Proto Bantu question words

International audience This paper proposes a typologically informed reconstruction of the Proto Bantu question words provisionally reconstructed in BLR 3 (africamuseum.be) as °n(d)áí ‘who?’ and -í ‘what?’. I argue that the interrogative previously reconstructed as °n(d)áí has developed out of a selective interrogative ‘which one? (person or thing)’ and ultimately a locative interrogative construction *(í~ɩ́-)ndɩ́ yɩ̀ à yɩ́ ‘(it) is that who is where?’. Formally, the latter clause-level construction underwent univerbation and a subsequent formal reduction with occasional reinforcement by a postposed demonstrative root. The interrogative previously reconstructed as -í ‘what?’ is likely to originate in a locative interrogative *-yɩ́ ‘be where?’. An important conclusion is that no interrogative pronominal stems meaning ‘who?’ and ‘what?’ can be reconstructed for Proto Bantu.