Subgrouping Ngoni varieties within Nguni: a lexicostatistical approach

Abstract

Historical accounts indicate that the Ngoni of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia are ‘offshoots’ of the Nguni of Southern Africa (cf Ebner 1955 and Phiri 1982). Linguistically, the Nguni Group comprises Swati, Zulu, Xhosa and Ndebele spoken in Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The primary aim of this study is to establish the current relationships between Zulu, Swati and the three Ngoni varieties through the lexicostatistical method.2 A secondary purpose is to organise the five varieties into subgroups of Nguni on the basis of their shared retention of core vocabulary items and phonemes.