First of all, Bantu and Niger-Congo don't
have the same status, even approximately. Bantu is a bona fide family, while
Niger-Congo is a loose cluster of a rather large number of families (including
Bantu), established on the basis of typological similarities. No-one has yet
demonstrated its genetic unity using generally accepted methods. _If_ it is
real, then Bantu is just a subbranch of a subbranch of a subbranch in one of its
branches. However, it's quite likely that the term "Niger-Congo" does not refer
to a valid linguistic taxon at all.
You point to many /tVr-/ forms for "three"
in (so-called) Niger-Congo laguages, but without analysing the comparative
correspondences in a rigorous way you can't show that there was an old *tVr-
word there, let alone deriving it from AN *telu. In fact, you quote rather
selectively, choosing the forms that suit your suggestion but conveniently
ignoring a number of /tat-/ forms in Niger-Congo. For example, in the Duru
family (Cameroon, Nigeria) we have Sari tatu and Kotopo ta~to beside Sewe taare
and Vere tariko.
As I have pointed out before, the frequent
change of intervocalic *-t- into -d-, -l- or -r- in Bantu is a well-known fact;
and many of the Bantu languages enjoy local or regional prestige,
serving as means of wider communication. Even if Bantu and non-Bantu
"Niger-Congo" languages are unrelated, the areal diffusion of Bantu numerals is
easier to imagine than a borrowing from a more exotic source. The non-Bantu "NC"
languages are spoken in _West_ Africa (Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria,
Cameroon, etc.), very far away from the Indian Ocean.
As for AN presence in Africa, there is a
pervasive Bantu substrate in Malagasy. The most natural explanation thereof is
that proto-Malagasy speakers (AN traders arriving from southern Borneo) settled
also on the eastern coast of Africa as they colonised the island, and that
there was movement of people and diffusion of linguistic traits across the
Mozambique Channel. The linguistic fingerprints of AN on the continent were
eventually wiped out in the aftermath of the Bantu migration, but there was
very likely some back-migration out of Africa, bringing Bantu-tinged AN dialects
there.
The earliest archaeological traces of human
settlement in Madagascar come from the fifth century. Also the mass extinction
of the local megafauna began about that time. I find it hard to believe that an
expert sea-people sailing to and fro between Africa and the Malay Archipelago
(there is evidence of later contacts) should have missed the opportunity of
colonising a virgin island, the fourth largest on this planet (Borneo being the
third), that lay right on their course.
To sum up, the linguistic evidence, which
suggests the fourth or fifth century as the likeliest date of the emergence of
proto-Malagasy, squares well with the known history of Africa and Madagascar.
Anyone who'd like to suggest substantial arrivals from the east at an earlier
date would have problems explaining how on earth the AN seafolk managed to miss
Madagascar. In other words, early Malagasy could be the only
potential source of AN numerals (and other loans) in equatorial
Africa: "isa, roa, telo, efatra, dimy, ...?". By the way, Proto-Bantu *tato '3'
dates back to the fourth millennium BC or so.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 7:04 PM
Subject: [nostratic] Re: Afro-Austronesian numerals ?
> I don't question the possibility of AN migration(s) towards
Africa.
We have Malagasy in Madagascar, of course, but that was a pretty
recent event (the position of Malagasy in the Malayo-Polynesian branch
is securely established and so is the approximate date of its
separation
from its closest relatives).
>
> Piotr
>
True. But so is
the Bantu expansion.
As I see it there are two possible cases.
1.
Bantu is Niger-Congo
2. Bantu is not Niger-Congo
In either case, I can
point to many *t-r- "3"'s in Niger-Congo
languages. It then doesn't become
extremely important whether Bantu
"3" can be related to *t-r-.
In any
case there is *t-r/l- in Austronesia, West Africa and IE (> AA
*T-l-T-).
Now I would find that not very probable a priori, but in the
end it is of
course also a matter of what other things you find
probable (eg. modes of
transport).
Torsten