< Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu

Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu/ìbá

This Proto-Bantu entry contains reconstructed words and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Bantu

Etymology

Apparently an innovation within Narrow Bantu; Bostoen rejects proposed cognates in wider Benue-Congo as being related to the easily confused root *ìbídà.

Noun

*ìbá class 5 (plural *màbá class 6) [1]

  1. (Common Bantu) oil palm, Elaeis guineensis

Usage notes

This term is shared between many Bantu languages, but a single form cannot be formally reconstructed to the level of Proto-Bantu because of historical or linguistic considerations. Despite some attestation in Guthrie zones H and R, Bostoen states that diffusion may account for this distribution rather than inheritance.

See also

Descendants
  • Beembe: bá (“nut-bearing palm (generic)”)
  • Bolia: ibá (“oil palm”)
  • Ding: diba (“oil palm”)
  • Mbala: ba (“oil palm; palm (generic)”)
  • Mbere: oba (“black-fruited oil palm”)
  • Ndumu: mbǎ (“palm nut”)
  • Ntandu Kongo: bá (“palm (generic)”)
  • Nzadi: ibá (“oil palm”), mbá (“palm nut”)
  • Songe: èbwé (“palm”) (possible, but irregular)
  • Umbundu: ɛva (“palm (generic)”)
  • Yansi: mba (“palm nut”)
  • Yombe: liba (“palm”)

References
  1. Entry 1 at Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3
  • Bostoen, Koen (2005), "A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary." Studies in African Linguistics 34 (2): 143–188.
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