Abstract:
In this article we reconstruct the actuation and transmission of a phonological
innovation known as prefix reduction within the Kikongo language cluster
situated in the wider Lower Congo region of Central Africa. We argue that this
change spread from a focal area coinciding with the heartland of the Kongo
kingdom as a classical process of dialectal diffusion. Thanks to a unique Kikongo
corpus that starts in the 17th century, we can provide diachronic empirical
evidence for different phases of the process, which has been otherwise difficult,
if not impossible, in Bantu historical linguistics. What is more, and also quite
exceptional in African linguistics, we have fairly good insight into the ‘social
ecology’ of this language change and argue that political centralization and
economic integration within the realm of the Kongo kingdom facilitated such a
contact-induced diffusion between closely-related language varieties.
