Use of Plant Names for the Classification of the Bantu Languages of Gabon

Since the early seventies, several classifications of Bantu languages have been proposed. Two branches have been identified in some of these classifications: Eastern and Western Bantu. The homogeneity of the languages of the Eastern branch has been confirmed, while the situation appears more complex with Western languages. Indeed, Bastin, Coupez and Mann (1999) have highlighted the complexity of the North-Western area which includes languages belonging to zones A and B. The purpose of this paper is to examine the North-Western area through the study of zones A, B and H languages spoken in Gabon in order to better understand the historical relationships between these Bantu languages. We propose classifications involving news techniques borrowed from biology (i.e. the phylogenetic method), like a network-building method, Neighbor-Net, in order to examine the historical relationships among these Bantu languages. First, we will present the major classifications proposed for Bantu languages, especially for the North-Western zone. Then, we will present our first classification based on basic vocabulary. Finally, we will discuss a second classification based on specialized lexicon of plant names. We will then point out the similarities and differences between these two classifications.