The Historical Relation of Cigogo to Zone J Languages

Abstract

Cigogo, a Bantu language of Tanzania, is classified as G11 in the system developed by M. Guthrie. Since then other authors – Heine (1972), Hinnebusch (1973), Nurse and Philippson (1980), Ehret (1984) – have supported a close relationship between Cigogo and the eastern or southern Bantu languages. These analyses, however, are inconclusive (Hinnebusch 1980). According to phonological, morphological and lexical evidence, I propose that Cigogo is better considered to be related to the languages of the southern J zone, that is to say, to J22-23 languages. These facts suggest, moreover, that there exists a link between Cigogo and J61 and J22-23 languages. They indicate that the zone F languages arrived later.