The multilingual setting in Nyanjida contributes to a conceptual system reflective of all languages of a person's repertoire, drawing on many different ways of categorizing the natural world. Applying a multilingual perspective when analyzing classification can reveal patterns and complexities that might not be visible when focusing on just one language.
​

Classification schemes are complex, involving social, cultural, and linguistic influences. In Nyanjida, classification comprises a layering of broad classifications like ANIMAL, thematic classifications that transcend typical taxonomic classifications, cultural classifications passed down through narratives, edibility classifications, and individual, family, or group perspectives. Plants are classified on multiple levels, many of which are distinguished along a scale of different qualities of size, utility, habitat, and growth habit. Here are a few examples to show the resourcefulness of multilingual analysis in ethnobiological classification.

​

The category of GRASS is referred to as úndi in Vute, zṍ in Gbaya, huɗo in Fulfulde, hòì in Mbum, and herbes in French, yet each language-specific classification may differ by which species are included in that category and which species are considered prototypical. Speakers of these languages may draw on any of these available classification schemes.

 

One language may lexicalize a conceptual category, while another does not. Multilingual analysis can evidence the existence of an unnamed category. Vute does not name the category INSECT, yet other languages evidence the category by lexicalizing it.

​

People in Nyanjida perceive species relationships that transcend standard categorization schemes. In Vute, 'praying mantis' is generally called nɨ̃́ŋgɨ̃̀ŋ. Children will refer to it as jà ɲṍṍne, literally meaning 'mother of snake'. This term imparts information about the conceptual system of the relationship between ‘snake’ and ‘praying mantis'. This was reified by the name given in French, in which several people gave the calque mère de serpent ‘mother of snake’.

 

Documenting the names for domestic papaya and custard apple, a wild tree species, in several languages revealed a conceptual relationship that transcends standard classification schemes, evident through cross-linguistic lexical analysis.

 

​