Cushitic loans in South Nilotic revisited: a deconstruction of Proto Baz

Abstract

This article explores lexical contact between Cushitic and Nilotic taking the proposed Cushitic language Proto Baz as point of departure. Proto Baz is a putative East Cushitic language proposed by Heine, Rottland & Vossen (1979), on the basis of words borrowed into South Nilotic. Some of the loans were already pointed out by Ehret (1970, 1971, 1974). A critical assessment of the proposed loans shows that there is more di-versity in their origin than formerly thought, and that it is in fact not necessary to assume the existence of a separate language (Proto Baz) to account for the loans. Instead, the loans came from various reconstructed stages of existing Cushitic languages. We discuss different contact situ-ations between groups of East Cushitic and South Nilotic languages, as well as the recurring challenges in historical interpretation of the avail-able evidence. The Appendix provides the reader with an overview of the discussed lexical items from earlier sources and new proposed analyses.