历史上部分学者认为原始犹他-阿兹特克语的原乡在美国和墨西哥边境地区,大约在亚利桑那州和新墨西哥州的高原地区,以及邻接的墨西哥索诺拉省和奇瓦瓦省,大致覆盖索诺拉沙漠。祖语在约5000年前由一群狩猎采集部落使用。简·希尔(Jane H. Hill) (2001)的假设则认为原乡在南方,是一群操原始犹他-阿兹特克语的中美洲玉米农民,是在约4500到3000年前带着玉米逐渐向北方迁徙的,使用者的地理扩散对应祖语的分化。[35]
罗杰·布伦奇(Roger Blench)总结了哈尔科特港大学教授凯·威廉姆森(Kay Williamson)和语言学家P. De Wolf的工作,认为包含班图语支的贝努埃-刚果亚语支是尼日尔–刚果语系内最大的分支,是一个凭经验分出的分支,可能发源自尼日利亚中部贝努埃河和尼日尔河的交汇处。[49][56][57][58][59][60]:115–147这些估计贝努埃-刚果亚语支起源地的尝试没能给出在班图大迁徙之前的贝努埃-刚果亚语支开始扩张的时间,而贝努埃-刚果亚语支必须在班图大迁徙开始之前就已经扩张到一定大的范围,毕竟这个分类下还有很多不是班图语支的语言。
^Bengtson and Ruhlen (1994) offered a list of 27 "global etymologies". Bengtson, John D. and Merritt Ruhlen. 1994. "Global etymologies" (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆). In Ruhlen 1994a, pp.277–336. This approach has been criticized as flawed by Campbell and Poser (2008) who used the same criteria employed by Bengtson and Ruhlen to identify "cognates" in Spanish known to be false. Campbell, Lyle, and William J. Poser. 2008. Language Classification: History and Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^McWhorter, John H., The Afrogenesis Hypothesis of Plantation Creole Origin, Huber, Magnus; Parkvall, Mikael (编), Spreading the Word: The Issue of Diffusion among the Atlantic Creoles, London: Westminster University Press, 1999
^Roger Blench, "Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology?," Paper for the Symposium "Human migrations in continental East Asia and Taiwan: genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence". Geneva June 10–13, 2004. Université de Genève.
^Ostapirat, Weera. (2005). "Kra–Dai and Austronesian: Notes on phonological correspondences and vocabulary distribution", Sagart, Laurent, Blench, Roger & Sanchez-Mazas, Alicia (eds.), The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics. London/New York: Routledge-Curzon.
^Serafim, Leon A. The uses of Ryukyuan in understanding Japanese language history. Frellesvig, Bjarne; Whitman, John (编). Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects. John Benjamins. 2008. ISBN 978-90-272-4809-1.
^Sidwell, Paul. Austroasiatic Classification. Jenny, Mathias; Sidwell, Paul (编). The Handbook of the Austroasiatic Languages. Leiden: BRILL. 2015. ISBN 978-90-04-28295-7.
^Rau, Felix; Sidwell, Paul. The Munda Maritime Hypothesis. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. 2019-09-12, 12 (2) [2022-10-13]. ISSN 1836-6821. (原始内容存档于2021-08-16) (英语).
^Blust, Robert. The Austronesian languages. Asia-Pacific Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. 2013 [2022-10-13]. ISBN 978-1-922185-07-5. (原始内容存档于2019-03-23) (澳大利亚英语).
^Potter, Ben A. Archaeological Patterning in Northeast Asia and Northwest North America: An Examination of the Dene-Yeniseian Hypothesis. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska. 2010, 5 (1–2).
^Bakker, Peter. Diachrony and typology in the history of Cree. Folke Josephson; Ingmar Söhrman (编). Diachronic and typological perspectives on verbs. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 2013.
^Römer, Claudia. Von den Hunnen zu den Türken – dunkle Vorgeschichte, in: Zentralasien. 13. bis 20. Jahrhundert. Geschichte und Gesellschaft, Wien 2006
^Allen, James P. The Ancient Egyptian Language. Cambridge University Press. 2003. ISBN 978-1-107-66467-8.
^John Huehnergard and Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", in Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum, Cambridge University Press, 2008
^See also Bendor-Samuel, J. ed. 1989. The Niger–Congo Languages. Lanham: University Press of America.
^Westermann, D. 1922a. Die Sprache der Guang. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
^Greenberg, J.H. 1964. Historical inferences from linguistic research in sub-Saharan Africa. Boston University Papers in African History, 1.
^Herman Bell. 1995. The Nuba Mountains: Who Spoke What in 1976?. (The published results from a major project of the Institute of African and Asian Studies: the Language Survey of the Nuba Mountains.)
^Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek (eds.) African languages: an introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^Gerrit Dimmendaal (2008) "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5.
^Williamson, K. 1971. The Benue–Congo languages and Ijo. Current Trends in Linguistics, 7. ed. T. Sebeok 245–306. The Hague: Mouton.
^Williamson, K. 1988. Linguistic evidence for the prehistory of the Niger Delta. The early history of the Niger Delta, edited by E.J. Alagoa, F.N. Anozie and N. Nzewunwa. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
^Williamson, K. 1989. Benue–Congo Overview. In The Niger–Congo Languages. J. Bendor-Samuel ed. Lanham: University Press of America.
^De Wolf, P. 1971. The noun class system of Proto-Benue–Congo. The Hague: Mouton.
^Blench, R.M. 1989. A proposed new classification of Benue–Congo languages. Afrikanische Arbeitspapiere, Köln, 17.
^Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, "The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa," Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4, 23 February 2010
^Greenberg, J.H. 1972. Linguistic evidence regarding Bantu origins. Journal of African History, 13.
^Bastin, Y. Reconstruction formelle et sémantique de la dénomination de quelques mammiferes en Bantou. Afrikanische Arbeitspapiere. 1994, 38.
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