On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar
Contributor(s)
Bostoen, Koen (editor)
de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice (editor)
Guérois, Rozenn (editor)
Pacchiarotti, Sara (editor)
Collection
Knowledge Unlatched (KU)Language
EnglishAbstract
This book is about reconstructing the grammar of Proto-Bantu, the ancestral language at the origin of current-day Bantu languages. While Bantu is a low-level branch of Niger-Congo, the world’s biggest phylum, it is still Africa’s biggest language family. This edited volume attempts to retrieve the phonology, morphology and syntax used by the earliest Bantu speakers to communicate with each other, discusses methods to do so, and looks at issues raised by these academic endeavours. It is a collective effort involving a fine mix of junior and senior scholars representing several generations of expert historical-comparative Bantu research. It is the first systematic approach to Proto-Bantu grammar since Meeussen’s Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions (1967). Based on new bodies of evidence from the last five decades, most notably from northwestern Bantu languages, this book considerably transforms our understanding of Proto-Bantu grammar and offers new methodological approaches to Bantu grammatical reconstruction.
Keywords
Language Arts & Disciplines; LinguisticsDOI
10.5281/zenodo.7560553ISBN
9783985540648, 9783961104062Publisher
Language Science PressPublisher website
https://langsci-press.org/Publication date and place
2023Grantor
Imprint
Language Science PressClassification
Linguistics