Semi-Bantu languages

Semi-Bantu languages or Semi-Bantu for short is an outdated term for the classification of languages ​​that are relatively closely genetically related to the Bantu languages or have typological similarities with them .

• Schleicher (1891) coined the term semi-Bantu for the African languages ​​in which the system of nominal classes originated and is therefore said to have not been fully developed. A genetic relationship to the Bantu languages is not implied despite the name.

• Johnston (1919) used Semi-Bantu to denote the African languages ​​that have traces of a nominal class system. According to Johnston, the reduction in the class system (in comparison to the Bantu languages, which have a fully developed class system) can be attributed to loss during language development or due to mixing with other non-class languages.

The terms semi-Bantu or semi-Bantu languages are now out of date. Joseph Greenberg put the name Bantoid languages in their place, these form a genetic unit within the Benue Congo , a subunit of the Niger Congo . The large group of the actual Bantu languages ​​also belongs to the Bantoid languages .

See also

• African languages
• Niger Congo Languages
• Benue Congo languages
• Bantoid languages

literature

• AW Schleicher: African petrefacts. An attempt to determine the grammatical formations of the roots of forms in African languages ​​through language comparison. Berlin 1891.
• HH Johnston: A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages. 2 volumes. Oxford 1919 and 1922.
• Joseph Greenberg: The Languages ​​of Africa. Mouton, The Hague and Indiana University Center, Bloomington 1963.