Was Proto-Kikongo a 5 or 7-Vowel Language? Bantu Spirantization and Vowel Merger in the Kikongo Language Cluster [PDF]
Linguistique et Langues Africaines, 2019 This article addresses whether Proto-Kikongo (PK), the most recent common ancestor of the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC), should be reconstructed with an inventory of 5 or 7 vowel phonemes. Based on the synchronic vowel systems of its descendants, the most economic reconstruction would be 5 vowels, as all present-day varieties within the KLC have 5 ...
Koen Bostoen, Heidi Goes
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Progressive vowel height harmony in Proto-Kikongo and Proto-Bantu [PDF]
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 2019 AbstractThe systematic comparison of the different types of progressive Vowel Height Harmony (pVHH) attested within the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC) leads to the conclusion that this common Bantu process of long-distance assimilation cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Kikongo.
Goes, Heidi, Bostoen, Koen
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Pushing Back the Origin of Bantu Lexicography: The Vocabularium Congense of 1652, 1928, 2012 [PDF]
Lexikos, 2012 In this article, the oldest Bantu dictionary hitherto known is explored, that is the Vocabularium Latinum, Hispanicum, e Congense, handed down to us through a manuscript from 1652 by the Flemish Capuchin Joris van Gheel, missionary in the Kongo (present ...
Jasper De Kind +2 more
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Reflexive Morphology in the Kikongo Language Cluster: Variation and Diachrony
LanguagesThis paper provides a comparative and diachronic account of reflexive morphology in the Kikongo language cluster, a genealogically closely related group of 40+ West Coastal Bantu languages.
Sebastian Dom
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The reconstruction of Proto-Kikongo segmental phonology
, 2016 In this paper we propose a reconstruction of the segmental phonology of the most recent common ancestor of the KLC, i.e. Proto-Kikongo. This reconstruction is based on a large-scale comparative study of phonological micro-variation in the KLC and not only considers comparative series corresponding to existing Bantu lexical reconstructions, but also new
Goes, Heidi +2 more
openaire +2 more sources
Tense and aspect in Proto-Kikongo : a formal and semantic reconstruction
, 2016 In this paper we attempt a reconstruction of the tense/aspect paradigm for Proto-Kikongo. This ancestral language of the Kikongo language group can be seen as an intermediate level between present-day languages and Proto-Bantu. A reconstruction of the domain of TA, for which much uncertainty remains regarding Proto-Bantu markers and their evolution ...
Dom, Sebastian +2 more
openaire +2 more sources
Escravos e Penhorados como “mercadorias” na África Central Antiga? : Sobre o Conceito de Alienação no Baixo Rio Congo (300 AEC – c. 1482) [PDF]
, 2023 O comércio de escravizados na história da África antiga é um tema controvertido na historiografia do continente. Por um lado, historiadores argumentam que estratégias escravistas e o comércio de gentes é uma estratégia antiga no continente ao passo que ...
Abreu Leitão de Almeida, Marcos
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The emergence of interior vowels and heterosyllabic vowel sequences in Ngwi (Bantu B861, DRC) [PDF]
, 2021 In this article, we offer a historical account of the development of two phonemic ‘interior’ vowels, [ə] and [ɤ], and heterosyllabic vowel sequences in Ngwi, a virtually undescribed West-Coastal Bantu language spoken in the western part of the Democratic
Bostoen, Koen +2 more
core +3 more sources
On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar [PDF]
, 2022 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.
core +1 more source
Examining variation in the expression of tense/aspect to classify the Kikongo Language Cluster [PDF]
, 2015 In this article we examine variation in the expression of tense and aspect (TA) in 23 modern and two historical Bantu language varieties belonging to Guthrie’s B40, H10 and H30 groups in order to shed light on the internal classification of the Kikongo ...
Bostoen, Koen, Dom, Sebastian
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