Animacy-based nominal classification in northwestern Bantu and beyond

This paper builds on Tom Güldemann’s work on Central African nominal classification (Güldemann 2023), investigating the cut-off points of animacy-based agreement in 57 northwestern Bantu languages, stemming from Di Garbo and Verkerk (2022). In the majority of these languages, the gender system revolves around a human-nonhuman contrast, inherited from Proto-Bantu. However, in most languages with animacy-based semantic agreement or restructured gender systems, an animate-inanimate contrast is prevalent. In a few languages, semantic agreement and gender restructuring can revolve around a human-nonhuman contrast. The geographic distribution of these different animacy cut-offs suggests that the animate-inanimate contrast is particularly common in Bantu languages that are geographically close to non-Bantu Central African languages, where this contrast is widespread. Conversely, the human-nonhuman contrast is less common outside Bantu. The study corroborates the centrality of animacy in Central African nominal morphosyntax, where animacy contrasts of different types may have emerged independently multiple times.