Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu/ìbá

This Proto-Bantu entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Apparently an innovation within Narrow Bantu; Bostoen rejects proposed cognates in wider Benue-Congo as being related to the easily confused root *ìbídà.

*ìbá class 5 (plural *màbá class 6)^[1]

1. (Common Bantu) oil palm (Elaeis guineensis)

This term is shared between many Bantu languages, but a single form cannot be formally reconstructed to the level of Proto-Bantu because of historical or linguistic considerations. Despite some attestation in Guthrie zones H and R, Bostoen states that diffusion may account for this distribution rather than inheritance.

• *ìbídà
• *mʊ̀téndé
• *ngàdí

• Beembe (H11): bá (“nut-bearing palm (generic)”)
• Bolia (C35b): ibá (“oil palm”)
• Ding (B86): diba (“oil palm”)
• Mbala (H41): ba (“oil palm; palm (generic)”)
• Mbere (B61): oba (“black-fruited oil palm”)
• Ndumu (B63): mbǎ (“palm nut”)
• Ntandu Kongo (H16): bá (“palm (generic)”)
• Nzadi (B865): ibá (“oil palm”), mbá (“palm nut”)
• Songe (L23): èbwé (“palm”) (possible, but irregular)
• Umbundu (R11): ɛva (“palm (generic)”)
• Yansi (B85): mba (“palm nut”)
• Yombe (H16c): liba (“palm”)

• Bostoen, Koen (2005), "A diachronic onomasiological approach to early Bantu oil palm vocabulary." Studies in African Linguistics 34 (2): 143–188.