Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu/ngàdí

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.

Evidently a Bantu innovation, as no cognates outside of Narrow Bantu are known.

*ngàdí class 9 (plural *ngàdí class 10)^[1]

1. palm nut or palm oil (exact referent uncertain)

The sense "blood" (likely in class 6) may be an innovation in Proto-Eastern Bantu; the proposed semantic motivation is the reddish colour of palm oil, which would be an ideal target for taboo replacement of an earlier word for "blood".

• *ìbídà
• *ìbá
• *mʊ̀téndé

• Dengese (C81): bongaji (“palm pit”)
• Kerewe (J24): igazi (“oil palm”)
• Kimbundu (H21): ngaji (“palm nut”)
• Kwanyama (R21): omaadi (“oil, fat, grease”)
• Luba-Kasai (L31): dikadi (“raphia palm”)
• Lungu Mambwe-Lungu (M14/15): chazi (“oil palm”)
• Mbukushu (K333): maghadhi (“oil”)
• Ndumu (B63): mari (“oil, fat, grease”)
• Ntandu Kongo (H16): maási (“palm oil”)
• Rwanda-Rundi (J61/62): umugázi (“oil palm”) (Giha), ingazí (“Senegal date palm”) (Kinyarwanda)
• Simba (B302): gékadi (“black-fruited oil palm”)
• Songe (L23): kyají (“clump of palm nuts”)
• Tetela (C71): dikadí (“raphia palm”)
• Tongwe (F11): sigasi (“oil palm”)
• Yansi (B85): meay (“oil, fat”)

From an Eastern Bantu sense "blood":

• Chichewa (N31): mwazi (“blood”)
• Lungu Mambwe-Lungu (M14/15): uwazi (“blood”)
• Makonde (P23): myadi (“blood”)
• Southern Bantu:
  • Sotho-Tswana:
    • Northern Sotho (S32): madi (“blood”)
    • Sotho (S33): madi (“blood”)
      • → Phuthi (S404): emalî (“blood”)
    • Tswana (S31): madi (“blood”)
  • Nguni:
    • Northern Ndebele (S44): igazi (“blood”)
    • Swazi (S43): ingati (“blood”)
    • Xhosa (S41): igazi (“blood”)
    • Zulu (S42): igazi (“blood”)
    • → Chichewa (N31): magazi (“blood”)
    • → Shona (S10): gazi (“blood”)
  • Tswa-Ronga:
    • Tsonga (S53): ngati (“blood”)

Possibly related, although the sound change to the initial consonant of the stem would be highly irregular:

• Nyakyusa (M31): unnasi (“coconut palm”)
• Luhya (J32): munazi (“oil palm”)
• Saamia (J34): omunazi (“oil palm”)
• Sabaki:
  • Maore Comorian (G44D): nadzi (“coconut”), munadzi (“coconut palm”)
  • Ngazidja Comorian (G44a): nazi (“coconut”), mnazi (“coconut palm”)
  • Swahili (G42): nazi (“coconut”), mnazi (“coconut palm”)
• Sangu (Tanzania) (G61): mnasi (“oil palm”)
• Tooro (J12): omunazi (“date palm”)
• Luganda (J15): munazi (“oil palm”)
• Yao (P21): naasi (“coconut”)

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