Botatwe languages

{{Short description|Bantu language family}} {{Use American English|date = February 2019}} {{Infobox language family |name=Botatwe |altname= Bantu Botatwe |region=Southern, Lusaka, Central Zambia |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=[[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]] |fam3=[[Benue–Congo languages|Benue–Congo]] |fam4=[[Southern Bantoid languages|Southern Bantoid]] |fam5=[[Bantu languages|Bantu]] ([[Guthrie classification of Bantu languages#Zone M|Zone M.60]]) |glotto=bota1239 |glottorefname=Botatwe }}

The '''Botatwe languages''' are a group of [[Bantu languages]]. They are the languages of [[Guthrie classification of Bantu languages|Guthrie group]] M.60 (Lenje–Tonga) plus some of the Subia languages (K.40):

[[Kafue Twa]] may be Ila or Tonga.

Nurse (2003) suspects that the [[Sabi languages]] may be related.

== History and culture ==

=== Origins === Proto-Botatwe, the language ancestral to all modern Botatwe languages, separated from its ancestral language around 1000 BCE near modern [[Haut-Katanga Province]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DRC]], and [[Copperbelt Province|Copperbelt]]/[[Luapula Province|Luapula]] Provinces, [[Zambia]].<ref name=":0" >{{cite book |last=de Luna |first=Kathryn |title=Collecting Food, Cultivating People: Subsistence and Society in Central Africa |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-22516-7 |location=United States |pages=1–230 |language=English}}</ref>{{rp|52–53}} It originated as a branching from the [[Bantu expansion|Bantu-source language]], diverging once the migration had reached the western bank of [[Lake Tanganyika]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Grollemund |first=Rebecca |last2=Schoenbrun |first2=David |last3=Vansina |first3=Jan |date=2023 |orig-date=2022-12-07 |title=Moving Histories: Bantu Language Expansions, Eclectic Economies, and Mobilities |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/moving-histories-bantu-language-expansions-eclectic-economies-and-mobilities/F9F92F9C6A16A9633E75508E836C9C46 |journal=The Journal of African History |language=en |volume=64 |issue=1 |page= |pages=13–37 |doi=10.1017/S0021853722000780 |issn=0021-8537 |ref=1|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|28–29}}Its populations settled along the slopes of the [[Mitumba Mountains]], slowly moving south and adopting new [[Subsistence pattern|subsistence practices]] as their environment demanded, eventually diverging from their parent language upon reaching the region encompassing the headwaters of the [[Kafue River|Kafue]], [[Lualaba River|Lualaba]], and [[Luapula River|Luapula]] rivers.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|52}}<ref name=":1" />{{rp|28}}Proto-Botatwe managed to maintain a relatively high degree of linguistic and, thus arguably, demographic stability over the course of the roughly 1500 years that it was spoken.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|52–53}} The group rarely moved into uninhabited areas, generally choosing to integrate into and form kinship bonds with existing populations; nonetheless, it maintained an impressive degree of linguistic dominance throughout.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|52–53}}<ref name=":1" />{{rp|28}}

Archaeological evidence indicates the Proto-Botatwe initially practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, making use of home-bases and seasonal production sites. Sites in [[Kalambo Falls|northeastern]] and [[Gwisho Hot-Springs|southern]] Zambia point to a [[Industry (archaeology)|lithic industry]] and small [[kinship]] formations.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|35–36}} Late-Stone Age discoveries point to interactions with or origins in [[Sedentism|sedentary]] agricultural and semi-sedentary [[Pastoralism|pastoral]] communities, given they would either have had to have independent knowledge of food production practices or have traded with food-producing populations for certain resources.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|36}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Botatwe languages| ]]