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Glite Dictionary
Bantoid language

Bantoid language

9.9
A language of the Niger-Congo family spoken in southern Africa
  • noun
  • Specialized
: lengua bantoide
  • Swahili is a widely spoken Bantoid language.

Examples

  • The Bantoid languages include Zulu and Xhosa.

  • The classification of Bantoid languages helps linguists understand African language history.

  • Many scholars study the phonological features found in Bantoid languages.

  • She is researching the grammatical structures common to Bantoid languages.

  • Many scholars study the phonological features found in Bantoid languages.

  • She is researching the grammatical structures common to Bantoid languages.

  • The classification of Bantoid languages helps linguists understand African language history.

Synonyms

Bantu
vsBantoid language
  • Specialized
1 8.4

A group of languages spoken across central and southern Africa including Swahili and Zulu

has identical meaning but uses an alternate name for that family

Surface Forms

Bantoid language singular
Bantoid languages plural

Morphology

Bantoid + language

The phrase is fully compositional: 'Bantoid' (an adjective meaning languages sharing features with Bantu) combined with 'language' yields 'a language of the Bantoid family'. This follows a regular adjective + noun pattern found across languages, so a learner who knows both constituents can derive the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Bantoid language may come from joining Bantu, a common word in many African languages that means 'people', with the word ending -oid, which means 'like' or 'related to'. So Bantoid language refers to languages that are 'like' or connected to the Bantu family.