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Botatwe languages

African Language Families

The Botatwe languages are a group of Bantu languages within the Niger-Congo family, classified as Guthrie group M.60, Lenje-Tonga, together with some of the Subia languages of zone K.40, spoken across southern, Lusaka and central Zambia. The group comprises seven languages, Tonga, Ila, Soli, Lamba, Lenje, Subia and Totela, and linguistic reconstruction places its ancestor, Proto-Botatwe, as separating from its parent language around 1000 BC near what is now Haut-Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Copperbelt and Luapula provinces of Zambia.

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Descends From

Botatwe is a group of Bantu languages (Guthrie zone M) spoken mainly in Zambia, including Tonga and Ila; linked to the live language-family entity Bantu, matching this atlas's own existing Bantu descends-from Niger-Congo row.

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