part...
Like Swahili, the Comorian languages are Sabaki languages, part of the Bantulanguage family. Each island has its own language, and the four are conventionally...
Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, is a Bantulanguage originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya...
language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages, a division which also includes the Bantulanguages...
official language of Angola, but 46 other languages are spoken in the country, mostly Bantulanguages. Portuguese is the sole official language. Due to...
country with over 70 generally estimated languages spoken. 43 of its living languages fall into four main families—Bantu, Nilotic, Central Sudanic and Kuliak...
The Sabaki languages are the Bantulanguages of the Swahili Coast, named for the Sabaki River. In addition to Swahili, Sabaki languages include Ilwana...
African Bantulanguages have found Ekegusii, together with the Kuria, Simbiti, Ngurimi, Rangi and Mbugwe languages to be rather distinct from other Bantu languages...
Global Information