What are the Bantu Languages?
The Bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken primarily in the Southern part of Africa. Over 500 languages are classified in this family, including Swahili, Xhosa, and Zulu. Students of Bantu languages have a great deal of material to work with, since the family is so large and speakers are widely scattered across Africa. Numerous studies of these languages have been published since 1948, when Malcolm Guthrie carried out an exhaustive survey of this language family. The “Bantu” in Bantu languages refers to a common linguistic trend which can be found in many of the languages in this family. The prefix “ba” is a plural form of people, and “-ntu” or “-tu” is a suffix which also means “people.” Many of these languages use the word “Bantu” to refer to people, and this commonality is recognized in the naming of this language group.
