A língua bantu angolana mbwela (K17) e a busca etimológica dos bantuísmos brasileiros

Mbwela (K17) is an undocumented language belonging to the K10 group, dominating the Eastern half of Angola. Documentation of the area is essential in order to show etymological evidence for Brazilian Bantuisms, as well as to contribute to research confirming historical evidence that the main homeland of Bantu slaves shipped to Brazil was not located on the coast of the country. Maniacky (2008) highlighted a sample of Brazilian Bantuisms where the Bantu cognates belong to the K zone and are not attested in the H zone, containing Kikongo and Kimbundu, nor in the R zone, containing Umbundu. Unfortunately, descriptions of the K10 group are particularly scarce, as is the general case for Angolan languages. Alongside the various factors explaining this lack of studies, we highlight the Portuguese policy of integration that penalized the use of native indigenous languages, the continuing forty years of war and the Portuguese colonial language, rarely familiar to the Bantuists. For the first time, we describe the Mbwela language, which had never previously been documented, and we interpret Brazilian Bantuisms phonologically and morphologically.