Bantu languages may be traced back to
an original _ka_, _ta_ or _sa_, _ki_, _ti_ or _si_ in the Bantu
mother-tongue. Apparently in the parent language this particle had already
these alternative forms, which resemble those in some West African Negro
languages. In the vast majority of the Bantu dialects at the present day,
the negative particle in the verb (which nearly always coalesces with the
pronominal particle) is descended from this _ka_, _ta_ or _sa_, _ki_, _ti_
or _si_, assuming the forms of _ka_, _ga_, _nga_, _sa_, _ta_, _ha_, _a_,
_ti_, _si_, _hi_, &c. It has coalesced to such an extent in some cases with
the pronominal particle that the two are no longer soluble, and it is only
by the existence of some intermediate forms (as in the _Kongo_ language)
that we are able to guess at the original separation between the two.
Originally the negative particle _ka_, _sa_, &c., was joined to the
pronominal particles, thus:--

_Ka-ngi_ .................... not I.
(Therefore _Ka-ngi tanda_ = not I love.)
_Ka-ku_ or _ka-wu_ .......... not thou.
_Ka-a_ ...................... not he, she.
_Ka-tu_ ..................... not we.
_Ka-nu_ ..................... not ye.
_Ka-ba_ ..................... not they.

In like manner _sa_ would become _sa-ngi_, _sa-wu_, &c. But very early in
the history of Bantu languages _ka-ngi_, or _sa-ngi_, became contracted
into _kai_, _sai_, and finally, _ki_, _si_; _ka-ku_ or _ka-wu_ into _ku_;
and _kaa_ or _saa_ have always been _ka_ or _sa_. Sometimes in the modern
languages the negative particle (such as _ti_ or _si_) is used without any
vestige of a pronoun being attached to it, and is applied indifferently to
all the persons. Occasionally this particle has fallen out of use, and the
negative is expressed (1) by stress or accent; (2) by suffix (traceable to
a root _-pe_ or _-ko_) answering to the French _pas_, and having the same
sense; and (3) by the separate employment of an adverb. If not a few Bantu
languages, the verb used in a negative sense changes its terminal _-a_ to
_-i_. The subjunctive is very frequently formed by changing the terminal
_-a_ to _-e_: thus, tanda = love; -tand_e_ = may love.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages_ (in two
parts, left unfinished), by Dr W. I. Bleek (London, 1869); _A Sketch of the
Modern Languages of Africa_, by R. N. Cust (1882); _Comparative Grammar of
the South African Bantu Languages_, by Father J. Torrend