Abbreviations and Bibliography

Abbreviations and technical terms in the texts
  • 1, 2, 3 etc — noun class 1, 2, 3 etc

Language groups and proto-languages  (for more detail see Bantu language groups)
  • ABCDEFGHJKLMNPRS or A12, G44, etc. — Bantu zones following the Guthrie reference system (map and language list)
  • PBC — Proto-Benue-Congo is the reconstructed ancestral language of the Benue-Congo languages — the large group that includes Bantu and many groups in Cameroon and Nigeria like Plateau, Bantoid, Yukunoid, Cross River).  
  • PB — Proto‑Bantu, the reconstructed language from which all the Bantu languages descend
  • PNWB — Proto-Northwestern Bantu,  the reconstructed ancestral language of most languages in zones AB
  • PTB — Proto-Transcontinental Bantu, the reconstructed ancestral language of all languages in zones CDEFGHJKLMNPRS and some in zone B
  • PEB — Proto‑Eastern Bantu, the reconstructed ancestral language of all languages in zones EFGJMNPS (as well as K21 and many in zone D), 
  • PSB — Proto‑South Bantu, the reconstructed ancestral language of the South Bantu Languages in zones N30-40, P30, S
  • Nyanjic — the group of related N30-40 languages: Tumbuka, Nyanja, Chewa, Chikunda, Nyungwe, Sena and possibly Malawian Tonga
  • Makhuwic — the group of related P30 languages: Makhuwa, Lomwe, Cuwabo
  • Shonic — the group of related S10 languages (Korekore, Manyika, Zezuru, Karanga, Ndau, Ikalanga, Tjikalanga, Nambya)
    • Central Shonic (S11 Korekore = Ko, S12 Zezuru = Z, S13 Manyika = M, S14 Karanga = K)
    • Eastern Shonic (S15 Ndau = Nd)
    • Western Shonic (S16 Tjikalanga = Tj, Ikalanga = Ik, Nambya = Na)

Reference abbreviations
  • BLR — Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3 =  Bastin, Yvonne, Coupez, André, Mumba, Evariste, and Schadeberg, Thilo C. (eds.). 2002. Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.  — BLR uses these abbreviations for the relationship of reconstructions
    • M = Main —basic reconstructed etymons
    • D = Der — Derived, from a basic (Main) etymon, by affixation (e.g., verb extensions, nominalization, change of noun class, reduplication) or by semantic shift
    • V = Var — Variant, considered to descend from another, more basic (Main) etymon, with some variation in form for which no regular sound correspondence is known
    • C = Comp — Compound, containing more than one (mostly two) roots
    • I = Inc — Included, considered to be identical with some other reconstruction
    • R = Ref — Refused, considered invalid as reconstructions
    • no label — single reconstructions not connected to other reconstructions
  • Guthrie — Guthrie, Malcom. 1967-1971. Comparative Bantu: An introduction to the comparative linguistics and prehistory of the Bantu languages (Vols. 1–4). Gregg Press.  — Guthrie uses these abbreviations:
    • C.S. — Comparative Series
    • p.s. — partial series
These abbreviated references are used by BLR and are temporarily continued in SBED
  • Bq = Bourquin, Walther (1923), Neue Ur-Bantu Worstämme. Berlin, ZfES, Beiheft 5.
  • Bq53 = Bourquin, Walther (1953), Weitere Ur-Bantu Worstämme. Afrika und Ubersee 38, 17-48.
  • Gr = Greenberg, J. (1948), The tonal system of Proto-Bantu. Word 4, 192-208.
  • Hb = Homburger, Lilias (1914), Etude sur la phonétique historique du bantou (Bibl. de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, section des sciences historiques et philologiques, 209.) Paris.
  • Hb25 = Homburger, Lilias (1925), Le groupe sud-ouest des langues bantoues. (Angola et Rhodesia, 1912-1914. Mission Rohan-Chabot 3:1.  Paris
  • Hf = Hoffmann, C. (1953) Zur Verbreitung der Zahlwortstämme in Bantusprachen. Afrika und Ubersee 37, 67-80.
  • Mh = Meinhof, C., Van Warmelo N. 1932. Introduction to the phonology of the Bantu languages. Berlin.
  • Msms = Meeussen (manuscripts at Tervuren) 
  • Meeussen — various publications by Meeussen (as referenced by the BLR team)
  • Tv — the BLR team at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren
Other frequent references:
  • Bostoen (2008) — Bostoen, Koen (2008). Bantu spirantization: Morphologization, lexicalization and historical classification. Diachronica, 25(3), 299–356. (doi)
  • de Wolf (1971) — de Wolf, Paul P. 1971. The noun class system of Proto-Benue-Congo. (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica, 167.) Den Haag & Paris: Mouton.
  • Grollemund et al. (2015) — Grollemund, R., Branford, S., Bostoen, K., Meade, A., Venditti, C., & Pagel, M. (2015). Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(43),
    13296–13301. (doi)
  • Koile et al. (2022) — Koile, E., Greenhill, S. J., Blasi, D. E., Bouckaert, R., & Gray, R. D. (2022). Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(32), e2112853119 (doi
  • Wills (2025) — Wills, Jeffrey (2025). PI‑Effects in South Bantu: Consonant Changes Due to a Preceding Front Close Vowel. Languages, 10(2), 23. (doi)


Useful reading for the newcomer to this topic:
Overview of the history and method of Bantu Lexical Reconstruction by Koen Bostoen and Yvonne Bastin (2016).