Features of ideophonic vocabulary in Eastern and South-Eastern Bantu languages

Abstract

This article analyzes the main features of ideophonic (sound-symbolic) vocabulary in eastern and south-eastern Bantu languages using illustrative material from two major African languages, Swahili in the north and Zulu in the south of this region, with data from the minority languages Kerewe, Luguru, Vidunda, Ngindo, and Ndonde used for comparison. Zulu and Swahili have been studied quite extensively, while material from minority languages is being presented in scholarly research for the first time; therefore, the number of illustrative ideophones varies greatly across languages. Ideophonic vocabulary, including onomatopoeic and imagistic forms, is analyzed. Emphasis is placed on the formal, structural, and semantic characteristics of this lexical layer in Bantu languages, which are genetically and areally related. The article examines the syllabic structure of ideophones, reduplication, distribution by parts of speech, and lexical semantics of ideophonic vocabulary.

References

1. Gromova N.V., Urb M.R. Leksiko-semanticheskie osobennosti folʹklora malogo bespisʹmennogo afrikanskogo etnosa (na primere yazykov Tanzanii) [Lexical-semantic features of the folklore of a small unwritten African ethnic group (using the languages of Tanzania as an example)]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 13. Vostokovedenie, 2025, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 130–143. (In Russ.)
2. Gromova N.V., Urb M.R. Skazki ndonde i ih sosedej [Fairy tales of the Ndonde and their neighbors]. Moscow, Klyuch-S Publ., 2015. 104 p. (In Russ.)
3. Krivoshchekova-Gantman A.S. Sobranie sochinenij: v 2 t. T. 1: Grammatika, dialektologiya, leksika i frazeologiya, problemy razvitiya yazyka [Collected works: in 2 vols. Vol. 1: Grammar, dialectology, vocabulary and phraseology, problems of language development]. Perm, Permskij gosudarstvennyj pedagogicheskij universitet Publ., 2006. 255 p. (In Russ.)
4. Lutskov A.D. Osnovy grammatiki yazyka zulu [Basics of Zulu grammar]. Moscow, Muravej Publ., 2003. 254 p. (In Russ.)
5. Fonosemantika: opyt mezhdistsiplinarnogo issledovaniya [Phonosemantics: An interdisciplinary study]. Moscow, Mir nauki Publ., 2022. Online publication. Available at: https://izdmn.com/PDF/69MNNPM22.pdf (accessed: 01.06.2026). 229 p. (In Russ.)
6. Ashton E.O. Swahili Grammar (including intonation). London, Longmans, Green & Co, 1961. 398 p.
7. De Schryver G.-M. The Lexicographic Treatment of Ideophones in Zulu. Lexikos, 2009, vol. 19, pp. 34–54. DOI: 10.5788/19-0-429.
8. Dingemanse M. Ideophones and Reduplication: Depiction, Description, and the Interpretation of Repeated Talk in Discourse. Studies in Language, 2015, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 946–970. DOI: 10.1075/sl.39.4.05din.
9. Doke C.M. Bantu Linguistic Terminology. London, Longmans, Green & Co, 1935. 237 p.
10. Kilian-Hatz C. Ideophones. In: The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. R. Vossen, G.J. Dimmendaal (eds.). Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 694–703.
11. Maganga C., Schadeberg T.C. Kinyamwezi: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary. Köln, Rüdiger Köppe, 1992. 325 p.
12. Meinhof C. Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Bantusprachen. Hamburg, Eckhardt and Messtorff, 1948. 184 p. (In Germ.)
13. Poulos G., Msimang C.T. A Linguistic Analysis of Zulu. Cape Town, Via Afrika, 1998. 590 p.
14. Samarin W.J. Survey of Bantu Ideophones. African Language Studies, 1971, vol. 12, pp. 130–168.