The lexical distribution of labial-velar stops is a window into the linguistic prehistory of Northern Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Using a very large lexical database and generalized additive modeling, this article reveals that labial-velar (LV) stops are marginal phonemes in many of the languages of Northern Sub-Saharan Africa that have them, and that the languages in which they are not marginal are grouped into three compact zones of high lexical LV frequency. The resulting picture allows us to formulate precise hypotheses about the spread of the Niger-Congo and Central Sudanic languages and about the origins of the linguistic area known as the Sudanic zone or Macro-Sudan belt. It shows that LV stops are a substrate feature that should not be reconstructed into the early stages of the languages that currently have them. We illustrate the implications of our findings for linguistic prehistory with a short discussion of the Bantu expansion. Our data also indirectly confirm the hypothesis that LV stops are more recurrent in expressive parts of the vocabulary, and we argue that this has a common explanation with the well-known fact that they tend to be restricted to stem-initial position in what we call C-emphasis prosody.*

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

“…Second, labial-velar stops have often been interpreted as an areal feature 1 typical of an alleged Sprachbund known as the Macro-Sudan Belt, a stretch of land extending contiguously from the western end of the African landmass to the Ethiopian escarpment in the east (Clements and Rialland 2008;Güldemann 2008Güldemann , 2018Idiatov and Van de Velde 2021). In this area, shared linguistic features are attributed more to geographical proximity than to genealogical relationships.…”

Les labiales-vélaires et l’histoire linguistique de trois langues bantu orientales : ɛnyá, mokpá et metóko

“…Si pour le proto-niger-congo la reconstruction est possible mais contestée, pour les langues bantu, il est généralement accepté que les labiales-vélaires ne faisaient pas partie de l'inventaire phonologique de la proto-langue (voir Meeussen 1967). Cette hypothèse est soutenue par l'absence des labiales-vélaires dans les langues bantu qui ne sont pas parlées dans le « Macro-Sudan belt » (voir argumentation d 'Idiatov & Van de Velde 2021). Des auteurs comme Güldemann (2008), Clements situation géographique des langues sawabantu nous indique que le contact linguistique doit y avoir joué un rôle.…”

Retracing labial-velar consonants in Mbum (Adamawa)

“…For the question at hand, whether the Adamawa pool as a whole or some lower-level parts of it acquired LV via contact within the Macro-Sudan belt, a well-founded answer is quite difficult to give with certainty. The statistic modelling presented by Idiatov and Van de Velde (2021) provides us with some more clues. Their analysis of the frequencies of labial-velar consonants adds some detail to the already known presence of LV in the MSB and in NSSA in general.…”

“…The claim that they are a major diagnostic feature for areal contact on a large scale (Güldemann 2008 ) has recently been criticized by scholars who argue for their genealogical development in more than one of the major language families of the continent (Cahill 2017, Childs 2017) and thus taking up earlier hypotheses (Greenberg 1983, Manessy 1979. Using a very large database and generalized additive modelling, a strong counterargument has been made by Idiatov and Van de Velde (2021), stating that LV are mostly a substrate feature and cannot be reconstructed for the languages that currently have them in their sound inventory.…”