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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | A new perspective on Bantu expansion and classification: linguistic and archaeological evidence fifty years after Doke |
Authors: | Herbert, R.K. Huffman, T.N. |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | African Studies |
Volume: | 52 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 53-76 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | Bantu-speaking peoples migration archaeology language classification Bantu languages |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00020189308707778 |
Abstract: | The first comprehensive classification of Bantu languages was that of C.M. Doke (1945). This was followed in 1948 by a full-scale classification by M. Guthrie. This article examines further developments in the field of Bantu language classification. The authors first describe the bases of Doke's and Guthrie's classifications. Then they criticize Guthrie's basic distinction between Eastern and Western Bantu. Taking into account archaeological and methodological considerations, the authors come to the conclusion that there is something seriously wrong with the Eastern-Western division. They compare cultural profiles and grammatical elements of several language groups commonly classed as Eastern and this evidence provides support for a three-way classification of Bantu languages: a North-Western and Congo Zone; a zone consisting of a coordinate pair of language groups: the first element comprising Doke's Central and Western Zones and part of East-Central, the second including the Northern and most of the Eastern Zones; and a zone which is essentially a coastal belt from the north-east through the South-Eastern Zone. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |