In this article, we present a qualitative and quantitative comparative account of Final Vowel Loss (fvl) in the Bantu languages of the Lower Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We argue that this diachronic sound shift rose relatively late in Bantu language history as a contact-induced change and affected adjacent West-Coastal and Central-Western Bantu languages belonging to different phylogenetic clusters. We account for its emergence and spread by resorting to two successive processes of language contact: (1) substrate influence from extinct hunter-gatherer languages in the center of innovation consisting of Bantu B80 languages, and (2) dialectal diffusion towards certain peripheral Bantu B70, C80, H40 and L10 languages.

在本文中，我们对刚果民主共和国下开赛地区班图语中的最终元音丢失 ( fvl ) 进行了定性和定量比较。我们认为，这种历时的声音转变在班图语言历史中相对较晚出现，是一种接触引起的变化，并影响了属于不同系统发育簇的相邻的西海岸和中西部班图语言。我们通过两个连续的语言接触过程来解释它的出现和传播：（1）在由班图 B80 语言组成的创新中心受到灭绝的狩猎采集语言的基础影响，以及（2）向某些外围班图 B70 语言的方言扩散、C80、H40 和 L10 语言。