Is there a semantic foundation for the system of noun classes and genders found in Bantu (and in Niger-Congo-Kordofanian) ? This question has intensely occupied many bantuists for over a century. Fundamentalist, mentalistic, and ethnosemantic approaches were used to construct explanations. The present paper reviews several such approaches, giving particular emphasis to some old and recent Dutch contributions to this field.

KEYWORDS : nominal classification, Bantu, semantics