(36) The western part of Nyasaland, south of group No. 35, is occupied by the Tumbuka section, which includes the languages of the Tumbuka, Henga and A-tonga peoples, and occupies the area between the western shores of Lake Nyasa and the Upper Luangwa river.
(37) Eastwards of No. 35 (North Nyasa group) lies the Kinga speech of the lofty Livingstone mountains, which is sufficiently distinct from its neighbours to be classified as a separate group.
(38) East of the Livingstone mountains and west of the Ruaha river, south also of the Unyamwezi domain, extends the Sango-Bena-Hehe-Sutu group.
(39) The extensive Yao genus of languages stretches from just behind the coast of the Lindi settlements in German East Africa (Ki-mwera) south-westward across the Ruvuma river to the north-east shores of Lake Nyasa (Ki-kese), and thence back to the valley of the Lujenda-Ruvuma (Cingindo), and southwards in various dialects of the Yao language to the south-east corner of Lake Nyasa and the region east of the Shire river, between Lake Nyasa, the Shire highlands and Mt. Mlanje. It is only since the middle of the 19th century that the Yao language has conquered territory to the south of Lake Nyasa. There still remain within its domain colonies of Nyanja-speaking people.
(40) Eastwards of the Yao domain, and bounded on the north by the range of that language in the Ruvuma valley and by the separate group of Ki-makonde (No. 10), ranges the well-marked Makua genus. The languages thus described occupy the greater part of Portuguese East Africa away from the watershed of Lake Nyasa. The Makua language is probably divided into the following dialects:—I-medo, I-lomwe, I-tugulu and Anguru. There are other dialects unnamed in the Angoji coast-region, where, however, strong colonies of Swahili-speaking people are settled. The southern part of the Makua domain is occupied by the Ci-cuambo of the Quelimane district.
(41) Nyanja, perhaps the most extensive group of cognate languages in the Bantu field, is principally associated with the east and west shores of the southern half of Lake Nyasa. It also covers all the valley of the Shire, except portions of the Shire highlands, down to the junction of that stream with the Zambezi, and further, the lands on both banks of the Zambezi down to and including its delta. West of Lake Nyasa, the Nyanja domain extends in the Senga language to the river Luangwa and the Central Zambezi, also along both banks of the Central Zambezi. South of the Central Zambezi, Nyanja dialects are spoken as far west as the Victoria Falls. Thence they extend eastwards over Mashonaland to the sea-coast. With this family may also be associated the languages of the Portuguese coast-region south of the Zambezi as far as Inhambane. The principal dialects of the Nyanja language are the Cinyanja of Eastern Nyasaland, Ci-peta and Ci-maravi of South-West Nyasaland to as far as the watershed of the Luangwa river, the Ci-mañanja of the Shire highlands, Ci-mobo and Ci-machinjiri of the Shire valley, Ci-sena or Ci-nyungwe of Tete and Sena (Zambezi), and Ci-mazaro of the Lower Zambezi. The Luangwa regions, as already mentioned, are occupied by the distinct but closely-allied Senga language. South of the Central Zambezi there are Ci-nanzwa in the region near the Victoria Falls, Ci-nyai, Shi-kalaña, Ci-shuna (Ci-gomo), Ci-loze, and possibly Ci-shangwe (or Ci-hlangane) and Shi-lenge which link on to the Beira coast dialects. In the delta of the Zambezi is to be found Ci-podzo, a very distinct language, yet one which belongs to the Nyanja genus. Ci-shangane, Chopi or Shi-lenge and other dialects of the Beira and Inhambane coast-lands and of Manika have been much influenced by Zulu dialects (Tebele and Ronga).
(42) The well-marked Bechuana language group has very distinct features of its own. This includes all the Bantu dialects of the Bechuanaland protectorate west of the Guai river. Bechuana dialects (such as Ci-venda, Se-suto, Se-peli, Se-roloñ, Se-χlapi, &c.) cover a good deal of the north and west of the Transvaal, and extend over all the Orange River Colony and Bechuanaland. Se-suto is the language of Basutoland; Se-rolon, Se-mangwato, of the Eastern Kalahri; Se-kololo is the court language of Barotseland; Ci-venda and Se-pedi or Peli are the principal dialects of the Transvaal. Group No. 42, in fact, stretches between the Zambezi on the north and the Orange river on the south, and extends westward (except for Hottentot and Bushmen interruptions) to the domain of the Oci-herero.
(43) The Ronga (Tonga) languages of Portuguese South-East Africa (Gazaland, Lower Limpopo valley, and patches of the North Transvaal (Shi-gwamba), Delagoa Bay) are almost equally related to the Nyanja group (41) on the one hand, and to Zulu on the other, probably representing a mingling of the two influences, of which the latter predominates.
(44) Lastly comes the Zulu-Kaffir group, occupying parts of Rhodesia, the eastern portion of the Transvaal, Swaziland, Natal and the eastern half of Cape Colony. In vocabulary, and to some degree in phonetics, the Zulu language (divided at most into three dialects) is related in some phonetic features to No. 42, and of course to No. 43; otherwise it stands very much alone in its developments. It may have distant relations in groups Nos. 29 and 32. Dialects of Zulu (Tebele and Ki-ngoni or Ci-nongi) are spoken at the present day in South-West Rhodesia and in Western Nyasaland and on the plateaus north-east of Lake Nyasa, carried thither by the Zulu raiders of the early 19th century.
The foregoing is only an attempt to classify the known forms of Bantu speech and to give their approximate geographical limits. The writer is well aware that here and there exist small patches of languages spoken by two or three villages which, though emphatically Bantu, possess isolated characters making them not easily included within any of the above-mentioned groups; but too detailed a reference to these languages would be wearisome and perhaps puzzling. Broadly speaking, the domain of Bantu speech seems to be divided into four great sections:—(a) the languages of the Great Lakes and the East Coast down to and including the Zambezi basin; (b) the South-Central group (Bechuana-Zulu); (c) the languages of the South-West, from the southern part of the Belgian Congo to Damaraland and the Angola-Congo coast; and (d) the Western group, including all the Central and Northern Congo and Cameroon languages, and probably also group No. 2 of the Albert Nyanza and Semliki river.
Common Features.—There is no mistaking a Bantu language, which perhaps is what renders the study of this group so interesting and encouraging. The homogeneity of this family is so striking, as compared with the inexplicable confusion of tongues which reigns in Africa north of the Bantu borderland, that the close relationships of these dialects have perhaps been a little exaggerated by earlier writers.
The phonology of the Western group (d) is akin to that of the Negro languages of Western and West-Central Africa. A small portion of (b) the South-Central group (Zulu) has picked up clicks, perhaps borrowed from the Hottentots and Bushmen. Otherwise, the three groups (a), (b) and (c) are closely related in phonology, and never, except here and there on the borders of the Western group, adopt the peculiar West African combinations of kp and gb, which are so characteristic of African speech between the Upper Nile and the Guinea coast.
The following propositions may be laid down to define the special or peculiar features of the Bantu languages:—
(1) They are agglutinative in their construction, the syntax being formed by adding prefixes principally and also suffixes to the root, but no infixes (that is to say, no mutable syllable incorporated into the middle of the root-word).[1] (2) The root excepting its terminal vowel is practically unchanging, though its first or penultimate vowel or consonant may be modified in pronunciation by the preceding prefix, or the last vowel in the same way by the succeeding suffix.
(3) The vowels of the Bantu languages are always of the Italian type, and no true Bantu language includes obscure sounds like ö and ü. Each word must end in a vowel (though in some modern dialects in Eastern Equatorial, West and South Africa the terminal vowel may be elided in rapid pronunciation, or be dropped, or absorbed in the terminal consonant, generally a nasal). No two consonants can come together without an intervening vowel, except in the case of a nasal, labial or sibilant.[2] No consonant is doubled. Apparent exceptions occur to this last rule where two nasals, two r’s or two d’s come together through the elision of a vowel or a labial.
(4) Substantives are divided into classes or genders, indicated by the pronominal particle prefixed to the root. These prefixes are used either in a singular or in a plural sense. With the exception of the “abstract” prefix Bu (No. 14), no singular prefix can be used as a plural nor vice versa. There is a certain degree of correspondence between the singular and plural prefixes (thus No. 2 prefix serves almost invariably as a plural to No. 3; No. 8 corresponds as a plural to No. 7). The number of prefixes common to the whole group is perhaps sixteen. The pronominal particle or prefix of the noun is attached as a prefix to the roots of the adjectives, pronouns, prepositions and verbs of the sentence which are connected with the governing noun; and though in course of time these particles may differ in form from the prefix of the substantive, they were akin in origin. (This system is the “concord” of Dr Bleek.[3] The pronominal particles, whether in nominative or accusative case, must always precede the nominal, pronominal, adjectival and verbal roots, though they often follow the auxiliary prefix-participles used in conjugating verbs,[4] and the roots of some prepositions.
- ↑ These features are characteristic of almost all the Negro languages of Africa.
- ↑ This does not preclude the aspiration of consonants, or the occasional local change of a palatal into a guttural.
- ↑ As already mentioned, a somewhat similar concord is also present as regards the suffixes of the Fula and the Kiama (Tem) languages in Western Africa, and as regards the prefixes of the Timne language of Sierra Leone; it exists likewise in Hottentot and less markedly in many Aryan, Semitic and Hamitic tongues.
- ↑ An apparent but not a real exception to this rule is in the second person plural of the imperative mood, where an abbreviated form of the pronoun is affixed to the verb. Other phases of the verb may be occasionally emphasized by the repetition of the governing pronoun at the end.
