The proto-West-Coastal Bantu velar merger

Abstract

In this article, we assess the genealogical validity of West‑Coastal Bantu (WCB) as a major subclade of the Bantu family by means of the Comparative Method. Based on a comparative dataset of 66 different cognate series, we demonstrate that languages previously classified as WCB according to lexicon‑based quantitative methods share at least one common phonological innovation: the phonemic merger of the Proto‑Bantu velar stops *g and *k due to the devoicing of *g when not preceded by a nasal. We show that the velar merger is a unique phonological innovation distinguishing WCB from other Bantu phylogenetic groups such as South‑Western and Eastern. It probably also separates WCB from North‑Western and Central‑Western Bantu, where *g did devoice, but not always before *k became zero. However, at this stage, there is not enough empirical evidence and especially not sufficient systematic historical‑comparative linguistic research to further test this hypothesis. In any event, building on Mohlig (1981), we speculate that the recurrent devoicing of *g in several ancestral Bantu languages of the rainforest could be diagnostic of a pre‑Bantu hunter‑gatherer substrate.