Editing Bantu languages (section)

==Classification==
{{main|Guthrie classification of Bantu languages}}
{{see also|List of Bantu languages}}
[[File:Bantu zones.png|thumb|upright=1.59|The approximate locations of the [[Guthrie classification of Bantu languages|sixteen Guthrie Bantu zones]], including the addition of a [[Great Lakes Bantu languages|zone J around the Great Lakes]]. The [[Jarawan languages]] are spoken in Nigeria.]]

The most widely used classification is an alphanumeric coding system developed by [[Malcolm Guthrie]] in his 1948 classification of the Bantu languages. It is mainly geographic. The term "narrow Bantu" was coined by the ''Benue–Congo Working Group'' to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Guthrie, from the [[Bantoid languages]] not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Bostoen, Koen|title=Linguistics for the use of African history and the comparative study of Bantu pottery vocabulary|date=2004|oclc=803473571}}</ref>

In recent times,{{when|date=July 2017}} the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other [[Southern Bantoid languages]] has been called into doubt,<ref>(cf. Piron 1995, Williamson & Blench 2000, Blench 2011)</ref> but the term is still widely used.

There is no true genealogical classification of the (Narrow) Bantu languages. Until recently{{when|date=July 2017}} most attempted classifications only considered languages that happen to fall within traditional Narrow Bantu, but there seems to be a continuum with the related languages of South Bantoid.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Dalby|first=David|date=January 1976|title=The Prehistorical Implications of Guthrie's Comparative Bantu. Part II: Interpretation of Cultural Vocabulary|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=17|issue=1|pages=1–27|doi=10.1017/s0021853700014742|s2cid=163068049|issn=0021-8537}}</ref>

At a broader level, the family is commonly split in two depending on the reflexes of proto-Bantu tone patterns: many Bantuists group together parts of zones A through D (the extent depending on the author) as ''Northwest Bantu'' or ''Forest Bantu'', and the remainder as ''Central Bantu'' or ''Savanna Bantu''. The two groups have been described as having mirror-image tone systems: where Northwest Bantu has a high tone in a cognate, Central Bantu languages generally have a low tone, and vice versa.

Northwest Bantu is more divergent internally than Central Bantu, and perhaps less [[conservative (language)|conservative]] due to contact with non-Bantu Niger–Congo languages; Central Bantu is likely the innovative line [[cladistically]]. Northwest Bantu is not a coherent family, but even for Central Bantu the evidence is lexical, with little evidence that it is a historically valid group.

Another attempt at a detailed genetic classification to replace the Guthrie system is the 1999 "Tervuren" proposal of Bastin, Coupez, and Mann.<ref>The Guthrie, Tervuren, and SIL lists are compared side by side in [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/maho/downloads/bantulineup.pdf Maho 2002].</ref> However, it relies on [[lexicostatistics]], which, because of its reliance on overall similarity rather than [[synapomorphy|shared innovations]], may predict spurious groups of [[polyphyly|conservative languages that are not closely related]]. Meanwhile, ''[[Ethnologue]]'' has added languages to the Guthrie classification which Guthrie overlooked, while removing the [[Mbam languages]] (much of zone A), and shifting some languages between groups (much of zones D and E to a new zone J, for example, and part of zone L to K, and part of M to F) in an apparent effort at a semi-genetic, or at least semi-areal, classification. This has been criticized for sowing confusion in one of the few unambiguous ways to distinguish Bantu languages. Nurse & Philippson (2006) evaluate many proposals for low-level groups of Bantu languages, but the result is not a complete portrayal of the family.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /> ''[[Glottolog]]'' has incorporated many of these into their classification.<ref>{{cite web| editor-last1 = Hammarström| editor-first1 = Harald| editor-last2 = Forke| editor-first2 = Robert| editor-last3 = Haspelmath| editor-first3 = Martin| editor-last4 = Bank| editor-first4 = Sebastian| year = 2020| title = Narrow Bantu| work = [[Glottolog]] 4.3| url = https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/narr1281| access-date = 2020-12-02| archive-date = 2020-11-04| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201104105022/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/narr1281| url-status = live}}</ref>

The languages that share [[Dahl's law]] may also form a valid group, [[Northeast Bantu languages|Northeast Bantu]]. The infobox at right lists these together with various low-level groups that are fairly uncontroversial, though they continue to be revised. The development of a rigorous genealogical classification of many branches of Niger–Congo, not just Bantu, is hampered by insufficient data.<ref name=":5">Bryan, M.A.(compiled by), ''The Bantu Languages of Africa''. Published for the International African Institute, Oxford University Press, 1959.</ref><ref name=":4" />

===Computational phylogenetic classifications===
Simplified phylogeny of northwestern branches of Bantu by Grollemund (2012):<ref>Grollemund, Rebecca. 2012. ''[http://www.evolution.reading.ac.uk/~vy904310/pdf/Grollemund_2012_classification%20bantu%20NO.pdf Nouvelles approches en classification : Application aux langues bantu du Nord-Ouest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618162850/http://www.evolution.reading.ac.uk/~vy904310/pdf/Grollemund_2012_classification%20bantu%20NO.pdf |date=2020-06-18 }}''. Ph.D Dissertation, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, 550 pp.</ref>

{{clade |style=font-size:90%; line-height:90%;
|label1=Bantu
|1={{clade
|label1=Northwest
|label2=Central
|1={{clade
|label1=Northwest 1
|label2=Northwest 2
|1={{clade
|label1=Northwest 1a
|label2=Northwest 1b
|1={{clade
|1=A40-50-60-70: [[Basaa languages]], [[Bafia languages]], [[Mbam languages]], [[Beti language]]
|2=A10-20-30: [[Sawabantu languages]], [[Manenguba languages]]}}
|2={{clade
|1=A80-90: [[Makaa–Njem languages]]
|2=B20: [[Kele languages]]}} }}
|2={{clade
|1=B10: [[Myene language]]
|2=B30: [[Tsogo languages]]}} }}
|2={{clade
|label1=Central 1
|label2=Central 2
|1={{clade
|label1=Central 1a
|label2=Central 1b
|1={{clade
|1=C10-20-30: [[Ngondi–Ngiri languages]], [[Mboshi languages]], [[Bangi–Ntomba languages]]
|2=C40-D20-D32: [[Bati–Angba languages]], [[Lega–Binja languages]], [[Bira language]]}}
|2={{clade
|1=B80-C60-70-80: [[Boma–Dzing languages]], [[Soko languages]], [[Tetela languages]], [[Bushoong languages]]
|2=B40-H10-30-B50-60-70: [[Sira languages]], [[Kongo languages]], [[Yaka languages]], [[Nzebi languages]], [[Mbete languages]], [[Teke languages]]
|3=L10-H40: [[Pende languages]], [[Hungana language]]}} }}
|2={{clade
|1=C50-D10: [[Soko languages]], [[Lengola language]]
|2=D10-20-30-40-JD50: [[Mbole–Enya languages]], [[Komo–Bira languages]], [[Shi–Havu languages]]}} }} }} }}

Other [[computational phylogenetic]] analyses of Bantu include Currie et al. (2013),<ref>Currie, Thomas E., Andrew Meade, Myrtille Guillon, Ruth Mace (2013). [http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1762/20130695 "Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa"].  {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718205704/http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1762/20130695 |date=2018-07-18 }}. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences'', 2013, Volume 280, issue 1762 {{doi|10.1098/rspb.2013.0695}}</ref> Grollemund et al. (2015),<ref>Grollemund, Rebecca Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti, and Mark Pagel (2015). [http://www.pnas.org/content/112/43/13296 "Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals"].  {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718213510/http://www.pnas.org/content/112/43/13296 |date=2018-07-18 }}. PNAS October 27, 2015. 112 (43), 13296–13301. {{doi|10.1073/pnas.1503793112}}</ref> Rexova et al. 2006,<ref>Rexová, K., Bastin, Y., Frynta, D. 2006. "Cladistic analysis of Bantu languages: a new tree based on combined lexical and grammatical data". ''Naturwissenschaften'' 93, 189–194.</ref> Holden et al., 2016,<ref>Holden, C., Meade, A., Pagel, M. 2016. "Comparison of MP and Bayesian Bantu Trees" (Chp. 4). In: ''The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: a Phylogenetic Approach'', Ruth Mace, Clare Holden, Stephen Shennan (eds.)(Amazon Look Inside)(in Britain 1st published by UCL Press, 2005).</ref> and Whiteley et al. 2018.<ref>Whiteley, P.M., Ming Xue, Wheeler, W.C. 2018. Revising the Bantu tree. Cladistics, 1–20 (amnh.org).</ref>

===Glottolog classification===
[[Glottolog]] ('''2021''') does not consider the older geographic classification by Guthrie relevant for its ongoing classification based on more recent linguistic studies, and divides Bantu into four main branches: [[Bantu A-B10-B20-B30]], [[Central-Western Bantu]], [[East Bantu]] and [[Mbam-Bube-Jarawan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/narr1281|title=Glottolog 4.5 – Narrow Bantu|access-date=2020-12-02|archive-date=2020-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104105022/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/narr1281|url-status=live}}</ref>