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Some Problems of Language Classification with Particular Reference to the North-West Bantu Borderland

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

E-ISSN: 1750-0184|25|2|161-169

ISSN: 0001-9720

Source: Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, Vol.25, Iss.2, 1955-04, pp. : 161-169

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Abstract

Persons accustomed to dealing with languages of known and proven ancestry may have difficulty in believing that language classification can be problematic. They may be unaware that, whereas many modern languages may be classified according to historical evidence, those without a recorded past must be grouped in the light of present-day similarity or dissimilarity. None of the languages investigated by the western section of the Northern Bantu Border Survey has a history which goes back beyond last century, and many of them had never been previously recorded. Oral tradition, usually so informative on ethnic events, is generally vague, if not absolutely silent, on linguistic matters.