What is Bantu languages?
{{Infobox language family |name=Bantu |region=[[Subsaharan Africa]], mostly [[Southern Hemisphere]] |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=[[Atlantic-Congo]] |fam3=[[Benue-Congo]] |fam4=[[Bantoid]] |fam5=[[Southern Bantoid]] |map=[[Image:African language families en.svg|right|250px]]<br>Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu vs. other [[Niger-Congo languages]]. |iso2=bnt |iso5=bnt |child3=[[Guthrie classification of Bantu languages|Zones A–S]] (geographic) |child5=[[Northwest Bantu]] (in doubt) |child4=[[Central Bantu]] (in doubt) |child1=[[Northeast Bantu]] |child2=[[Southern Bantu languages|Southern Bantu]] }} [[Image:Bantu zones.png|thumb|280px|The approximate locations of the sixteen Guthrie Bantu zones, including the addition of a zone J]] The '''Bantu languages''' (or '''Narrow Bantu languages''') are a branch of the [[Niger-Congo languages]]. There are about 520 languages in the Bantu family, 670 languages in the [[Southern Bantoid]] branch which includes Bantu, and 1,532 in Niger-Congo.<ref>[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=73-16 Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid]</ref> Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of the present day country of [[Cameroon]]; i.e., in the regions commonly known as central Africa, east Africa, and southern Africa. Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families (see map). The Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers is [[Swahili language|Swahili]]. The Bantu language with the largest number of native speakers is [[Shona language|Shona]] with 13.8 million speakers in [[Zimbabwe]], [[Mozambique]], [[Botswana]] and [[Zambia]]. [[Zulu language|Zulu]] comes second with 10.3 million speakers. The Bantu languages came from the region of eastern [[Nigeria]] or [[Cameroon]]. About 2000 years ago the Bantu people spread southwards and eastwards, introducing agriculture and iron working and colonizing much of the continent.. ==Bantu words popularised in western cultures== Some words from various Bantu languages have