Cladistic analysis of Bantu languages: a new tree based on combined lexical and grammatical data

Rexová, Kateřina; Bastin, Yvonne; Frynta, Daniel

doi:10.1007/s00114-006-0088-z

Cited by 47 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Rexova et al [22] use an informal assessment based on the topology of their language tree to place the location of divergence of all non-forest Bantu groups near the eastern part of the Congo river (figure 2c). This is further east than is indicated in our analyses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such distance-based techniques, or 'lexicostatistics', have been criticized because they do not distinguish between retentions and innovations, and implicitly assume a constant rate of evolutionary change, making phylogenetic assessments problematic [17,18]. Holden and co-workers [19][20][21] used a sample of these data and applied character-based methods of phylogenetic inference (Maximum-Parsimony and Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)), while Rexova et al [22] also added grammatical data to a sample of the lexical data and analysed them using similar techniques. These analyses were inconclusive with respect to testing between the two main dispersal scenarios.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa

et al. 2013

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There is disagreement about the routes taken by populations speaking Bantu languages as they expanded to cover much of sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we build phylogenetic trees of Bantu languages and map them onto geographical space in order to assess the likely pathway of expansion and test between dispersal scenarios. The results clearly support a scenario in which groups first moved south through the rainforest from a homeland somewhere near the Nigeria -Cameroon border. Emerging on the south side of the rainforest, one branch moved south and west. Another branch moved towards the Great Lakes, eventually giving rise to the monophyletic clade of East Bantu languages that inhabit East and Southeastern Africa. These phylogenies also reveal information about more general processes involved in the diversification of human populations into distinct ethnolinguistic groups. Our study reveals that Bantu languages show a latitudinal gradient in covering greater areas with increasing distance from the equator. Analyses suggest that this pattern reflects a true ecological relationship rather than merely being an artefact of shared history. The study shows how a phylogeographic approach can address questions relating to the specific histories of certain groups, as well as general cultural evolutionary processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa

et al. 2013

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“…Contrasting models for the migration of Bantu-speaking groups have been proposed, sometimes even from studies using the same lexicostatistical dataset (cf. [4,5]). The major debate concerns the spatial and temporal dispersal of Bantu languages in Sub-Saharan Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4000 ya) north of the rainforest, from which the Western and Eastern Bantu languages are derived as two primary branches [4,[6][7][8][9]. A contrasting hypothesis argues that there was a major migration to the south of the rainforest, with a later split of the Eastern Bantu languages from the Western group only approximately 2000 ya [5,[10][11][12]. We here call the former the 'early-split' and the latter the 'late-split' model (figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test the Bantu expansion

et al. 2012

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The expansion of Bantu languages represents one of the most momentous events in the history of Africa. While it is well accepted that Bantu languages spread from their homeland (Cameroon/Nigeria) approximately 5000 years ago (ya), there is no consensus about the timing and geographical routes underlying this expansion. Two main models of Bantu expansion have been suggested: The 'early-split' model claims that the most recent ancestor of Eastern languages expanded north of the rainforest towards the Great Lakes region approximately 4000 ya, while the 'late-split' model proposes that Eastern languages diversified from Western languages south of the rainforest approximately 2000 ya. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the language dispersal was coupled with the movement of people, raising the question of language shift versus demic diffusion. We use a novel approach taking into account both the spatial and temporal predictions of the two models and formally test these predictions with linguistic and genetic data. Our results show evidence for a demic diffusion in the genetic data, which is confirmed by the correlations between genetic and linguistic distances. While there is little support for the early-split model, the late-split model shows a relatively good fit to the data. Our analyses demonstrate that subsequent contact among languages/populations strongly affected the signal of the initial migration via isolation by distance.

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“…This was the last major geographical expansion of the Afroeurasian system before European colonialism and was probably fuelled by the spread of iron metallurgy to West Africa. Novel linguistic and genetic methods are currently transforming the prospects for reconstruction of population movements such as this, for which written records do not exist (Cavalli-Sforza 2000), and are now being applied to this episode (Beleza et al 2005, Rexová et al 2006. …”

Section: A Suggested Research Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience, Panarchy, and World-Systems Analysis

Gotts¹

2007

E&S

113

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ABSTRACT. The paper compares two ambitious conceptual structures. The first is the understanding of social-ecological systems developed around the term "resilience," and more recently the term "panarchy," in the work of Holling, Gunderson, and others. The second is Wallerstein's "world-systems" approach to analyzing hierarchical relationships between societies within global capitalism as developed and applied across a broader historical range by Chase-Dunn and others. The two structures have important common features, notably their multiscale explanatory framework, links with ideas concerning complex systems, and interest in cyclical phenomena. They also have important differences. It is argued that there are gaps in both sets of ideas that the other might remedy. Their greatest strengths lie at different spatiotemporal scales and in different disciplinary areas, but each also has weaknesses the other does not address, particularly with regard to the mechanisms underlying proposed cyclic patterns of events. The paper ends with a sketch for a research program within which panarchical and world-systems insights might be synthesised in the study of the "Great European Land-Grab," i.e., the expansion of European capitalism and its distinctive social-ecological systems over the past five centuries.

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Cladistic analysis of Bantu languages: a new tree based on combined lexical and grammatical data

Cited by 47 publications

References 18 publications

Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa

Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa

Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test the Bantu expansion

Resilience, Panarchy, and World-Systems Analysis

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