The Historical Reconstruction of Great Lakes Bantu Cultural Vocabulary

Etymologies and Distributions

Author: David L. Schoenbrun.

Series: Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika. SUGIA Supplements Volume 9

This monograph is the first comparative etymological dictionary offered for a sub-group (Great Lakes Bantu: Uganda / Rwanda / Tanzania) of African languages which includes a full accounting of that sub-group’s linguistic and ethnographic sources. Whereas previous works have concentrated fruitfully on different aspects of comparative reconstruction (Nurse/Hinnebusch 1993, Ehret 1995, Guthrie 1967–1971, Meeussen 1980), this work makes arguments about the semantic histories of some 400 words based on the widest possible collection of words and meanings from 20th century sources.

This wide collecting allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about semantic changes and their linguistic and social determinants. It will thus form an important source both for the language history of Bantu-speaking Africa and for the social history of Bantu-speakers. It constitutes the largest single repository of language evidence for Great Lakes Bantu, a subgroup of some 54 languages spoken around Lake Victoria and in the Kivu Rift Valley. Speakers of Great Lakes Bantu undertook major historical projects including the development of mixed farming, specializations in intensive banana farming and pastoralism, the early production of iron, and the creation of elaborate kingdoms. It will serve also as a point of reference for other researchers working elsewhere in Bantu-speaking Africa.

The 406 glosses listed in the comparative material are grouped into 7 semantic fields: 1. Material Culture and Technology, 2. Food, 3. Social Relations and Spatial Organization, 4. Politic and Wealth, 5. Religion and Health, 6. Philosophy, 7. Miscellaneous.

A language classification and settlement history of this region under research has been published in the following journal issue, furthermore you will find a couple of grammatical descriptions, text collections and dictionaries of Bantu languages of the Great Lakes region (Gusii, Kiha, Kinyarwanda, Kuria, Luganda, Lusaamia, Kinyamwezi, Runyoro, Cushitic: Iraqw):

Accompanying material:

• SUGIA Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-89645-090-6)

Cross-reference:

• A Grammatical Sketch of the Lusaamia Verb (E.34/J.34) (ISBN 978-3-89645-546-8)
• A Modern Runyoro-Rutooro Grammar (J.10) (ISBN 978-3-89645-023-4)
• Igikuria Phonology and Morphology (E.40) (ISBN 978-3-89645-029-6)
• Iraqw Texts (ISBN 978-3-927620-34-6)
• Iraqw-English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-065-4)
• Kinyamwezi (ISBN 978-3-927620-40-7)
• Legenden, Märchen und Fabeln aus Ruanda (ISBN 978-3-89645-743-1)
• Phonology and Morphology of Ekegusii (E.42) (ISBN 978-3-89645-026-5)
• Relative Clauses in Luganda (E.15/J.10) (ISBN 978-3-89645-020-3)
• Tales, Fables and Narratives of Rwanda (ISBN 978-3-89645-745-5)
• The Ha Language of Tanzania (ISBN 978-3-89645-027-2)
• Wörterbuch Kinyarwanda–Deutsch (ISBN 978-3-89645-588-8)

© 2024 by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag – www.koeppe.de

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