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Researchers
Prof. Dr. Koen Bostoen
Prof. Dr. Koen Bostoen
koen.bostoen@ugent.be
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Department
Department of Languages and Cultures
Research group(s)
BantUGent - UGent Centre for Bantu Studies
Research Focus
Archaeology
Linguistics
Research Period
16th Century
17th Century
18th Century
19th Century
20th Century
Contemporary
Protohistory (Bronze Age, Iron Age)
Research Region
Africa
Research Language
African languages
Research Methodology
Comparative
Field research
Language and text analysis
Additional tags
Bantu
Cilubà
Comparative linguistics
Historical linguistics
Kikongo
Kirundi
Kiswahili
Luganda
Mbuun
Nsong
Tabgroup
Projects
Projects as supervisor
The past and present of Bantu languages. Integrating micro-typology, historical-comparative linguistics and lexicography
(
2021
-
2023
)
Directionality in morphosyntactic change: West-Coastal Bantu as a historical test case for linguistic theory
(
2020
-
2023
)
Documenting the Bantu languages of the last hunter-gatherer communities of the Mai-Ndombe and Lower Kasai regions (DRC). A pioneering phonetic and laboratory phonological study
(
2020
-
2024
)
Reconstructing the subsistence strategies of the first Bantu speakers south of the Central-African rainforest. A historical-linguistic approach to plant and animal names in West-Coastal Bantu
(
2018
-
2022
)
A typology of the passive voice in Bantu
(
2018
-
2020
)
Language contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers in southern Africa
(
2018
-
2021
)
BantuFirst
(
2018
-
2022
)
A diachronic and spatial analytical approach to linguistic micro-variation in the Kikongo dialect continuum
(
2014
-
2021
)
Description of Kibindji, a Bantu language of the Kuba-Bushong (C80) group (W-Kasaï, DRC)
(
2014
-
2021
)
Motion verbs in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62)
(
2014
-
2018
)
Bantu verbal derivation and tense/aspect from a historical-comparative perspective. The Kikongo language cluster and beyond
(
2014
-
2018
)
A corpus-driven study of the expression of modality in Luganda (Bantu, JE15)
(
2013
-
2017
)
The interface between information structure, syntax and prosody in Kikongo. An integrated descriptive, comparative and diachronic approach
(
2012
-
2017
)
KongoKing
(
2012
-
2016
)
The Kongo kingdom. Chrono-typological and archaeological study of its pottery
(
2012
-
2017
)
Documentation of cultural heritage in three endangered Bantu languages of the Kwilu (DR Congo). Ngong, Nsong and Nsambaan
(
2012
-
2015
)
The Inkisi basin at the time of the Kongo kingdom. Confrontation of historical, archaeological and linguistic data
(
2012
-
2017
)
A grammar of Fwe. A Bantu language spoken in Zambia and Namibia
(
2012
-
2018
)
Syntaxe et structure d’information en civili et en kikongo véhiculaire de Pointe-Noire : une étude comparative
(
2012
-
2013
)
Production and circulation of contemporary pottery in the Kongo area
(
2012
-
2021
)
Prosody, syntax and information structure in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62)
(
2011
-
2016
)
Bantu languages of North-Western DR Congo. Documentation, reconstruction, classifications and contacts with Ubangi languages
(
2010
-
2015
)
African theatre and its characteristics. Analysis of some definitional criteria through Kikongophone urban theatre
(
2010
-
2014
)
The expression of modality in Kirundi. A corpus-based approach
(
2009
-
2014
)
Projects as co-supervisor
Theoretical underpinnings for a user-friendly, corpus-driven, semi-bilingual, digital dictionary of Swahili
(
2018
-
2020
)
An archaeological approach on early interactions between hunter-gatherers and sedentary food-producers in Western Central Africa
(
2018
-
2022
)
Projects as researcher
Reconstructing proto-Bantu grammar
(
2018
-
2018
)
Publications
Key publications
Pots, words and the Bantu problem: on lexical reconstruction and early African history
(2007
)
Koen Bostoen
Bantu Spirantization: Morphologization, Lexicalization and Historical Classification
(2008
)
Koen Bostoen
Molecular perspectives on the Bantu expansion: a synthesis
(2011
)
Brigitte Pakendorf
Koen Bostoen
Cesare de Filippo
The antipassive in Bantu
(2015
)
Koen Bostoen
Sebastian Dom
Guillaume Segerer
Bantu lexical reconstruction
(2016
)
Koen Bostoen
Yvonne Bastin
The Bantu expansion
(2018
)
Koen Bostoen
Reconstructing proto-Bantu
(2019
)
Koen Bostoen
Untangling the West-Coastal Bantu mess : identification, geography and phylogeny of the Bantu B50-80 languages
(2019
)
Sara Pacchiarotti
Natalia Chousou-Polydouri
Koen Bostoen
Language and archaeology
(2020
)
Koen Bostoen
The Bantu expansion : some facts and fiction
(2020
)
Koen Bostoen
Most recent publications
Bollaert, Flore, et al. “The Noun Class System of Bwala, an Undocumented Teke Language from the DRC (Bantu, B70z).”
NORDIC JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES
, vol. 30, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1–40.
Sengupta, Dhriti, et al. “Genetic Substructure and Complex Demographic History of South African Bantu Speakers.”
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
, vol. 12, no. 1, 2021, doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22207-y.
Seidensticker, Dirk, et al. “Population Collapse in Congo Rainforest from 400 CE Urges Reassessment of the Bantu Expansion.”
SCIENCE ADVANCES
, vol. 7, no. 7, 2021, doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd8352.
Matonda Sakala, Igor, et al. “Le Projet BantuFirst : Rapport Sur Les Recherches de Terrain Archéologiques Le Long Du Bas Kasaï Dans Les Provinces Du Kwilu et Du Mai-Ndombe (RDC).”
NYAME AKUMA
, no. 95, 2021, pp. 25–30.
Kawalya, Deo, et al. “A Diachronic Corpus-Driven Study of the Expression of Possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15).”
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS
, vol. 26, no. 3, 2021, pp. 336–69, doi:10.1075/ijcl.19119.kaw.
Full bibliography
Teaching
Swahili I
Swahili II
