Bantu Translation Services
History
Bantu
The Bantu languages (technically Narrow Bantu languages) constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family. This grouping is deep down in the genealogical tree of the Bantoid grouping, which in turn is deep down in the Niger-Congo tree.
By one estimate, there are 513 languages in the Bantu grouping, 681 languages in Bantoid, and 1,514 in Niger-Congo.
Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of the present day country of Nigeria; i.e., in the regions commonly known as central Africa, east Africa, and southern Africa. Parts of this Bantu chunk of Africa also have languages from outside the Niger-Congo family.The technical term Bantu, simply meaning "people", was first used by Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1827-1875) as this is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as muntu or mutu for "person", and the plural prefix for human nouns starting with "mu-" (class 1) in most languages is ba- (class 2), thus giving bantu for "people". Bleek, and later Carl Meinhof, pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages.
Bantu-Speaking Countries
Angola, Namibia
Botswana
Burundi
Cameroon
Comoro Islands
Congo-Brazzaville
Congo-Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Kenya
Lesotho
Malawi
Mozambique
Nigeria
Rwanda
South Africa
Swaziland
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Information provided by http://omniglot.com
Apex is your single source for your Bantu to English or English to Bantu translation needs.
Contact us today for a free quote, or simply call us at 1-800-634-4880.
