Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 25, 2026

Sabi languages

The Sabi languages are a group of Bantu languages established by Christine Ahmed. They constitute much of Guthrie's Zone M. The languages, or clusters, along with their Guthrie identifications, are:Taabwa South Sabi: Bemba–Unga (M40), Aushi, Lala-Bisa, Seba, Swaka (M50)

Last revised
Jul 25, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
190 w
Citations
3
Source
Sabi
Geographic
distribution
Eastern Zambia, Southeast DR-Congo
Linguistic classificationNiger–Congo?
Language codes
Glottologbwil1246  Bwile–Sabi
sabi1248  Sabi

The Sabi languages are a group of Bantu languages established by Christine Ahmed.1 They constitute much of Guthrie's Zone M. The languages, or clusters, along with their Guthrie identifications, are:

Bwile may belong here as well, as it is part of Guthrie's M40 group and Nurse (2003) does not note it as an exception, but it is not close to other languages and was not addressed by Ahmed. Similarly, although Spier (2020) focuses specifically on Aushi and includes an appendix comparing Sabi linguistic varieties, Bwile remains unaddressed due to limited available data.2

Nurse and Philippson3 suspect that the Botatwe languages may be related.

Notes

Notes

  1. Ahmed, Christine (1996). Before Eve was Eve: 2200 Years of Gendered History in East-Central Africa. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA: Ph.D. dissertation.
  2. Spier, Troy E. (2020). A Descriptive Grammar of Ikyaushi. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA: Ph.D. dissertation.
  3. Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gerald (2003). The Bantu Languages. London, UK: Routledge.
Further reading

Further reading

M40 Bantu Linguistic Varieties and Ethnolinguistic Groups (Bibliography)