Tony Spike: I don't speak French. Quite sorry about that. Learnt very little French in my high school though. These are my views about the Bantu expansion theory:

A) The Bantus once occupied areas around the ancient Misri and Sudan pre-2500 BC.

B) Political upheavals around Egypt and its vassal states (Sudan and Kush/Nubia) affected the Bantus which led to their early migrations out of their homelands.

C) These migrations started as far back as 2000 BC.

D) SOME of the INITIAL migrants settled around Western Cameroun/Eastern Nigerian. These migrants may have taken advantage of the large water body occupying the areas around modern Chad, Niger and Cameroon to transport themselves.

E) Again, certain conditions led SOME clans to start migrating Southwards in search of political autonomy and economic prosperity in terms of land ownership.

F) The migration eventually ended at the Southernmost tip of Africa (South Africa) approximately after over 2000 yrs of wandering around Eastern Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa.

G) The Nigerian/Cameroun route was not the only migration path of the Bantus. It is believed that some migrated through other routes e.g. through Kongo into Kenya and Tanzania. Infact, there are several possible routes too...

These are my views...

brainwave360: Someone mentioned the Igbo word for child is nwa. The Zulu word for child is (ntwana) singular is mtwana from umuntwana which literally would mean little person. The plural is abantwana. Could be a connection or it could just be coincidence. Since the word is really a play on the word for people, so Sothos for eg. who use Batho for people could have used bathonyana for children which would literally mean little people but their word for children I think is bana. I'm curious to know what are the west African language equivalents of commonly shared Bantu words like meat(nyama), goat(mbuzi), chicken(nkukhu), drink (nwana). Maybe simple words might be more likely to be shared like words for 123 or water, animal, tree, hair, mother, father etc.

brainwave360: Someone mentioned the Igbo word for child is nwa. The Zulu word for child is (ntwana) singular is mtwana from umuntwana which literally would mean little person. The plural is abantwana. Could be a connection or it could just be coincidence. Since the word is really a play on the word for people, so Sothos for eg. who use Batho for people could have used bathonyana for children which would literally mean little people but their word for children I think is bana. I'm curious to know what are the west African language equivalents of commonly shared Bantu words like meat(nyama), goat(mbuzi), chicken(nkukhu), drink (nwana). Maybe simple words might be more likely to be shared like words for 123 or water, animal, tree, hair, mother, father etc.

moksofafrica:
I am a Bakweri from the Cameroonian coast, Limbe or Victoria if you wish, interested in the origins of the Bantus.I understand several centuries ago they originated from the area between the Niger Delta and Lake Chad to settle in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.The tribes of the Cameroonian Douala language group, The Barondos,Bakossis, Bakundus,Bakweries,Doualas,Mungos, Pungos,Bimbias etc of Cameroon constitute one of the northern most extremities of the bantus in Africa. I suppose some Nigerian groups are bantoid or partly bantoid? The distinguishing characteristic of the group has been their name for people\men bantu\plural and muntu\singular.In my dialect men are wato\plural and moto\singular. In the related Douala dialect the words used are bato and moto.I would like to present a short list of words which can be used in determining linguistic and lexical similarities:
man moto (lingala)moto
men wato (douala)bato
meat nyama
cow nyaka
goat mboli
elephant njoku
house ndawo (douala)dabo
mother nyango\nyange
father sango\sange
water maliwa (douala)madiba

Tony Spike:

Meanwhile, Water is almost the same in Yoruba and Igbo. The word is a variation of the ancient Egyptian version.

Water - MW (ancient Kemet/Egypt) - Omi(Yoruba) - Mmiri(Igbo)

moksofafrica:

man moto (lingala)moto
men wato (douala)bato
meat nyama
cow nyaka
goat mboli
elephant njoku
house ndawo (douala)dabo
mother nyango\nyange
father sango\sange
water maliwa (douala)madiba

brainwave360:

The zulu equivalents are

man(as in human/person) umuntu
Man (as in a male) indoda, umlisa
men(as in people) abantu
Men (as in many males) amadoda, abeslisa
In the basotho languages spoken here in South Africa they also use moto and bato for person and people.

meat nyama
cow nkomo
goat mbuzi
elephant ndlovu
house muzi, indlu, ikhaya
In zulu the word ndawo means place

mother nyoko, mama, mage, unina,
father yihlo, yise, baba/babe
water amanzi

Tony Spike:

Interesting, I'm glad you've finally found a good comparison with Zulu words. I think all the variations of the word 'water' came from the ancient Kemet version which is 'MW'. This is same as 'people' which means MTU in ancient Kemet. The Igbos of Nigeria are classified as Proto-Bantu, and as such, they have fewer Bantu words in their lexicon.

some-girl:


it's Cameroonians who are proto-bantu apparently, as they are a cross between bantu and West African groups.
Based on proximity, natives of Cross River and Benue should be proto-bantu or even full on bantu, which they aren't.
Efik/ Ibibio has no "ch" alphabet in their lingua which Igbo has.

All languages must have originated from the same source hence some similarities, but there are no glaring similarities between Igbo, Efik/ Ibibio languages and bantu.


moksofafrica and brainwave360, how do you personalize in your respective languages. How do you say: my house, for example?

740megawatts:

Tell me, what does Njoku mean in Igbo language. Although, I still think the Igbos did absorb some Bantu words although not too glaring like their Cameroonian neighbours...

Apparently, The Zulu word, Ndlovu, for Elephant is a corruption of the original Bantu word, Njoku. Somebody must have been playing around with consonants in ancient times...interesting

740megawatts:

Tell me, what does Njoku mean in Igbo language. Although, I still think the Igbos did absorb some Bantu words although not too glaring like their Cameroonian neighbours...

Apparently, The Zulu word, Ndlovu, for Elephant is a corruption of the original Bantu word, Njoku. Somebody must have been playing around with consonants in ancient times...interesting

Tony Spike:

Yeah, you might be right about the Igbos still. Still on this, the Zulus of Kwazulu-Natal province have a way of naming their locations. A cursory survey of such names are as below:

Umlazi
Umhlanga
Umtata
Umlaas

In Igboland, you have locations named as thus:

Umuoji
Umuahia
Umuokpu
Umunya

Isn't this interesting?

740megawatts:

Apparently, The Zulu word, Ndlovu, for Elephant is a corruption of the original Bantu word, Njoku. Somebody must have been playing around with consonants in ancient times...interesting

Tony Spike:

West Africa has over 300 languages. You need to have a target group to have a fruitful comparison. In my opinion, the Igbo language might be a good place to start. Most of the 'basic' words in Yoruba and Igbo tend to have emerged from the same source. This might interest you:

Chicken - Okuko(Igbo), Akuko (Yoruba), Nkukhu(Zulu)

Could it be a coincidence?

Meanwhile, Water is almost the same in Yoruba and Igbo. The word is a variation of the ancient Egyptian version.

Water - MW (ancient Kemet/Egypt) - Omi(Yoruba) - Mmiri(Igbo)

I'll give you other comparison later. Stay tuned!

moksofafrica:
I am a Bakweri from the Cameroonian coast, Limbe or Victoria if you wish, interested in the origins of the Bantus.I understand several centuries ago they originated from the area between the Niger Delta and Lake Chad to settle in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.The tribes of the Cameroonian Douala language group, The Barondos,Bakossis, Bakundus,Bakweries,Doualas,Mungos, Pungos,Bimbias etc of Cameroon constitute one of the northern most extremities of the bantus in Africa. I suppose some Nigerian groups are bantoid or partly bantoid? The distinguishing characteristic of the group has been their name for people\men bantu\plural and muntu\singular.In my dialect men are wato\plural and moto\singular. In the related Douala dialect the words used are bato and moto.I would like to present a short list of words which can be used in determining linguistic and lexical similarities:
man moto (lingala)moto
men wato (douala)bato
meat nyama
cow nyaka
goat mboli
elephant njoku
house ndawo (douala)dabo
mother nyango\nyange
father sango\sange
water maliwa (douala)madiba

kwangi: ^^Whenever you are translating words, it is better you do them in context.
It occasions better clarity and understanding.

Life (being alive)= Ndu

My life= Ndu m

My life (as per my existence and relationship with and to the world)= Uwa m

Uwa= World

Cho= Want, find (depending on the context of its use)
#JustSaying

some-girl:
I fail to see any remarkable similarities between Igbo and Swahili or Zulu. I think words are being twisted around to appear similar.
Some of the Igbo translations I've seen here are inaccurate or don't apply to most ancient Igbo groups.

Igbo like most languages have things in common with many other languages especially surrounding ones.

One could decide that because me in french is moi and in Igbo mua, pronounced same way, they could be related.

Turkish is the only language apart from Igbo, I've come across, where possessive pronouns are m suffixes. Most other languages use a mi suffixes and others prefixes.

e.g
life - Uwa(Igbo); Turkish (Hayat)
my life - Uwam (Igbo); Hayatım (Turkish)

I want - A chorom (Igbo); Istiyorum (Turkish)

The above example doesn't demonstrate any remarkable similarities between both languages.

moksofafrica:
I am a Bakweri from the Cameroonian coast, Limbe or Victoria if you wish, interested in the origins of the Bantus.I understand several centuries ago they originated from the area between the Niger Delta and Lake Chad to settle in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.The tribes of the Cameroonian Douala language group, The Barondos,Bakossis, Bakundus,Bakweries,Doualas,Mungos, Pungos,Bimbias etc of Cameroon constitute one of the northern most extremities of the bantus in Africa. I suppose some Nigerian groups are bantoid or partly bantoid? The distinguishing characteristic of the group has been their name for people\men bantu\plural and muntu\singular.In my dialect men are wato\plural and moto\singular. In the related Douala dialect the words used are bato and moto.I would like to present a short list of words which can be used in determining linguistic and lexical similarities:
man moto (lingala)moto
men wato (douala)bato
meat nyama
cow nyaka
goat mboli
elephant njoku
house ndawo (douala)dabo
mother nyango\nyange
father sango\sange
water maliwa (douala)madiba