, It is also not possible to definitively state the number of Bantu languages with clicks; clicks may occur in some varieties and not others, as in the case of Fwe K402 (Pakendorf et al. Engstrand and Lodhi (1985) study one such contrast in Swahili G42 and Monaka (2001, 2005) examines a three-way contrast in Kgalagari S311. (PDF) Bantu Lexical Reconstruction - ResearchGate Rialland, A. Monaka Swahili has a complex and controversial status in Eastern Africa today. (2015) An Acoustic Study of Luganda Liquid Allophones. (1995) On the Perception and Production of Tone in Xhosa. & M. R. The book is divided into four sections: I) Introduction, II) Identifying the Bantu Languages, III) Methods of Classification and IV) The Bantu languages Classified. Faytak (2014) reconstructs back vowels *u, *, *o for the Central Ring group of Grassfields Bantu languages. (1994) Nasales et nasalisation en ggwl, langue bantu du Congo. ), Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of African Linguistics, Cologne, 1721 August 2009, 219224. Clicks are also found in Manyo (Gciriku) K332, Sambyu K331, Kwangali K33, Mbukushu K333 and Fwe K402 (Baumbach 1997, Mhlig 1997, Gunnink et al. Maddieson, I. The current variation between clicks and velars in Imusho Fwe may eventually lead to the loss of clicks in the variety altogether, as clicks are replaced by velars. Chichewa is a Bantu language spoken principally in the area of Africa lying in the Great Rift Valley. Figure 3.2 Phonetica & Braver, A. However, these standardised transcriptions may disguise significant differences between languages, especially with respect to the nature of the vowels written /e/ and /o/. Mittheilungen des Seminars fr Orientalische Sprachen ), Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of African Linguistics, Cologne, 1721 August 2009, 533543. E. R. A. South African Journal of African Languages (eds. F. Haacke, W. H. G. . Yeyi R41 has eight different accompaniments (Fulop et al. & Recordings made by the first author of two other female speakers of Kalanga S16, one from Francistown in Botswana and one from Zimbabwe, did not replicate the pattern suggested by Mathangwane. Miller, A. 2024, Kyoto. Pharyngeals have developed from velars in other Niger-Congo languages. It is difficult to be certain that ATR contrasts exist in a language unless direct articulatory data on the vocal tract configuration during vowel production is available. The upper pharyngealised vowels of Kwasio A81 do not have the harsh voice quality associated with lower pharyngealised vowels, i.e., epiglottalised or aryepiglottalised vowels, as found in Tuu, Kxa and Khoe languages of southern Africa (cf. Schadeberg Proctor, M. Myers, S. Source: Recording and images made available by Michael Proctor. (eds. Monaka, K. C. Doke, C. M. This can be seen by the converging F2 and F3 transitions at the end of the first vowel, (as indicated by the arrow), which indicate a velar constriction. vowels may thus be misinterpreted as being lower than the [+ATR] mid vowels, but the high F1 values may be instead attributed to a retracted tongue root position. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society. Skhosana, P. B. (1983) Phontique et Phonologie: le systme consonantique du kinyarwanda. (1980) Nasale suivie de consonne sourde en proto-bantu. (2016) Sentence Intonation in Tswana (Sotho-Tswana group). In (2007) Question Prosody: An African Perspective. Then, explain how language has been a unifying or divisive force for each group. (1990) The Role of Contrast in Limiting Vowel-to-Vowel Coarticulation in Different Languages. 11(2): 206223. Jackson & The phonetic differences which exist between closely related languages provide opportunities for testing theories about phonological organisation. During the time period in which the two closures of a click overlap, lowering of the center of the tongue creates a partial vacuum in the cavity between them. In Mpiemo A86c, implosives have a slight rise in F0 before the onset of a following vowel while voiced plosives have a sharp dip in F0 (Nagano-Madsen & Thornell 2012). Nasal vowels are not particularly common in the Bantu languages, but are found in certain mostly western areas, for example in Ngungwel B72a of the Teke group (Paulian 1994), in Umbundu R11 (Schadeberg 1982), in Gyele A801 (Renaud 1976) and in a few words in the Bitam variety of Fang A75 (Medjo Mv 1997). The ATR vowel /e/ and the RTR vowel /e/ differ both in the shape of the tongue body and in the amount of tongue root retraction, which can be estimated by the volume of tongue mass which occurs to the left of the white dotted line. Fuchs, S. Figure 3.19 & B. Detailed studies of this type not only illuminate the individual language studied but may provide insights into diachronic issues. Monaka In (2016) How Intonations Interact with Tones in Embosi (Bantu C25), a Two-Tone Language Without Downdrift. (1981) A Handbook of the Venda Language. & Figure 3.30 (2017) How Do You Whisper a Click? & Thomas, K. The dorsal constriction of clicks in Fwe is typically velar. Figure 3.3 ), Selected Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 8289. Handbook of African Languages By M. A. Bryan. (eds. Book Description. Journal of the International Phonetic Association Bemba M42 short vowels /i e a o u/ tend to be lax compared to their long vowel counterparts /i e a o u/ (Hamann & Kula 2015): short high and mid vowels tend to be lower and more centralised than long ones, while /a/ is higher than /a/. Southern Sotho S33 only has a single click type which may vary in place. (2001) Whispery Voiced Nasal Stops in Rwanda. In Zamba C322 and Ganda JE15 raise a final High tone in question prosody. (2006) On the Status of Voiced Stops in Tswana: Against *ND. Readers unfamiliar with acoustic analysis might see Ladefoged (2000) for an introduction to the concept of a formant. Pretoria: University of South Africa. Andy Figure 3.24 In Firmino The 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVII), Hong Kong, August 1721, 2011, 17261729. S. J. University of California, Berkeley. The mean formant values for Xhosa S41 vowels given by Roux and Holtzhausen (1989) are plotted in this way in Krakow Tonal contrasts and vowel length contrasts are often restricted to stem-initial syllables (Downing 2010). van Schaik. Click consonants do not occur Herero R31, Umbundu R11, Totela K41 or Lozi K21, nor are they found in languages of the Wambo R20 cluster, such as Kwanyama R21, Mbalanhu R214 and Ndonga R22. Shosted, R. K. Riera Part of the aim of the present chapter is therefore to draw greater attention to this diversity. Figure 3.5 Plauch T. C. & (2013) /r/ in Washili Shingazidja. & (1997) based on the principle that vowels should be expected to be roughly equally dispersed in a space defined by the major formant resonances. (2014) Bantu Spirantization Is a Reflex of Vowel Spirantization. & Figure 3.19 , Figure 3.32 (1931b) Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects. Wetzels, L. W. Lindberg The most detailed study remains that of Traill et al. (2016) Chimiini Intonation. Coupez (1923) A Dissertation on the Phonetics of the Zulu Language. , Ishihara Xhosa S41 has five accompaniments, three of which are the same as in Zulu S42. Bantu peoples, the approximately 85 million speakers of the more than 500 distinct languages of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family, occupying almost the entire southern projection of the African continent. Ladefoged Haacke, W. H. G. This is particularly apparent for the front vowels, which are equally spaced from each other. Corpus studies of Bantu languages are currently few in number (Prinsloo & de Schryver 2001, Niesler et al. Note particularly the slope of a line connecting the back vowels which points roughly to the position of the central vowel /a/, similar to that seen in & (2009b) Rarefaction Gestures and Coarticulation in Mangetti Dune !Xung clicks. Heerbaart Figure 3.1 Ladefoged, P. Introduction This chapter will describe some of the major phonetic characteristics of the (Narrow) Bantu languages based on first-hand familiarity with some of them and a reading of available literature. Clicks have not been reported for Manda group languages and are unlikely to occur unless efforts to revitalise Malawian Ngoni on a Zulu model prove effective (Kishindo 2002). L. Zerbian, S. R. Clements, G. N. Downing, L. J. In (2012) Clicks in South-Western Bantu Languages: Contact-Induced Vs. Language-Internal Lexical Change. A. ), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 129138. Roux, J. C. Textes originaux, recueillis et traduits en Franais et prcds dune esquisse grammaticale. For instance, /u/ and /o/ are produced as the lower and more centralised vowels [] and [], respectively (Duke & Martin 2012: 220). 16: 385400. . It is possible that phonetic studies of other South-West Bantu click languages will reveal additional click accompaniments. Tswa S51 may be one such case, as the last attestation was by Persson (1932). Maho, J. F. Myers, S. In addition, there may be retraction of the tongue tip, dorsum or tongue root for some clicks (Miller 2008, Miller & Finch 2011). In Thomas-Vilakatis study, inserts with 96 electrodes were used, together with software allowing a sweep of the contact patterns to be made every 10 ms. (2011) All Depressors Are Not Alike: A Comparison of Shanghai Chinese and Zulu. Figure 3.11 ), Namibian Languages. Ziervogel, D. L. M. , 32(2): 113121. Language locations are estimated following Maho (2009) and Gieseke and Seifert (2007). Differences in lip posture appear to enhance the contrast between labio-dental /f v/ and labial fricatives / / in Kwangali K33 and in Manyo K332 (Ladefoged 1990). ), Rhotics: New Data and Perspectives, 173190. Each point represents the average of at least 28 tokens of the vowel in penultimate position in a word list spoken by a female speaker. Downing, L. J. . (2009) On Pitch Lowering Not Linked to Voicing: Nguni and Shona Group Depressors. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics The front closure for dental clicks is formed earlier and held longer (about 105 ms) than that for post-alveolar or lateral clicks (about 80 ms). Ndendeule N101 has no long vowels and no lengthening. (eds. (1980) The Depression Feature in Nguni Languages and Its Interaction with Tone. Phonology Brenzinger, M. The click in the word [ruoma] papyrus in (2005) The Phonetics and Phonology of Sengwato, a Dialect of Setswana. Ashby, S. 27: 6580. VOT differs, as expected, between voiced, voiceless unaspirated and aspirated stop categories in Kgalagari S311, and it also varies by place of articulation within each category. & Figure 3.12 Zsiga Figure 3.33 Figure 3.4 Rialland Demolin, D. The term argument is defined by Trask (1993:20) as "a noun phrase . Moyo, C. T. An unusual VOT contrast between partially voiced plosives and fully voiced stops, possibly implosives, has been described in Bekwel A85b (Cheucle 2014: 287) and the Kanincin variety of Ruwund L53 (Demolin 2015: 495). 2003), including several contrasts which are not found in other Bantu languages. An interesting issue is therefore whether the Bantu languages, particularly those with seven or more vowels, make use of the ATR feature in this phonetic sense. 20(2): 3336. Namaseb Manuel, S. Y. Figure 3.13 (1969) Bantu Lexical Reconstructions. de Schryver 7: 270414. Maddieson, I. Downing, L. J. , IPA (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. (2014) Clicks, Concurrency and Khoisan. In Ms. Jos: Rycroft, D. K. (PDF) Modern Democracy and Traditional Bantu Governance: Towards an (2015) Liko Phonology and Grammar. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. The white bow-shaped line crossing each midsagittal image is also an artifact. Figure 3.30 Miller, A. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics , (1978) Experimental Study of Implosive and Voiced Egressive Stops in Shona: An Interim Report. Co-occurrence restrictions of a harmonic nature between vowels, very typical of sub-Saharan African languages, are quite commonly found in Bantu languages, though often limited in extent, e.g., only applying in certain morphological contexts, such as between verb roots and extensions. ), Intonation in African Tone Languages, 393434. Cologne: Rdiger Kppe. Mickey Bantu is a general term for over 400 different ethnic groups in Africa, from Cameroon to South Africa, united by a common language family (the Bantu languages) and in many cases common customs.. (2015) Illustrations of the IPA: Bemba. Faytak, M. (1996) The Phonology and Morphology of Kimatuumbi. Monaka, K. C. (1989) Dental and Alveolar Stops in KiMvita Swahili: An Electropalatographic Study. 4 (1937), pp. The bilabial click // is not found in Bantu except in paralinguistic utterances, and as a variant pronunciation of a sequence of labial and velar stops, as in Rwanda JD61 (Demolin 2015: 483). C. J. Blench, R. For instance, there are languages with and without downdrift, though the former are more common (Downing & Rialland 2016b). Hubbard, K. Letele, G. L. , Note that there are different ways to normalise vowels across speakers; eight different methods are evaluated by Wissing and Pienaar (2014) for a corpus of Southern Sotho S33 vowels, for instance. (1981) Concise SiSwati Dictionary: SiSwati-English/English-SiSwati. The center portion of the tongue is then lowered while the two main closures are maintained (timesteps 23), enlarging the volume of the space between them. Demolin, D. (2016a) Intonation in African Tone Languages. Bantu Phonology | Oxford Handbook Topics in Linguistics | Oxford Academic (1999) The Historical Interpretation of Vowel Harmony in Bantu. 2015). Philippson (1896) tudes sur les langues du Haut-Zambze. A. (1990) Depression Without Depressors. Bostoen, K. (eds. Diemer Mumin Pitch effects of depressor nasals in the Giryama E72a words /nhane/ eight (left panel) and ideophone /nho/ (right panel). (eds. , Ian Maddieson Source: Recording made available by Daniel Duke and Marieke Martin. Ayalew Figure 3.30 x L. J. Another language with a vowel length contrast, Vili H12, lengthens vowels before liquids (in the environment /C_L/) and before nasals /C_N/ (Roux & Ndinga-Koumba-Binza 2011), but not before NC (Ndinga-Koumba-Binza 2011). Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Both surveys reveal a great deal of variety across Bantu languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. , Figure 3.13 & . Bantu - McGill University (1999a) Downdrift and Pitch Range in Chichewa Intonation. Figure 3.34 Brenzinger, M. (1976) Le bajele: phonologie, morphologie nominale. For instance, the number of High tones which may surface in a word or a stem may be limited to one and prominent peaks tend to occur in a predictable position, often the penult (Downing 2010). S. Journal of the International Phonetic Association The F1 averages of // and // in Mbam languages is typically higher than that of /e/ and /o/. Brasington Phonetica 10(4): 166172. L. Although most Bantu languages use only one coronal (typically alveolar) and one dorsal (velar) place of articulation, contrasts between dental and alveolar places are found in several languages, and contrasts between velars and uvulars are found in Kgalagari S311 (Dickens 1987, Monaka 2001, 2005). Rous Figure 3.5 Delvaux 30: 591627. . & 42: 175187. Downing, L. J. In this variety, some speakers fail to devoice, and others devoice intervocalically as well as after nasals (Zsiga et al. 2009a). Jouannet, F. Figure 3.31 1951. K. C. a thorough treatment of both the syntactic and semantic characteristics of the external and internal arguments. The Southern Bantu Languages Handbook of African Languages The pair /u u/ where F2 is the same are thus quite likely (almost) solely different in pharynx width. In Vers une reconstruction du proto-A80. The means are 248 Hz for /i/, 313 Hz for //, 277 Hz for /u/, and 334 Hz for //. An interesting process of intensification of secondary articulations into obstruents occurs, inter alia, in Rwanda JD61 (Jouannet 1983) and Shona S10 (Doke 1931a). In Vossen The Swahili data collected (text and speech) was mainly the Standard Swahili that is of general use in official and learning. & Figure 3.4 For instance, a contrast between HL and LH contours is restricted to long vowels in Rwanda JD61 (Myers 2003). Informa UK Limited, an Informa Group Company Home | About RHO | Collections There is evidence for post-nasal fortition rather than devoicing in the Ngwato S31c variety (Gouskova et al. Sol, M.-J. An acoustic plot of these vowels is given in What's in a Bantu verb? Actionality in Bantu languages (1969) Tone in Bantu. back closure is released, and this release may be separately audible. Air pressure in the oral cavity is measured in relation to the ambient atmospheric pressure in hectoPascals (hPa, equivalent to the pressure required to support 1 cm of water). ), Intonation in African Tone Languages, 285320. For the purposes of this volume, originally published in 1954, two southern zones of Bantu have been included - south of the Zambesi and east of the Kalahari. Hinnebusch ), Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension, 243265. , Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Fwe has four accompaniments including a voiceless nasal accompaniment (Gunnink forthcoming) not known to occur in any other Bantu language. Omissions? However, from the phonetic point of view, the Bantu languages have fewer articulatorily complex consonants than is sometimes suggested. (eds. In The pattern for the front vowels suggests a greater interaction of the major features of vowel height and backness with pharynx width. ), Oxford Handbook of Information Structure, 790813. & A. Louw, 5991. shows, the shift from sealed to open occurs rapidly and completely, here between the two frames numbered 170 and 180. & The ATR/RTR contrast in Nande JD42 is also suggested by the harmonic behaviour and acoustic characteristics of vowels. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Front closure durations are shown as heavily stippled bars. Language Dynamics and Change Mumba 27(3/4): 8396. (2014) Chain Shifts, Strident Vowels, and Expanded Vowel Spaces. , (eds. Similar segments are very rare in the worlds languages, but do occur in the Dagestanian language Tabasaran (Kodzasov & Muravjeva 1982). Paper presented at Sound Change in Interacting Human Systems, 3rd Biennial Workshop on Sound Change, May (2015) On Medumba Bilabial Trills and Vowels. A monumental four-volume classification of Bantu languages, Comparative Bantu (196771), which was written by Malcolm Guthrie, has become the standard reference book used by most scholarsincluding those who disagree with Guthries proposed classification, which sets up a basic western and eastern division in Bantu languages with a further 13 subdivisions. Each point represents the average of measurements of at least 30 tokens of the vowel from one male speaker reading a text. One Bantu language, Swahili, is used as a lingua franca in East Africa by about 50 to 100 million people. Miller, A. African Studies . Focus and emphasis are associated with pitch raising in Mwiini G412 (Kisseberth 2016), but this seems to be the exception rather than the rule in Bantu. B. Edition 1st Edition. From frame 150 through to frame 170 the contacted area moves back, so that the configuration at the moment of release is clearly post-alveolar. Production of a lateral click is illustrated in A variety of tonal systems are found in Bantu languages; tone may carry a lexical or grammatical function. Spectrogram of Rwanda JD61 ugutwi [ugutkwi] ear; same speaker as Figure 3.14. Schadeberg, T. C. & Voen The sounds of the Bantu languages Ian Maddieson Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley 1. Y. (eds. Thomas-Vilakatis analysis of Zulu click types (Thomas 2000, Thomas-Vilakati 2010), combining insights from acoustic, aerodynamic and electropalatographic techniques, is & 36(2): 193232. (ed. London: Gregg International. (1991) Articulatory Phonology and Sukuma aspirated nasals. In (2014). Paper presented at the 8th World Congress of African Linguistics, August , The portion marked A, between the first two lines, is phonetically a voiceless velar nasal []. It has since sometimes come to be used for any consonant which has any local lowering effect on pitch or, more accurately, on the fundamental frequency of vocal fold vibration, abbreviated F0, such as an ordinary voiced plosive. In The most extensive body of work on the phonetics of tone in a single Bantu language concerns Chewa N31b (Carleton 1996, Myers 1996, Myers & Carleton 1996, Myers 1999a, b). /, //) (Fulop et al. J. In Figure 3.8 Figure 3.35 In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (ed. De Wit, G. The Bantu languages (English: UK: / b n t u /, US: / b n t u / Proto-Bantu: *bant) are a language family of about 600 languages that are spoken by the Bantu peoples of Central, Southern, Eastern and Southeast Africa. Downstep affects the second of two adjacent High tones in Tswana S31 (Zerbian & Kgler 2015) and Bemba M42 (Kula & Hamann 2016). In Post-alveolar clicks have the greatest rarefaction, lateral clicks the least, perhaps because the contra-lateral bracing of the tongue in the lateral clicks may constrain the amount of tongue-center lowering that is possible. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press. Sands 2017: 20, Gunnink forthcoming), and may have even been lost where they were once attested. I: 2732. 8s. It is estimated that some 300 to 350 million people, or one in three Africans, are Bantu speakers.