Erratic velars in West-Coastal Bantu

Abstract

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 conditioning and/or lexical borrowing. This diachronic irregularity has been explained in Bantu historical linguistics, and Niger-Congo studies more broadly, by reconstructing either an additional series of consonants (phonemic merger) or a latent conditioning that went lost (phonemic split). We show that MUR should not be explained, but rather taken as an indicator of the same pervasive irregularity of sound change reported in other parts of the world that are highly multilingual and lack a neat overlap between distinct languages and communities. Along with widespread multilingualism, we assess lexical diffusion, substrate influence, and spread-over-spread events in Bantu language history as complementary explanations for the rise of MUR in WCB.

Phonetic and Phonological Research in Mai-Ndombe: A Few Preliminary Notes on Rhotics and Double-Articulations

“…First, Mai-Ndombe is located in close proximity to the putative WCB homeland (as recently redefined by Pacchiarotti et al 2019, between the Kamtsha and Kasai Rivers, in the Kwilu province of the DRC, immediately to the south of Mai-Ndombe). In turn, the WCB homeland is the region of highest linguistic diversity within the entire WCB branch, hosting languages which exhibit a lot of phonological characteristics which are otherwise uncommon in Bantu, including rare vowel harmonies, umlaut effects, final vowel loss, systems of nine and more vowels, and uncommon labial-velar stops and affricates (Daeleman 1977;Rottland 1977;Mundeke 2011a, 2011b;Bostoen 2011, 2012;Pacchiarotti and Bostoen 2021).…”

“…Linguistically, Mai-Ndombe, along with the rest of southwestern Congo all the way down to the border with Angola, is among the least well-surveyed areas of the planet (Hammarström 2016). It hosts several different Bantu varieties (Guthrie's 1970 zones B, C, and H), and is located close to the newly identified West-Coastal Bantu (WCB) homeland (Pacchiarotti et al 2019;Pacchiarotti and Bostoen 2020), between the Kamtsha and Kasai Rivers, in the Kwilu province of the DRC, immediately to the south of Mai-Ndombe, a hot spot of phonological diversity unlike any other in the WCB area. Mai-Ndombe is also home to remarkable anthropological diversity, with numerous huntergatherer communities living deep in its eastern and northern forests.…”

“…Maselli et al n.d.b., in press). These have been variously classified as WCB or Central-Western Bantu, and research on their exact place in the broader Bantu phylogeny is still ongoing (Grollemund et al 2015;Pacchiarotti et al 2019;Koile et al 2022).…”

“…North Boma and Nunu are two closely related WCB varieties, respectively inventoried as B82 and B822 by Maho (2009); while North Boma was already reported in Guthrie's (1970) The literature on North Boma and Nunu is scant, with the main source of information on the former being the outline provided by Stappers (1986), and the latter remaining largely undocumented to this day (see Pacchiarotti et al 2019). Data were collected in collaboration with the following speakers: North Boma is the object of recent research (Maselli et al n.d.a., in preparation).…”

Reflexive Morphology in the Kikongo Language Cluster: Variation and Diachrony

“…I will focus here on the Kikongo language cluster (henceforth KLC), a group of approximately 40 genealogically closely related Bantu languages spoken in an area stretching from southern Gabon down to northern Angola (see the map in Appendix A). The KLC constitutes a relatively small genetic unity within the West-Western or West-Coastal Bantu clade, one of the major sub-branches of the Bantu language family (Grollemund et al 2015;Pacchiarotti et al 2019;Koile et al 2022). Lexically based phylogenetic research has shown that the KLC can be further subdivided into five genealogical subgroups, four of which have been labeled according to the cardinal directions, i.e., North, East, South and West Kikongo, plus a Kikongoid subgroup to the east of the main area Bostoen and de Schryver 2018a, p. 52).…”