Bantu languages

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Thematic map of East Africa displaying major cultural and linguistic regions, with areas shaded for Bantu, Cushitic, and Nilotic language groups. Red lines mark cultural region boundaries and rift areas, with numbered labels identifying specific ethnic groups and languages across countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, and parts of neighboring nations.

Thematic map of Africa showing the distribution of Niger-Congo language branches. Distinct colors represent language groups such as Atlantic, Mande, Gur, Kwa, Benue-Congo, and Bantu, with Bantu languages covering most of central, eastern, and southern Africa. A numbered key lists prominent languages in each area, and country borders are marked for reference.

Bantu languages: References & Edit History

More Articles On This Topic

Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

John T. Bendor-Samuel

Other Contributors

Simon Donnelly

Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors

Article History

Type	Description	Contributor	Date
	Invalidated site: PNAS - Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route.	Emily Rodriguez	Oct 01, 2026
	Add new Web site: Cambridge Core - Moving Histories: Bantu Language Expansions, Eclectic Economies, and Mobilities.	Gloria Lotha	Jun 26, 2026
	Add new Web site: Scholarship at Claremont - Morphosyntactic variation in Bantu: Focus on East Africa (PDF).	Emily Rodriguez	Mar 11, 2025
	Add new Web site: University of California - eScholarship - The sounds of the Bantu languages (PDF).	Gloria Lotha	Jan 27, 2025
	Add new Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa.	Emily Rodriguez	Dec 02, 2024
	Add new Web site: Macquarie University - The Acquisition of Bantu Languages.	Aakanksha Gaur	Oct 12, 2024
	Add new Web site: CORE - Properties of Subjects in Bantu Languages.	Yamini Chauhan	Aug 26, 2024
	Add new Web site: PNAS - Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route.	Aakanksha Gaur	Jun 07, 2024
	Add new Web site: PNAS - Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route.	Gloria Lotha	Sep 21, 2023
	Add new Web site: Omniglot - Bantu languages.	Gloria Lotha	Jul 27, 2023
	Add new Web site: Nature - Genetic perspectives on the origin of clicks in Bantu languages from southwestern Zambia.	Gloria Lotha	Jun 12, 2023
	Add new Web site: Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing - Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa.	Gloria Lotha	Jan 27, 2023
	Clarified discussion of Zulu verb tenses to reflect the default -a suffix.	Amy McKenna Simon Donnelly	Jan 25, 2017
	Corrected error by changing "thandawa" to "thandwa."	Amy McKenna Simon Donnelly	Dec 14, 2016
	Add new Web site: Fact Monster - Society - Bantu languages.	Grace Young	Oct 04, 2011
	Article revised.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Dec 14, 2000
	Article added to new online database.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Jul 20, 1998