A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary
Despite its ancient and long-lasting importance to sub-Saharan African economies, there has been no systematic attempt to reconstruct Proto-Bantu vocabulary referring to the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Scholars have identified four common noun stems for 'oil palm', i.e. *-bida (cl....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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LibraryPress@UF
2005-06-01
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| Series: | Studies in African Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107328 |
| _version_ | 1819035598677082112 |
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| author | Koen Bostoen |
| author_facet | Koen Bostoen |
| author_sort | Koen Bostoen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite its ancient and long-lasting importance to sub-Saharan African economies, there has been no systematic attempt to reconstruct Proto-Bantu vocabulary referring to the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Scholars have identified four common noun stems for 'oil palm', i.e. *-bida (cl. 5/6, 7/8), o_bd (cl. 5/6), *-gadi (cl. 9/10), and *-tende (el. 3/4) but determined the stems' geographic distributions within the Bantu domain to be insufficiently widespread to reflect a Proto-Bantu origin. From the wider perspective of Niger-Congo, certain of these nouns undoubtedly reconstruct to a level higher than Narrow Bantu. This paper presents an onomasiological approach to the earliest Bantu 'oil palm' vocabulary, offering a diachronic semantic analysis of the main noun stems, and an evaluation of the historical implications of their current-day distribution, both with respect to each other and in the light of the available Niger-Congo data. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T07:52:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-28b1dc07f051445697deddcbdc06db19 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0039-3533 2154-428X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T07:52:11Z |
| publishDate | 2005-06-01 |
| publisher | LibraryPress@UF |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studies in African Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-28b1dc07f051445697deddcbdc06db192022-12-21T19:11:03ZengLibraryPress@UFStudies in African Linguistics0039-35332154-428X2005-06-0134210.32473/sal.v34i2.107328A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabularyKoen BostoenDespite its ancient and long-lasting importance to sub-Saharan African economies, there has been no systematic attempt to reconstruct Proto-Bantu vocabulary referring to the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Scholars have identified four common noun stems for 'oil palm', i.e. *-bida (cl. 5/6, 7/8), o_bd (cl. 5/6), *-gadi (cl. 9/10), and *-tende (el. 3/4) but determined the stems' geographic distributions within the Bantu domain to be insufficiently widespread to reflect a Proto-Bantu origin. From the wider perspective of Niger-Congo, certain of these nouns undoubtedly reconstruct to a level higher than Narrow Bantu. This paper presents an onomasiological approach to the earliest Bantu 'oil palm' vocabulary, offering a diachronic semantic analysis of the main noun stems, and an evaluation of the historical implications of their current-day distribution, both with respect to each other and in the light of the available Niger-Congo data.https://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107328Proto-bantuoil palmreconstruction |
| spellingShingle | Koen Bostoen A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary Studies in African Linguistics Proto-bantu oil palm reconstruction |
| title | A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary |
| title_full | A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary |
| title_fullStr | A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary |
| title_full_unstemmed | A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary |
| title_short | A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary |
| title_sort | diachronic onomasiological approach to early bantu oil palm vocabulary |
| topic | Proto-bantu oil palm reconstruction |
| url | https://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107328 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT koenbostoen adiachroniconomasiologicalapproachtoearlybantuoilpalmvocabulary AT koenbostoen diachroniconomasiologicalapproachtoearlybantuoilpalmvocabulary |