What are the Bantu languages?
Q: What are the Bantu languages?
A: The Bantu languages are a branch of the Niger-Congo languages, spoken largely east and south of the present day country of Cameroon, in the regions commonly known as central Africa, east Africa, and southern Africa.
Q: How many languages are there in the Bantu family?
A: There are about 520 languages in the Bantu family.
Q: How many languages are there in the Southern Bantoid branch?
A: There are 670 languages in the Southern Bantoid branch which includes Bantu.
Q: Where did the Bantu languages come from?
A: The Bantu languages came from the region of eastern Nigeria or Cameroon.
Q: Which Bantu language has the largest total number of speakers?
A: Swahili is the Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers.
Q: Which Bantu language has the largest number of native speakers?
A: Shona is the Bantu language with the largest number of native speakers with 13.8 million speakers in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia.
Q: When did the Bantu people spread southwards and eastwards?
A: About 2000 years ago the Bantu people spread southwards and eastwards, introducing agriculture and iron working, and colonizing much of the continent.
