New Linguistic Evidence and ‘The Bantu Expansion’
New Linguistic Evidence and ‘The Bantu Expansion’
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DOI：
10.1017/s0021853700034101
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发表时间：
1995-07
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Vansina
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文献类型：
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作者：
J. Vansina
关于班图语分类的新语言学证据并不支持目前的观点，即这些语言的传播是由于其使用者的大规模迁移或“扩张”。相反，班图语目前的地理分布是许多复杂的历史动态的结果，其中包括数千年来个别语言的连续传播，包括逆转和成功。东非和南部非洲也是如此，那里的考古证据证明了与粮食有关的基本技术的传播，包括冶金和班图语的传播，这两者之间的密切联系已成为公理，在其他地方也是如此。关于班图语在非洲这些地区传播的语言学证据与考古记录完全不一致。现有的班图扩张假说必须完全放弃。废除这一假设将为更现实和完全不同的解释和研究假设腾出空间。例如，由此可见，其他语言的使用者、土著人和其他人对后来的文化和社会的发展所作的地方或区域贡献，可能比迄今为止所承认的要大得多，而且非洲讲班图语的地区与更靠北和更靠西的地区之间各种历史动态的连续性，也比迄今为止所认识的要大得多。
New linguistic evidence about the classification of the Bantu languages does not support the current view that these languages spread as the result of a massive migration or ‘expansion’ by its speakers. Rather the present geographic distribution of Bantu languages is the outcome of many complex historical dynamics involving successive dispersals of individual languages over a time span of millennia and involving reversals as well as successes. This is as true for eastern and southern Africa, where a close correlation between the archaeological evidence documenting the diffusion of basic food-related technologies, including metallurgy and the spreading of Bantu languages has become an axiom, as it is elsewhere. The linguistic evidence concerning the dispersal of Bantu languages in these regions of Africa is completely incongruent with the archaeological record. The existing Bantu expansion hypothesis must be totally abandoned. The scrapping of the hypothesis will make room for more realistic and quite different interpretations and research hypotheses. For example, it follows that the local or regional contribution of speakers of other languages, autochthons and others, to the development of later cultures and societies was probably considerably greater than has hitherto been acknowledged and that the continuities in historical dynamics of all sorts between the Bantu-speaking parts of Africa and areas further north and west are greater than has been hitherto realized.