Your all full of (???????)
I suppose this israther rude, so forget I wrote it. (but I won"t erase it)

I hate experts, anyway. The now defunct Fraternity of 5 string banjoists of America which estimated that there were 400 or so banjo players in the whole world, (200 known) swho's membership included me, Roger Sprung, Tom Paley, Pete Seeger, Marshal (Grandpa) Jones, Uncle Dave Macon, String Bean, Earl Scruggs,Don Reno, Ralph Stanley etc, etc, etc, in 1953. Had rooms full of Documentation as to the following:

The Banjo was the outright invention of Joel Walker Sweeney, a classical. guitarist of Appomatox, Virginia who knew the sound that he wanted and set about acquiring it. He wanted an instrument with greater intonation and volume than was afforded with the guitars of the day. His invention, he freely admits, was inspired by an African Instrument called a Banjya. Sweeney's banjo has a body like a more sturdily constructed tambourine with a calfskin head, fastened down with brackets like on a drum, so the skin head could be stretched evenly and accurately over the wooden,. circular frame AND COULD BE TUNED TO "C". Today's bamjo's should, also, be tuned to "C". It has a frettless neck and like today's banjo's a shorter 5 th string which was also the lightest guage. The shorter, lightest string more evenly distributed the pressure exerted on the head by the bridge and precluded the necessity for bracing and/or struts. The Two instruments are constructed quite differently. The African Instrument had a hollow square box with a doghide head tacked over it. the head could not be adjusted once installed. It had a long slender neck with three strings, very much like the Japanese Samisen, which no one in the Western World had seen at that time in history.
There was no gradual evolution from the bajnya to the banjo. Sweeny got the idea for the banjo from the bajnya but placed side by side,there is no doubt that the banjo is an outright invention. Sweeny invented his instrument in 1853. Furthermore, he was left handed and the 5th string of the first banjo WHICH IS ON DISPLAY IN A PRIVATE MUSEUM IN lOS aNGELES cALIFORNIA, is on the opposite side of the neck than is customary.

Joel Sweeney, during the American Civil War, was an Officer in the Confederate Army, and was a member of Jeb Stuart's regiment. There are many accounts preserved in l;etters and logs of how much the soldiers enjoyed Sweeney performances of Mozart and Bach as well as contemporary music. Joel Walker Sweeney survived the war and lived to be an old. old man.

Don't ever trust an expert, dig out the facts for yourselves Both the Enclopaedia Brittanica and Americana have material supporting this .
The "Banjo has 5 strings, the "Banjorine" also has 5 strings, but the neck is much smaller and pitched 5 half tones higher. The "Plectrum Banjo" Arthur Peobody's instrumenthas 4 strings, the same length as the Banjo, but, as you'd suppose is played with a plectrum. sThe "Tenor banjo" has a short neck and is tuned in 7ths (as opposed to 5ths for the others) and is primarily a rhythm instrument. The Banjo Mandolin (My first instrument) has a mandoline-like neck on a banjo frame.