Koen Bostoen
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 111637 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Koen Bostoen |
| PRENOMES | Koen |
| SOBRENOME | Bostoen |
| ASSINATURA | BOSTOEN K |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2284-6165 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 67 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 210 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 64 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 3 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1977 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
An Archaeology of the Bantu Expansion
The coevolution of languages, peoples and environments in Central Africa’s Kwilu-Kasai region since ∼1000 BCE
In this article, Jan Vansina’s essay on the deep-time population history of the Kwilu-Kasai region, now more than half a century old, is revisited through the kaleidoscopic lens of newly collected linguistic, archaeological, palaeoecological and genetic evidence collected between 2018 and 2023. In contrast to Vansina’s view of the region as a terminus for the settlement of diverse Bantu speech communities, the area was likely an important center …
Vowel harmony and the morphophonology of the verb ending *-ide in the Kikongo Language Cluster (West-Coastal Bantu)
This article presents a historical-comparative analysis of the morphophonological effects of the verb ending *‐ide, i.e. imbrication and vowel lowering, in the Kikongo Language Cluster. It focuses on the kind of vowel lowering that is to be distinguished from progressive Vowel Height Harmony (pVHH) as triggered by mid vowel roots. Kikongo stands out in being the sole Bantu group to include languages that miss pVHH but display vowel harmony in the…
Ka old evidence of pressure flaking in the Congo basin, Democratic Republic of Congo
International audience
Yeyi
While major advances in the subclassification of Bantu languages have been made thanks to comprehensive, lexicon-based classifications, there are still several important uncertainties obscuring not only the diachronic linguistic processes that gave rise to Bantu diversification, but also the population dynamics of ancestral Bantu speakers underlying them. In this paper, we address one of these persisting mysteries of Bantu genealogy, i.e., the un…
Sound change versus lexical change for subgrouping
This article focuses on languages of the Kwilu-Ngounie subbranch within a branch of the Bantu language family known as West-Coastal Bantu. Within Kwilu-Ngounie, B70 and B80 languages emerge as paraphyletic in the most comprehensive lexicon-based phylogeny of the branch. We assess whether the impossibility to group them into lexicon-based monophyletic subgroups can be bypassed by using the phonological innovation of word-final loss of Proto-Bantu …
Labial-velar stops in Sakata (Bantu C34)
The present contribution bears on the documentation and description of a few unusual sounds, i.e. double labial-velar articulations, in a number of Bantu zone C varieties belonging to the so-called “Sakata cluster” in the southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These phonemes, often considered typical of a linguistic area known as the “Macro-Sudan Belt”, are considerably more common in southern Central Africa than previously thought. The…
The beginning of the Iron Age south of the Congo rainforest
Archaeological investigations of the Idiofa region in the Kwilu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo have yielded the earliest evidence for iron production, combined with ceramics and lithic artefacts, south of the Congo rainforest during the second century BC. Palaeoecological data show that the producers of this industry did not settle in open grasslands but in a habitat where the forests had started to undergo climate-induced degradati…
Nouvelle contribution à l’inventaire et la description des parlers teke (bantou, B70‐80)
Le présent article constitue une importante contribution à l’inventaire des parlers « teke » (bantou, B70‐80) de la République du Congo et de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Il rend compte de nos missions en pays « teke » du 8 avril au 15 juin 2021 et du 29 juin au 15 août 2022. Visant à combler le vide sur la répartition des parlers teke surtout en RDC, ce travail fait un inventaire général des variétés teke de la République du Congo,…
First Archaeological Excavations Along the Atlantic Ocean Coastline of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Erratic velars in West-Coastal Bantu
In this article, we present the first quantitative study of what we call multiple unconditioned reflexes (MUR) in Bantu, more specifically of Proto-Bantu velar stops *k and *g in the West-Coastal Bantu (WCB) branch of the Bantu language family. MUR, also known as “doubles reflexes” in Bantu studies, represent a situation where one and the same proto-sound has two or more reflexes in a given language which cannot be accounted for by phonological c…
Divergence and contact in Southern Bantu language and population history
In this paper we present a new, lexicon-based phylogeny of 34 Southern Bantu languages, and combine it with previous insights from linguistics, archaeology, and genetics to study the history of Southern Bantu languages and their speakers. Our phylogeny shows all Southern Bantu languages to derive from a single, direct ancestor, which contrasts with archaeological evidence indicating separate migrations of Bantu speakers into southern Africa. This…
Final Vowel Loss in Lower Kasai Bantu (drc) as a Contact-Induced Change
In this article, we present a qualitative and quantitative comparative account of Final Vowel Loss ( fvl ) in the Bantu languages of the Lower Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We argue that this diachronic sound shift rose relatively late in Bantu language history as a contact-induced change and affected adjacent West-Coastal and Central-Western Bantu languages belonging to different phylogenetic clusters. We account for its …
A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15)
This article employs a 4-million-word diachronic corpus to examine how the expression of possibility has evolved in Luganda since the 1890s to the present, by focusing on the language’s three main potential markers -yînz-, -sóból- and -andi- , and their historical interaction. It is shown that while the auxiliary -yînz- originally covered the whole modal subdomain of possibility, the auxiliary -sóból- has steadily taken over the more objective ca…
Ancient West-Coastal Bantu Banana Vocabulary
Lexical data has been key in attempts to reconstruct the early history of the banana (Musa sp.) in Africa. Previous language-based approaches to the introduction and dispersal of this staple crop of Asian origin have suffered from the absence of well-established genealogical classifications and inadequate historical-linguistic analysis. We therefore focus in this article on West-Coastal Bantu (WCB), one specific branch within the Bantu family who…
Kisikongo (Bantu, H16a) present-future isomorphism
The North-Angolan Bantu language Kisikongo has a present tense ( Ø-R-ang-a; R = root) that is morphologically more marked than the future tense ( Ø-R-a ). We reconstruct how this typologically uncommon tense-marking feature came about by drawing on both historical and comparative evidence. Our diachronic corpus covers four centuries that can be subdivided in three periods, viz. (1) mid-17th, (2) late-19th/early-20th, and (3) late-20th/ early-21st…
Inheritance and contact in the genesis of Gisamba (Bantu, L12a, DRC)
Gisamba (ISO 639-3: smx) is a nearly undocumented and undescribed as well as highly endangered Bantu language spoken in the Kwilu and Kwango provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It belongs to the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC), a discrete subclade of the West-Coastal Bantu (WCB) branch of the Bantu language family. Within the KLC, Gisamba forms a distinct subgroup called “Kikongoid” together with Kiyaka, Kisuku and Kihungan, w…
Entre modalité et conditionnalité
In the Bantu language Kirundi (JD62), the verbal prefix oo- has traditionally been described as either conditional or potential. In this article, we show by means of a corpus-based analysis of its uses that it is first and foremost a modal prefix, and its conditional use is only a secondary development. Dans la langue bantoue kirundi (JD62), le préfixe verbal oo‐ a été décrit comme un marqueur soit du conditionnel, soit du potentiel. Dans cet art…
The Bantu Languages
Bantu Languages
Reconstructing Proto-Bantu
Chapter 10 is about how to reconstuct Proto-Bantu, the putative most recent common ancestor of all Bantu languages, by using the Comparative Method. The chapter includes a short historical overview of previous attempts to reconstruct Proto-Bantu phonology, vocabulary and grammar. It further discusses how to proceed from phonological to lexical reconstruction, which issues are to be dealt with when doing grammatical reconstruction and what is the …
Was Proto-Kikongo a 5 or 7-Vowel Language? Bantu Spirantization and Vowel Merger in the Kikongo Language Cluster
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 vowels or once went through a 5-vowel (5V) stage. If such were the case, the reduction of the inher…
Kitala Ware
The earliest iron-producing communities in the Lower Congo region of Central Africa
In 2015 the KongoKing research project team excavated the Bu, Kindu and Mantsetsi sites situated in the Kongo-Central Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). All are part of the Kay Ladio Group. This is the first detailed publication on this cultural group, to which no contemporary ones can currently be linked, either from the Atlantic coast of Congo-Brazzaville or from along the Congo River and its tributaries upstream of Kinshasa. D…
Les débuts de la céramique, de la sédentarisation et de la métallurgie
Middle to Late Holocene Paleoclimatic Change and the Early Bantu Expansion in the Rain Forests of Western Central Africa
This article reviews evidence from biogeography, palynology, geology, historical linguistics, and archaeology and presents a new synthesis of the paleoclimatic context in which the early Bantu expansion took place. Paleoenvironmental data indicate that a climate crisis affected the Central African forest block during the Holocene, first on its periphery around 4000 BP and later at its core around 2500 BP.We argue here that both phases had an impa…
First farmers in the Central African rainforest
The Elusive Archaeology of Kongo Urbanism
Pots, Words and the Bantu Problem
Historical-comparative linguistics has played a key role in the reconstruction of early history in Africa. Regarding the ‘Bantu Problem’ in particular, linguistic research, particularly language classification, has oriented historical study and been a guiding principle for both historians and archaeologists. Some historians have also embraced the comparison of cultural vocabularies as a core method for reconstructing African history. This paper e…
Early Plant Cultivation in the Central African Rain Forest
The Bantu expansion, a major topic in African archaeology and history, is widely assumed to correlate with the spread of farming, but archaeological data on the subsistence of these putative early Bantu speakers are very sparse. However, finds of domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) in southern Cameroonian archaeological sites, dated between 400 and 200 BC, open new perspectives on the history of agriculture in the Central African rain …
African-European Contacts in the Kongo Kingdom (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries)
Une archéologie des provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo
This text presents in detail the results of archaeological research carried out by the KongoKing project in the former northern provinces of the Kongo Kingdom, currently located in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Shell and Glass Beads from the Tombs of Kindoki, Mbanza Nsundi, Lower Congo
The ancient Kingdom of Kongo originated in Central Africa in the 14th century. In the 15th century, the Portuguese organized tight contacts with the Bakongo. From then on European goods gained new significance in the local culture and even found their way into funerary rites. Among the most important grave goods in the Kingdom of Kongo were shell and glass beads. They occur in many tombs and symbolize wealth, status, or femininity. At the burial …
A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary
Despite its ancient and long-lasting importance to sub-Saharan African economies, there has been no systematic attempt to reconstruct Proto-Bantu vocabulary referring to the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Scholars have identified four common noun stems for 'oil palm', i.e. *-bida (cl. 5/6, 7/8), o_bd (cl. 5/6), *-gadi (cl. 9/10), and *-tende (el. 3/4) but determined the stems' geographic distributions within the Bantu domain to be insufficie…
The earliest iron-producing communities in the Lower Congo region of Central Africa
In 2015 the KongoKing research project team excavated the Bu, Kindu and Mantsetsi sites situated in the Kongo-Central Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). All are part of the Kay Ladio Group. This is the first detailed publication on this cultural group, to which no contemporary ones can currently be linked, either from the Atlantic coast of Congo-Brazzaville or from along the Congo River and its tributaries upstream of Kinshasa. D…
Kitala Ware
The beginning of the Iron Age south of the Congo rainforest
Archaeological investigations of the Idiofa region in the Kwilu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo have yielded the earliest evidence for iron production, combined with ceramics and lithic artefacts, south of the Congo rainforest during the second century BC. Palaeoecological data show that the producers of this industry did not settle in open grasslands but in a habitat where the forests had started to undergo climate-induced degradati…
Final Vowel Loss in Lower Kasai Bantu (drc) as a Contact-Induced Change
In this article, we present a qualitative and quantitative comparative account of Final Vowel Loss ( fvl ) in the Bantu languages of the Lower Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We argue that this diachronic sound shift rose relatively late in Bantu language history as a contact-induced change and affected adjacent West-Coastal and Central-Western Bantu languages belonging to different phylogenetic clusters. We account for its …
From conditionality to modality in Luganda (Bantu, JE15)
The antipassive in Bantu
The antipassive, an object-demoting diathesis commonly associated with ergative languages, has so far largely gone unnoticed in Bantu languages, which are of the accusative type. In this article, comparative evidence is raised to demonstrate that the antipassive is a voice construction to be reckoned with in Bantu. A robust typology of Bantu voice constructions is developed on the basis of the scarce data available in the literature. This evidenc…
Diachronic semantics of the modal verb - sóból - in Luganda
In this article the semantic evolution of the modal verb -sóból- in Luganda is \nexamined through the analysis of a diachronic corpus spanning the last 120 \nyears. It is shown that the usage frequency of this verb increased exponentially \nbetween the early 20th century and the present, and that its use as a lexical verb \nhas dramatically decreased during the same time span. The corpus data furthermore \nsubstantiate that its modal uses have be…
Archaeological charcoals as archives for firewood preferences and vegetation composition during the late Holocene in the southern Mayumbe, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Ka old evidence of pressure flaking in the Congo basin, Democratic Republic of Congo
International audience
Yeyi
While major advances in the subclassification of Bantu languages have been made thanks to comprehensive, lexicon-based classifications, there are still several important uncertainties obscuring not only the diachronic linguistic processes that gave rise to Bantu diversification, but also the population dynamics of ancestral Bantu speakers underlying them. In this paper, we address one of these persisting mysteries of Bantu genealogy, i.e., the un…
On how "middle" plus "associative/reciprocal" became "passive" in the Bantu A70 languages
In this paper we show that the Bantu A70 languages did not preserve the passive morpheme inherited from Proto-Bantu (PB), but developed a new suffix. It is a morpheme that is compound in origin, consisting of two verbal derivation suffixes which still function independently in today's languages as a middle marker and an associative/reciprocal marker respectively, though with variable degrees of productivity. The genesis of a passive marker from t…
Osculance in Bantu reconstructions
In historical linguistics, variation functions as an indicator of historical evolution. The set of Proto-Bantu reconstructions contains multiple slightly divergent forms and/or meanings which supposedly have a common origin based on their strong resemblance, but which cannot be directly connected by means of established Bantu phonological shifts or known semantic shifts. The term "osculance" has been used to refer to this phenomenon. As a likely …
Klein Beginnen
1977). Klein Beginnen: Lijst Van Verkorte Titels Van Boeken Gedrukt in De Nederlanden En Van Nederlandse Boeken Tot 1800 in Bedford College Library. Dutch Crossing: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 26-29
Osculance in Bantu reconstructions
In historical linguistics, variation functions as an indicator of historical evolution. The set of Proto-Bantu reconstructions contains multiple slightly divergent forms and/or meanings which supposedly have a common origin based on their strong resemblance, but which cannot be directly connected by means of established Bantu phonological shifts or known semantic shifts. The term "osculance" has been used to refer to this phenomenon. As a likely …
A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary
Despite its ancient and long-lasting importance to sub-Saharan African economies, there has been no systematic attempt to reconstruct Proto-Bantu vocabulary referring to the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Scholars have identified four common noun stems for 'oil palm', i.e. *-bida (cl. 5/6, 7/8), o_bd (cl. 5/6), *-gadi (cl. 9/10), and *-tende (el. 3/4) but determined the stems' geographic distributions within the Bantu domain to be insufficie…
Pots, Words and the Bantu Problem
Historical-comparative linguistics has played a key role in the reconstruction of early history in Africa. Regarding the ‘Bantu Problem’ in particular, linguistic research, particularly language classification, has oriented historical study and been a guiding principle for both historians and archaeologists. Some historians have also embraced the comparison of cultural vocabularies as a core method for reconstructing African history. This paper e…
Resolving phonological variability in Bantu lexical reconstructions
Notre connaissance très partielle des changements sémantiques et phonologiques diachroniques entraîne une inflation de formes dans le lexique du proto-bantou. La banque de données en ligne Reconstructions lexicales bantoues 3 (Bastin & Schadeberg 2003) contient de nombreuses reconstructions homophones dont les semantismes peuvent être reliés l'un a l'autre ainsi que de multiples reconstructions dont les formes phonologiques ne se distinguent que …
Bantu Spirantization
This paper examines the irregular application of the sound change commonly known as ‘Bantu Spirantization (BS)’ — a particular type of assibilation — in front of certain common Bantu morphemes. This irregularity can to a large extent be explained as the result of the progressive morphologization (through ‘dephonologization’) and lexicalization to which the sound shift was exposed across Bantu. The interaction with another common Bantu sound chang…
Bantu Spirantization Morphologization, lexicalization and historical classification
Early Plant Cultivation in the Central African Rain Forest
The Bantu expansion, a major topic in African archaeology and history, is widely assumed to correlate with the spread of farming, but archaeological data on the subsistence of these putative early Bantu speakers are very sparse. However, finds of domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) in southern Cameroonian archaeological sites, dated between 400 and 200 BC, open new perspectives on the history of agriculture in the Central African rain …
On how "middle" plus "associative/reciprocal" became "passive" in the Bantu A70 languages
In this paper we show that the Bantu A70 languages did not preserve the passive morpheme inherited from Proto-Bantu (PB), but developed a new suffix. It is a morpheme that is compound in origin, consisting of two verbal derivation suffixes which still function independently in today's languages as a middle marker and an associative/reciprocal marker respectively, though with variable degrees of productivity. The genesis of a passive marker from t…
Passiveness and inversion in Mbuun (Bantu B87, DRC)
In this article, we examine two word order inversion constructions in Mbuun, a Bantu language which lacks a true morphological or periphrastic passive. Mbuun uses both an ‘OSV construction’ and an ‘impersonal 3PL construction’ as functional passives. We demonstrate that the pre-posed object in both constructions is more than a mere topic in a syntactically adjoined position. It can be considered a syntactic argument and even displays certain prop…
Molecular Perspectives on the Bantu Expansion
The expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa is still a matter of debate—not only with respect to the propelling force behind it and the route(s) taken, but, also, in terms of the question whether there actually was a demographic expansion of peoples, rather than just a cultural expansion involving the spread of languages and technologies. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the extant linguistic and m…
First farmers in the Central African rainforest
Bantu do/say polysemy and the origins of a quotative in Shangaci
L’article décrit la variabilité fonctionnelle du verbe -ira en shangaci et tente d’en définir le sémantisme lexical. Synchroniquement, le verbe -ira doit plutôt être considéré comme un «verbe quotatif » , mais l’étude comparative montre qu’à l’origine il s’agissait d’un verbe d’action générique. L’hypothèse avancée est que son usage fréquent dans le discours rapporté peut mener à une polysémie faire/ dire et même le transformer en un verbe déclar…
Grammaticalization and subjectification in the semantic domain of possibility in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62)
This article is a first systematic study of the expression of possibility in Kirundi, more specifically of its verbal markers. Possibility is traditionally seen as one of the core components of the semantic domain of modality. The onomasiological approach of this modal sub-domain has resulted in the identification of four verbal potential markers, i. e., the auxiliaries -bâsh- and -shóbor-, the semi-auxiliary -shóbok-, and the TAM affix -oo-. The…
La diphtongaison dans les langues bantu B70-80 (Bandundu, RDC)
Cet article étudie un phénomène bien connu dans les langues du monde, mais rare dans les langues bantu. Ce fait, la diphtongaison, est pourtant répandu dans quelques langues bantu des groupes B70 et B80 parlées au sud-ouest de la RD Congo dans le district du Kwilu. L’article permet de comprendre clairement les différents conditionnements et les réalisations variables de ce phénomène. Certaines voyelles sont beaucoup plus productives de diphtongue…
Champignons consommés par les Pygmées du Gabon
Le présent article porte sur le vocabulaire relatif à quatre cents spécimens de champignons représentatifs de 29 taxons comestibles qui ont été collectés parmi deux communautés pygmées du Gabon : les Baka et les Bakóya. Ce vocabulaire myconymique spécifique en kóya (langue bantue) et baka (langue oubanguienne) désignant les mêmes espèces de champignons est analysé sur les plans formel et sémantique. Cette analyse linguistique dévoile les stratégi…
On the origin of the royal Kongo title ngangula
This article offers an in-depth historical-comparative linguistic account of the origin and etymology of ngangula. This term is not only a widespread blacksmith term in the Lower Congo region, but also a traditional royal Kongo title attesting to the importance of the blacksmith metaphor in Kongo political ideology. Popular etymology has it that ngangula is related to nganga, reconstructed in Proto-Bantu as *-gàngà and commonly translated as ‘ me…
Bantu-Ubangi language contact and the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe (Bantu, C41, DRC)
We examine the origin of labial-velar stops in Lingombe, a language from the northern Bantu borderland. Labial-velar stops are uncommon in Bantu. It is generally believed that they were acquired through contact with neighbouring non-Bantu speakers, in casu Ubangi languages. We show that the introduction of labial-velar stops in Lingombe is indeed a contact-induced change, but one which could not happen through superficial contact. It involved adv…
Archaeological charcoals as archives for firewood preferences and vegetation composition during the late Holocene in the southern Mayumbe, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Immediate before the verb focus position in Nsong (Bantu B85d, DR Congo)
Nsong is a western Bantu language spoken in the neighbourhood of Kikwit (5°2'28"S 18°48'58"E, Kwilu District, Bandundu Province, DRC) and encoded as B85d in the New Updated Guthrie List (Maho 2009). To this B80 or Tiene-Yanzi group also belongs Mbuun, encoded as B87 by Guthrie (1971: 39) and spoken in the wider vicinity of Idiofa (4°57'35"S 19°35'40", Kwilu District, Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo). Both languages are closely…
Diachronic semantics of the modal verb - sóból - in Luganda
In this article the semantic evolution of the modal verb -sóból- in Luganda is \nexamined through the analysis of a diachronic corpus spanning the last 120 \nyears. It is shown that the usage frequency of this verb increased exponentially \nbetween the early 20th century and the present, and that its use as a lexical verb \nhas dramatically decreased during the same time span. The corpus data furthermore \nsubstantiate that its modal uses have be…
Shell and Glass Beads from the Tombs of Kindoki, Mbanza Nsundi, Lower Congo
The ancient Kingdom of Kongo originated in Central Africa in the 14th century. In the 15th century, the Portuguese organized tight contacts with the Bakongo. From then on European goods gained new significance in the local culture and even found their way into funerary rites. Among the most important grave goods in the Kingdom of Kongo were shell and glass beads. They occur in many tombs and symbolize wealth, status, or femininity. At the burial …
Introducing a state-of-the-art phylogenetic classification of the Kikongo Language Cluster
It is shown how past lexicostatistic efforts eventually led to lexically-driven phylogenetic classifications of the Bantu languages. As a new case study, 95 North-West and West Bantu language varieties are sampled across geographical space, with a focus on the wider Lower Congo region. This leads to the discovery of a discrete clade within West-Coastal Bantu, which we term the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC), a disparate continuum of closely relat…
Examining variation in the expression of tense/aspect to classify the Kikongo Language Cluster
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 Language Cluster (KLC). We apply the Comparative Method to this specific set of morphological data to test a recent phylogenetic classification of the KLC. We identify eight widespread TA markers a…
Antipassive/associative polysemy in Cilubà (Bantu, L31a)
Antipassive constructions are commonly associated with languages with a predominantly ergative alignment. In this article, we show that antipassive constructions can also occur in predominantly accusative languages such as Cilubà, a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is expressed by the verbal suffix -angan- , deriving an intransitive clause from a transitive one by omitting the object noun phrase. This suffix functions ca…
Bantu languages (41 obras) · Linguistics (38 obras) · Philosophy (33 obras) · History (28 obras) · Geography (27 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (23 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (23 obras) · Archaeology (16 obras) · Computer Science (16 obras) · Language and cultural evolution (12 obras)