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Classification of Pygmy languages
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<h2 id="original-pygmy-languages">Original Pygmy language(s)</h2> <p>An original Pygmy language has been postulated for at least some Pygmy groups. <a href="/facts/Merritt_Ruhlen/PkXYFB8y">Merritt Ruhlen</a> writes that "African Pygmies speak languages belonging to either to the <a href="/facts/Nilo-Saharan/jVN5pesl">Nilo-Saharan</a> or <a href="/facts/Niger%25E2%2580%2593Kordofanian/K0kStJHg">Niger–Kordofanian</a> families. It is assumed that Pygmies once spoke their own language(s), but that, through living in symbiosis with other Africans in prehistorical times, they adopted languages belonging to these two families."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> The linguistic evidence that such languages existed include <a href="/facts/Mbenga_language/gmusfaUL">Mbenga</a> forest vocabulary which is shared by the neighbouring Ubangian-speaking <a href="/facts/Baka_language/sdS5TFq6">Baka</a> and <a href="/facts/Bantu_languages/6xKvpQ1a">Bantu</a>-speaking <a href="/facts/Aka_people/GqSbAzAt">Aka</a> (though not by the <a href="/facts/Mbuti_people/0NtxUo3Q">Mbuti</a>, and this connection is not ancient) and the <a href="/facts/Rimba_language/9fV7qt2C">Rimba</a> dialect of <a href="/facts/Punu_language/nFTz5WX1">Punu</a> which may contain a core of non-Bantu vocabulary.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> It has been postulated that ancestral speakers may have been part of a complex of non-Pygmoid languages of hunter-gatherer populations in Africa whose only surviving descendants today mostly ring the rainforest.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>A common hypothesis is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of the <a href="/facts/Late_Stone_Age/eFeycL86">Late Stone Age</a> <a href="/facts/Hunter-gatherer/ghnjoNbJ">hunter-gatherer</a> peoples of the central <a href="/facts/African_rainforest/zx9lfXV2">African rainforest</a> who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples and adopted their <a href="/facts/Central_Sudanic_languages/vynYkAnC">Central Sudanic</a>, <a href="/facts/Ubangian_languages/FTnPGCkx">Ubangian</a> and <a href="/facts/Bantu_languages/6xKvpQ1a">Bantu languages</a>. While there is a scarcity of excavated archaeological sites in Central Africa that could support this hypothesis,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> genetic studies have shown that Pygmy populations possess ancient divergent <a href="/facts/Human_Y-chromosome_DNA_haplogroup/HnkydH6o">Y-DNA lineages</a> (especially haplogroups <a href="/facts/Haplogroup_A_(Y-DNA)/7rFHad4c">A</a> and <a href="/facts/Haplogroup_B-M60/I4IW9BAE">B</a>) in high frequencies in contrast to their neighbours (who possess mostly <a href="/facts/Haplogroup_E-M2/UT6oAAxx">haplogroup E</a>).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>Some 30% of the Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of the Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, and deals with honey-collecting or is otherwise specialized for the forest, and much of it is shared between the two western Pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language. However, this split was only reconstructed to the 15th century, so there is no reason to think that it is ancient.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="peoples-and-languages">Peoples and languages</h2> <p>There are over a dozen attested Pygmy peoples<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> numbering at least 350,000 in the <a href="/facts/Congo_Basin/TGz9kK1Q">Congo Basin</a>. The best known are the <a href="/facts/Mbenga_people/gmusfaUL">Mbenga</a> (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo Basin who speak <a href="/facts/Bantu_languages/6xKvpQ1a">Bantu</a> and <a href="/facts/Ubangian_languages/FTnPGCkx">Ubangian languages</a>; the <a href="/facts/Mbuti/0NtxUo3Q">Mbuti</a> (Efe <i>et al.</i>) of the <a href="/facts/Ituri_Rainforest/0u3DJX4q">Ituri Rainforest</a>, who speak Bantu and <a href="/facts/Central_Sudanic_languages/vynYkAnC">Central Sudanic languages</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Great_Lakes_Twa/U0b6sAa4">Twa</a> of the <a href="/facts/African_Great_Lakes/JKIdzAWF">Great Lakes</a>, who speak Bantu <a href="/facts/Rwanda-Rundi/e7WbvQIf">Rwanda-Rundi</a>. All attested Pygmy peoples speak languages from these three language families, and only three peoples, the Aka, Baka, and Asua, have their own language. </p> <h3>Bedzan</h3> <p><a href="/facts/Bedzan_people/xQxKfTE7">Medzan (Bedzan)</a> live in Cameroon not far from the Nigerian border. They speak a dialect of <a href="/facts/Tikar_language/vzUbn0RW">Tikar</a>, a <a href="/facts/Bantoid_language/tTJDcVFs">Bantoid language</a>. </p> Population: 400 <h3>Mbenga</h3> <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Aka_people/GqSbAzAt">Aka</a> of the <a href="/facts/Central_African_Republic/TKMWWr57">Central African Republic</a> and the <a href="/facts/Republic_of_Congo/kNLEWqhl">Republic of Congo</a> speak <a href="/facts/Aka_language/eV5Nj8IR">Aka (Yaka)</a> which is a Bantu language close to <a href="/facts/Lingala_language/AfCYqDDq">Lingala</a>. The <i>Benzele Aka</i> are well known for their music.</li></ul> Population: 30–50,000 <i>Miyaka (N Gabon, Bantu), Luma (N Gabon, Bantu)</i> appear to be Aka (Benzele) groups. <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Baka_people_(Cameroon_and_Gabon)/tkJeANr2">Baka</a> (a.k.a. Ngombe) of Cameroon and <a href="/facts/Gabon/RKDffnwV">Gabon</a> speak closely related <a href="/facts/Ubangian_languages/FTnPGCkx">Ubangian languages</a> of the <a href="/facts/Ngbaka_languages/wUnbVmqA">Ngbaka</a> branch: <a href="/facts/Baka_language/sdS5TFq6">Baka</a> proper, <a href="/facts/Ganzi_language/sdS5TFq6">Ganzi</a>, and <a href="/facts/Gundi_language/sdS5TFq6">Gundi</a> AKA Ngondi.</li></ul> Population: 30–40,000 <ul><li>In the Central African Republic north of the Aka are a group who speak the language of their neighbors, <a href="/facts/Bofi_language/ly0SLRQK">Bofi</a>, which is a language of the <a href="/facts/Gbaya_languages/6yg5Cf8K">Gbaya</a> branch.</li></ul> Population: 3,000 <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Gyele_people/tqzILPK7">Gyele</a> (a.k.a. Kola or Koya) are the westernmost Pygmies, living in southern Cameroon near the coast, and in <a href="/facts/Equatorial_Guinea/ARkq2P4f">Equatorial Guinea</a> on the coast. They speak two dialects of the Bantu <a href="/facts/Mvumbo_language/9gp70x4M">Mvumbo language</a>.</li></ul> Population: 4,000 <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Kola_people/rITSX9nt">Kola</a> (a.k.a. Koya) of Congo and northwestern Gabon speak a Bantu language, <a href="/facts/Ngom_language/tg9kGvzJ">Ngom</a>.</li></ul> Population: 2,600 <ul><li><a href="/facts/Bongo_people_(Gabon)/gsRxl70E">Bongo</a>, or Akoa, of southern Gabon speak several Bantu languages, including <a href="/facts/Tsogo_language/uNC7xg17">Tsogo</a>, <a href="/facts/Nzebi_language/dqczhnW4">Nzebi</a>, <a href="/facts/West_Teke_language/9muF88QT">West Teke</a>, <a href="/facts/Punu_language/nFTz5WX1">Punu</a>, <a href="/facts/Lumbu_language/QRWpd0yR">Lumbu</a>, <a href="/facts/Myene_language/arhUyK4Y">Myene</a>, <a href="/facts/Kaningi_language/kYQ5Quss">Kaningi</a>, and perhaps others such as <a href="/facts/Yasa_language/zmHPW3ct">Yasa</a>. The <a href="/facts/Rimba_language/9fV7qt2C">Punu dialect of the Irimba</a>, however, may have a non-Bantu core.</li></ul> Population: 3,000 <h3>Mbuti</h3> <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Ef%25C3%25A9_people/hSlCaVdB">Efé</a> speak the Central Sudanic language <a href="/facts/Lese_language/HoPcyIqk">Lese</a>.</li></ul> Population: 10,000? <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Asoa_people/ISt08FG3">Asoa</a> speak their own Central Sudanic language (<a href="/facts/Asoa_language/uu6EFvog">Asoa</a>), related to <a href="/facts/Mangbetu_language/T8vFKq8f">Mangbetu</a>, the language of one of their patrons.</li></ul> Population: 10,000? <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Kango_people/YCgYxvH7">Kango</a> (a.k.a. Sua) speak the Bantu language <a href="/facts/Bila_language/tGQESHue">Bila</a>.</li></ul> Population: 26,000? <h3>Twa</h3> <p>The various <a href="/facts/Twa_peoples/Q0z1aV3E">Twa populations</a> all speak Bantu languages. </p> <ul><li>The Nsua of <a href="/facts/Uganda/PabdegRm">Uganda</a> speak Bantu.[<i>which?</i>]</li></ul> Population: 1,000 <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Great_Lakes_Twa/U0b6sAa4">Great Lakes Twa</a> of the Great Lakes (Rwanda, Burundi, eastern D.R. Congo, southern Uganda) speak <a href="/facts/Rundi_language/9cPqf0oQ">Rundi</a> and <a href="/facts/Kiga_language/4BmrQe8u">Kiga</a>.</li></ul> Population: 10,000 <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Mongo_Twa/xfuxFswD">Mongo Twa</a> or Ntomba Twa (locally <i>Cwa</i>, pronounced approximately /ˈtʃwɑː/) of <a href="/facts/Lake_Tumba/0t7mAtbo">Lake Tumba</a> and <a href="/facts/Lake_Mai-Ndombe/DyqK9z42">Lake Mai-Ndombe</a> of western D.R. Congo, speak several varieties of <a href="/facts/Mongo_language/rzTCvEHs">Mongo</a> (Konda, <a href="/facts/Ntomba_language/0rqWPSye">Ntomba</a>, and <a href="/facts/Lia_language/0rqWPSye">Lia</a>), which are either divergent dialects or closely related languages.</li></ul> Population: 14,000 <ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Kasai_Twa/Q0z1aV3E">Kasai Twa</a> or Kuba Twa (<i>Cwa</i>) of <a href="/facts/Kasai_region/qtnQ0yV5">Kasai</a> (central D.R. Congo) speak <a href="/facts/Bushong_language/UPlPDM7n">Bushong</a>.</li> <li>The Mbote Twa (Bambote) northwest of <a href="/facts/Lake_Tanganyika/H76Jdg5X">Lake Tanganyika</a> speak a <a href="/facts/Guthrie_classification_of_Bantu_languages/fdlvw7wo">D20</a> language.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a></li> <li>The <a href="/facts/Upemba_Twa/Q0z1aV3E">Upemba Twa</a> or Luba Twa (<i>Cwa</i>) of the <a href="/facts/Upemba_Depression/gdvbVkDd">Upemba Depression</a> speak <a href="/facts/Luba-Katanga/uBumeq7f">Luba-Katanga</a>, <a href="/facts/Hemba_language/e8gAc9Cz">Hemba</a>, <a href="/facts/Songe_language/Q4TpzDVv">Songe</a>, and <a href="/facts/Taabwa_language/cIa8luBl">Taabwa</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a></li> <li>The <a href="/facts/Bangweulu_Batwa/3s9Qrd5I">Bangweulu Twa</a> of <a href="/facts/Bangweulu_Swamps/FdE2QB20">Bangweulu Swamps</a>, Zambia, speak <a href="/facts/Bemba_language/d4bKwB4F">Bemba</a>.</li> <li>The <a href="/facts/Lukanga_Twa/NsR3hdzm">Lukanga Twa</a> of the <a href="/facts/Lukanga_Swamp/x31SFzkF">Lukanga Swamp</a>, Zambia, speak <a href="/facts/Lenje_language/uC2JdPmT">Lenje</a>.</li> <li>The <a href="/facts/Kafwe_Twa/p61G4JJL">Kafwe Twa</a> of the <a href="/facts/Kafue_Flats/1poopwbR">Kafue Flats</a>, Zambia, speak <a href="/facts/Tonga_language_(Zambia)/A7zY9YBw">Tonga</a>.</li> <li>The Twa of Angola live among the Ngambwe, Havakona, Zimba and <a href="/facts/Himba_people/nNVL0Swq">Himba</a>, and presumably speak their languages.</li></ul> <p>Physically, these southern Twa do not differ from their Bantu neighbors, but have a similar subservient position to their agricultural neighbors as the forest Pygmies. They may be remnant <a href="/facts/Khoisan/NNEQF8qQ">Khoisan</a> populations; the <a href="/facts/Ila_people/fgRawFxL">Ila</a>, <a href="/facts/Tonga_people_(Zambia_and_Zimbabwe)/294N8cKq">Tonga</a>, and <a href="/facts/Lenje_people/QSWGvGSM">Lenje</a> of Zambia, and the <a href="/facts/Chewa_people/s6Pf6szB">Chewa</a> of Malawi, for example, believe them to be aboriginal peoples, and trace sacred places to them, but Blench suggests that they may have instead migrated from the forest with the Bantu, and were later conflated with aboriginal populations in legend.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <p>The most complete account of Pygmy languages is found in Serge Bahuchet (1993) <i>Histoire d'une civilisation forestière</i>, volume 2. </p> <h2 id="notes">Notes</h2> <ul><li>Serge Bahuchet, 2006. "Languages of the African Rainforest « Pygmy » Hunter-Gatherers: Language Shifts without Cultural Admixture."<a href="http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/54/82/07/PDF/Bahuchet_2006--Leipzig_Version1.pdf">[1]</a> In <i>Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective</i>. Leipzig.</li> <li>Hewlett & Fancher, 2011. "Central African Hunter-Gatherer Research Traditions". In Cummings, Jordan, & Zvelebil, eds, <i>Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers.</i> Oxford University Press</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Generally speaking; those who are not particularly short, such as the Babongo and Bedzan, are sometimes distinguished as "pygmoid". <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Apart from those who live in the savannah or mixed terrain, such as the Bofi and Bedzan. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Ruhlen, Merritt. The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York, 1994. p. 154 <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"DDL : CLHASS – Themes and actions". www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr. Archived from the original on 2017-12-24. Retrieved 2017-01-22. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171224102142/http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/equipes/index.asp?Langue=EN&Equipe=50&Page=Themes" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20171224102142/http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/equipes/index.asp?Langue=EN&Equipe=50&Page=Themes</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Blench, Roger. 1997. "The languages of Africa". In Blench & Spriggs (eds.), Archaeology and language IV <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Bahuchet, Serge (2 January 2012). "Changing Language, Remaining Pygmy". WSU Press. p. 28. <a href="http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=humbiol_preprints" target="_blank">http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=humbiol_preprints</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Naidoo, Thijessen (2014). "PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF Y CHROMOSOME HAPLOGROUPS A & B IN AFRICA" (PDF). p. 90. <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39676075.pdf" target="_blank">https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39676075.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Serge Bahuchet, 1993, History of the inhabitants of the central African rain forest: perspectives from comparative linguistics. In C.M. Hladik, ed., Tropical forests, people, and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development. Paris: Unesco/Parthenon. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Bahuchet, Serge (Aug 2006). "Languages of African rainforest " pygmy " hunter-gatherers: language shifts without cultural admixture. Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective" (PDF). Max-Planck Inst., Leipzig. p. 22. <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/548207/filename/Bahuchet_2006--Leipzig_Version1.pdf" target="_blank">https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/548207/filename/Bahuchet_2006--Leipzig_Version1.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>There are other, undocumented hunter-gatherer forest peoples such as the Mbati and Bolimba of the Central African Republic, and there are thought to be more in the two Congos and in Angola. <a href="/w/index.php?title=Mbati_people&action=edit&redlink=1" target="_blank">/w/index.php?title=Mbati_people&action=edit&redlink=1</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Holoholo is in approximately the right location <a href="/wiki/Holoholo_language" target="_blank">/wiki/Holoholo_language</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Kazadi 1981:838 reports the Cwa were living with the Luba when they moved south and contacted the Hemba. (Méprisés et admirés: l'ambivalence des relations entre le Bacwa (Pygmées) et les Bahemba (Bantu). Africa 51-4.) <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Blench, Roger. 2004. Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa. Presented at SAfA 2004. <a href="http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>