The Linguistic Link between (Western) baMbenga and (Eastern) baMbuti Pygmies

The term 'pygmies' long time summarized simply all dwarfish populations of foragers scattered all over the equatorial rainforest of Africa. Missionaries and early ethnologists were fascinated by them because they assumed that the pygmy groups had a common origin and were perhaps direct, almost pure descendants of a very early Stone Age culture. The currently about 20 pygmy forager populations seem to be closely related molecular genetically. However, the pygmy populations speak different languages. An early explanation for this fact assumes that the pygmies are the autochthonous population of the equatorial rain forest and as such spoke once their uniform indigenous 'pygmy' language, a kind of common pygmy proto-language. The present study provides for the first time missing linguistic data of three baMbuti languages: Efe, Atsoa and iButi. The oral literature shows interesting, unexpected parallels suggesting a substratum of a common proto-language.