Bantu 11 Conference

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Announcement and circulars

Third circular

The online registration platform for the Bantu11 conference is finally open. We apologize for the slight delay we experienced in setting it up. To make up for this, the early-bird deadline has been extended to May 1, 2026. Please click here to complete your registration.

Along with the limited external funding for which we applied, the registration fees cover various costs, such as the rental and purchase of venues, materials, and equipment, all coffee and tea breaks and lunches during the four conference days, and the four keynote speakers. Our tiered rates are based on the principle of solidarity, whereby participants with advanced degrees from high-income countries help cover a portion of the costs for participants from low-income countries and (doctoral) students. Participants in the highest tier also contribute to covering the costs for a select number of outstanding participants from low-income countries, whose participation fees are fully covered by the organizing committee. The list of eligible low-income countries can be found here.

In the meantime, we are proud to announce our four keynote speakers: Thera Marie Crane, Rozenn Guérois, Amani Lusekelo, and Cesar Fortes-Lima. Please find here the titles of their keynotes as well as an overview of accepted papers.

We would also like to remind all authors to send the non-anonymous version of their abstract by 1^st April (following the instructions in the acceptance email).

More information on visa requirements and other relevant information for researchers travelling to Belgium can be found here.

Finally, we are happy to inform you that we have made a deal with the Lufthansa Group airlines (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Edelweiss, Discover) to optimize your travel costs. Their extensive route network with around 310 destinations worldwide and including transatlantic flights operated by Air Canada and United is available to you. Click here to display the discounted rates. They are valid for flights up to one week before and one week after the event.

Second circular

The call for papers for the 11th International Conference on Bantu Languages (Bantu11) at Ghent University (August 18-21, 2026) is now open. The conference will include a general session which welcomes contributions on any aspect of the Bantu languages, alongside eleven workshops on specific topics (see the workshop descriptions here).

The deadline for abstracts is December 8th, 2025 (23:59 UTC/GMT+1). Abstracts are limited to 2 submissions per author, of which only 1 may be single-authored. Abstracts should be a maximum of 1 page of text (including figures/tables/linguistic examples) with up to 1 additional page for references, in 11pt Charis SIL or 12pt Times New Roman font, single spaced, with standard A4 margins (2.54cm). Talks may be given in-person or online. There will be a reduced conference fee for students (including PhD students) and participants from lower-income countries.

Abstracts can only be submitted through the EasyAbs platform. If you do not already have an EasyAbs account, first make a free account on EasyAbs, and then submit your abstract to the Bantu 11 conference, following the formatting guidelines above. Please ensure that the abstract file is anonymous (including the filename) and in .pdf format. Please add the code for the relevant workshop (e.g. ‘WS01’) or use ‘GS’ to indicate a submission to the general session, and add 3-5 keywords that describe your submission (e.g. ‘phonology’, ‘sociolinguistics’, ‘Southern Bantu’). If you are submitting a single-authored paper, please indicate whether you expect to be present in Ghent. If you are submitting a co-authored paper, please indicate how many authors expect to be present in Ghent.

If you have any issues with the EasyAbs platform, try refreshing the page, use another web browser, check the EasyAbs website (https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/about/), or contact the Bantu11 organizing committee at Bantu11@UGent.be.

We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts and to welcoming you all to Ghent!

First circular

The Bantu 11 conference webpage is now online. You will find here all key information, which will be updated gradually. For the time being, it informs you about the conference venue and important dates to keep in mind.

The first deadline is October 15^th, 2025 (23:59 UTC/GMT+2), for the submission of workshop proposals. Send us by then your abstract of not more than 1000 words including references and the first line of linguistic example sentences to Bantu11@UGent.be. Please specify the names of the workshop convenor(s), but do NOT include a list of possible papers/presenters. We will publish the selected workshops on the conference website no later than November 1, 2025.

The second deadline will be for abstracts for papers, on December 1^st, 2025 (23:59 UTC/GMT+2). Abstract submissions will be open from November 1^st until this deadline. Please do NOT send us any paper proposals before this period, so that you can indicate if you wish to submit your paper to a specific workshop or the general session.  More details about the abstract submission procedure will follow in due time.

The conference venue will be Campus Ledeganck near the Ghent University Museum and Botanical Garden. This is in the neighbourhood of Gent-Sint-Pieters station, the city’s main train station, which is directly connected with Brussels Airport and reachable from all main European train stations, including Leiden (Netherlands), where the 55^th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL 2026) will take place from August 24^th till August 26^st, 2026. The city also hosts a Flixbus terminal near the Gent Dampoort train station, which is well connected to major cities across Europe, including Rotterdam and The Hague, from where one can take a train to Leiden.

Please click here for an overview of places to stay in the vicinity of the conference venue. For other places to stay and things to do, please consult the Visit Gent website.

We are looking forward to receiving your workshop proposals and to welcoming you all in Ghent!

Initial announcement

The BantUGent team is happy to welcome you to the city of Ghent (Belgium) for the 11th International Conference on Bantu Languages (Bantu11). It will take place from August 18 to August 21, 2026, just before the 55^th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL 2026) in Leiden (the Netherlands) from August 24^th till August 26^st, 2026. A first call for papers and workshops will follow early September 2025. All questions can be sent to Bantu11@UGent.be.

Venue

The Bantu 11 conference will be hosted at Campus Ledeganck near the Ghent University Museum and Botanical Garden. This campus is in the neighbourhood of Gent-Sint-Pieters station. An overview of places to stay in the vicinity of the conference venue is available here. Other places to stay and things to do can be found on Visit Gent website.

Important dates

• October 15, 2025: deadline for workshop submission
• November 1, 2025: announcement of selected workshops
• December 1, 2025 December 8, 2025: deadline for abstract submission
• January 15, 2026: notifications of acceptance
• February 15, 2026 March 18, 2026: opening of registration (early bird till April 1 May 1)
• June 15, 2026 July 9, 2026: registration deadline for on-campus participation
• August 17, 2026: registration deadline for online participation
• August 18-21, 2026: conference

Workshops

The conference will include a general session which welcomes contributions on any aspect of the Bantu languages, alongside the following workshops:

• WS01 Unravelling the knots of not: Exploring lesser-known negative patterns in Bantu
• WS02 Swahili, Sabaki, and Beyond:Integrating New Data and Perspectives on the East African Coast
• WS03 Clause Chaining in Bantu languages: Narrative verb sequences with and without-morphological marking
• WS04 Renewing Bantu Lexical Reconstruction
• WS05 Interdisciplinary perspectives on Bantu language history
• WS06 The effects of maximality constraints on verb structure
• WS07 Ethnolinguistics, Ethnobiology and Biodiversity / WS07 Ethnolinguistique, ethnobiologie et biodiversité
• WS08 Phonetic and phonological documentation: the role of Bantu in establishing new standards for the discipline
• WS09 Irregular sound change in Bantu
• WS10 Advances and developments in cross-Bantu typology: Empirical, comparative and methodological approaches
• WS11 Nominal Classification in Bantu or the Semantax of the Noun / WS11 Classification nominale en bantou ou la semantaxe du nom

Program

Please find here a provisional overview of the keynote talks, the workshops and the papers accepted for presentation.

Registration

Click here to register and get an overview of registration fees. Early bird rates are available until May 1.

Organizing committee