Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu/ìbá
Proto-Bantu
editEtymology
editApparently an innovation within Narrow Bantu; Bostoen rejects proposed cognates in wider Benue-Congo as being related to the easily confused root *ìbídà.
Noun
edit*ìbá class 5 (plural *màbá class 6)[1]
- (Common Bantu) oil palm (Elaeis guineensis)
Usage notes
editThis 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
editDescendants
edit- Beembe (H11): bá (“nut-bearing palm (generic)”)
- Bolia (C35b): ibá (“oil palm”)
- Ding (B86): diba (“oil palm”)
- Mbala (H41): ba (“oil palm; palm (generic)”)
- Mbere (B61): oba (“black-fruited oil palm”)
- Ndumu (B63): mbǎ (“palm nut”)
- Ntandu Kongo (H16): bá (“palm (generic)”)
- Nzadi (B865): ibá (“oil palm”), mbá (“palm nut”)
- Songe (L23): èbwé (“palm”) (possible, but irregular)
- Umbundu (R11): ɛva (“palm (generic)”)
- Yansi (B85): mba (“palm nut”)
- Yombe (H16c): liba (“palm”)
References
edit- Bostoen, Koen (2005), "A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary." Studies in African Linguistics 34 (2): 143–188.