Lingala language

This article is about the Lingala language. For Lingala Music, see Soukous. For other uses, see Lingala (disambiguation).

"Ngala language" redirects here. For Ba-Ngala, see Bangala language.

Lingala
Lingála
Spoken in	Democratic Republic of the Congo  Republic of the Congo
Region	Central and Eastern Africa
Native speakers	2.1 million  (2000) 7 million second-language speakers in DRC, including Bangala (1999); unknown number R. Congo
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu (Zone C) Bangi–Ntomba (C.30) Zamba–Binza Losengo Lingala
Dialects	Bangala
Writing system	African reference alphabet (Latin), Mandombe
Official status
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ln
ISO 639-2	lin
ISO 639-3	lin
Linguasphere	99-AUI-f
Geographic distribution of Lingala speakers, showing regions of native speakers (dark green) and other regions of use
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Lingala, or Ngala, is a Bantu language spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) and a large part of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), as well as to some degree in Angola and the Central African Republic. It has over 10 million speakers. It is classified C.36D under the Guthrie system for classifying Bantu languages and C.40 under the SIL system.

History

Lingala originated from boBangi, a language that was spoken along the Congo River between Lisala and Kinshasa. Bobangi functioned as a regional trade language before the creation of the Congo Free State. In the last two decades of the 19th century, after the forces of Leopold II of Belgium conquered the region and opened it to commercial exploitation, Bobangi came into wider use. The colonial administration, in need of a common language for the region, started to use the language for missionary and administrative purposes, calling it Bangala to set it apart from the old Bobangi. Naturally, the language developed the typical characteristics of a common vernacular: compared to local Bantu languages, its sentence structure, word structure and sounds are much simplified, and its speakers liberally borrow words and constructs from other languages they happen to know.

Around 1900, CICM missionaries started a project to 'purify' the language in order to make it 'pure Bantu' again. Meeuwis (1998:7) writes:

[M]issionaries, such as the Protestant W. Stapleton and later, and more influentially, E. De Boeck himself, judged that the grammar and lexicon of this language were too poor for it to function properly as a medium of education, evangelization, and other types of vertical communication with the Africans in the northwestern and central-western parts of the colony (..). They set out to 'correct' and 'expand' the language by drawing on lexical and grammatical elements from surrounding vernacular languages.

Meanwhile, the importance of Lingala as a vernacular has grown together with the size and importance of its main center of use, Kinshasa; e.g. Lingala has spread with the popularity of soukous music, which originates from Kinshasa.

Name

The name Lingala first appears in a written form in a publication by the C.I.C.M. missionary Egide De Boeck (1903). It avoids confusion: the Bangala (lit. "river people") are the people who live alongside the Congo River,^[1] while many others use Lingala as a first, second or third language.

Characteristics and usage

Lingala has many borrowings from French, even in its basic vocabulary. The language also contains some Portuguese influence, such as its words for butter (mántéka), table (mésa), shoes (sapátu), and some English or Dutch influences; for instance, the word for milk (míliki), book (búku),^[2] or motor-car (mótuka).^[3] In practice, the extent of borrowing varies widely with speakers, and with the occasion.

Variations

The Lingala language can be divided in several dialects or variations. The major variations are considered to be Standard Lingala, Spoken Lingala, Kinshasa Lingala and Brazzaville Lingala.

Standard Lingala (called lingala littéraire or lingala classique in French) is mostly used in educational and news broadcastings on radio or television, in religious services in the Catholic Church and is the language taught as a subject at all educational levels. Standard Lingala is historically associated with the work of the Catholic Church and missionaries. It has a seven-vowel system /a/ /e/ /ɛ/ /i/ /o/ /ɔ/ /u/ with an obligatory tense-lax vowel harmony. It also has a full range of morphological noun prefixes with mandatory grammatical agreement system with subject–verb, or noun–modifier for each of class. Standard Lingala is largely used in formal functions.

Spoken Lingala (called lingala parlé in French) is the variation mostly used in the day-to-day lives of Lingalaphones. It has a full morphological noun prefix system, but the agreement system is more lax than the standard variation, i.e. noun-modifier agreement is reduced to two classes. Regarding phonology, there is also a seven-vowel system but the vowel harmony is not mandatory. This variation of Lingala is historically associated with the Protestant missionaries' work. Spoken Lingala is largely used in informal functions, and the majority of Lingala songs use spoken Lingala over other variations. Modern spoken Lingala is increasingly influenced by French; French verbs, for example, may be "lingalized" adding Lingala inflection prefixes and suffixes: "acomprenaki te" or "acomprendraki te" (he did not understand, using the French word comprendre) instead of classic Lingala "asímbaki ntína te" [literally: s/he grasped/held the root/cause not].

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

IPA	Example (IPA)	Example (written)	Meaning	Notes
i	/lilála/	lilála	orange
u	/kulutu/	kulutu	oldest child
e	/eloᵑɡi/	elongi	face
o	/mobáli/	mobáli	masculine	pronounced slightly higher than the cardinal o, realized as [o̝]
ɛ	/lɛlɔ́/	lɛlɔ́	today
ɔ	/ᵐbɔ́ᵑɡɔ/	mbɔ́ngɔ	money
a	/áwa/	áwa	here

Vowel harmony

Lingala words show vowel harmony to some extent. The close-mid vowels /e/ and /o/ normally do not mix with the open-mid vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in words. For example, the words ndɔbɔ 'fishhook' and ndobo 'mouse trap' are found, but not *ndɔbo or *ndobɔ.

Vowel shift

The Lingala spoken in Kinshasa shows a vowel shift from /ɔ/ to /o/, leading to the absence of the phoneme /ɔ/ in favor of /o/. The same occurs with /ɛ/ and /e/, leading to just /e/. So in Kinshasa, a native speaker will say mbóte as /ᵐbóte/, compared to the more traditional pronunciation of /ᵐbɔ́tɛ/.

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal	m		n				ɲ
Plosive	p	b	t	d					k	ɡ
Fricative	f	v	s	z	ʃ	(ʒ)
Approximant			l				j

IPA	Example (IPA)	Example (written)	Meaning
p	/napɛ́si/	napɛ́sí	I give
ᵐp	/ᵐpɛᵐbɛ́ni/	mpɛmbɛ́ni	near
b	/boliᵑɡo/	bolingo	love
ᵐb	/ᵐbɛlí/	mbɛlí	knife
t	/litéja/	litéya	lesson
ⁿt	/ⁿtɔ́ᵑɡɔ́/	ntɔ́ngó	dawn
d	/daidai/	daidai	sticky
ⁿd	/ⁿdeko/	ndeko	sibling, cousin, relative
k	/mokɔlɔ/	mokɔlɔ	day
ᵑk	/ᵑkóló/	nkóló	owner
ɡ	/ɡalamɛ́lɛ/	galamɛ́lɛ	grammar
ᵑɡ	/ᵑɡáí/	ngáí	me
m	/mamá/	mamá	mother
n	/bojini/	boyini	hate
ɲ	/ɲama/	nyama	animal
f	/fɔtɔ́/	fɔtɔ́	photograph
v	/veló/	veló	bicycle
s	/sɔ̂lɔ/	sɔ̂lɔ	truly
ⁿs	/ɲɔ́ⁿsɔ/	nyɔ́nsɔ	all
z	/zɛ́lɔ/	zɛ́lɔ	sand
ⁿz (1)	/ⁿzáᵐbe/	nzámbe	God
ʃ	/ʃakú/	cakú or shakú	African grey parrot
l	/ɔ́lɔ/	ɔ́lɔ	gold
j	/jé/	yé	him; her (object pronoun)
w	/wápi/	wápi	where

(1) [ᶮʒ] is allophonic with [ʒ] depending on the dialect

Prenasalized consonants

The prenasalized stops formed with a nasal followed by a voiceless plosive are allophonic to the voiceless plosives alone in some variations of Lingala.

• /ᵐp/: [ᵐp] or [p]

  e.g.: mpɛmbɛ́ni is pronounced [ᵐpɛᵐbɛ́ni] but in some variations [pɛᵐbɛ́ni]

• /ⁿt/: [ⁿt] or [t]

  e.g.: ntɔ́ngó is pronounced ⁿtɔ́ᵑɡó but in some variations [tɔ́ᵑɡó]

• /ᵑk/: [ᵑk] or [k]

  e.g.: nkanya (fork) is pronounced [ᵑkaɲa] but in some variations [kaɲa]

• /ⁿs/: [ⁿs] or [s] (inside a word)

  e.g.: nyɔnsɔ is pronounced [ɲɔ́ⁿsɔ] but in some variations [ɲɔ́sɔ]

The prenasalized voiced occlusives, /ᵐb/, /ⁿd/, /ᵑɡ/, /ⁿz/ do not vary.

Tones

Lingala being a tonal language, tone is a distinguishing feature in minimal pairs, e.g.: moto (human being) and motó (head), or kokoma (to write) and kokóma (to arrive). There are two tones possible, the normal one is low and the second one is high. There is a third, less common tone – starting high, dipping low and then ending high – all within the same vowel sound, e.g.: bôngó (therefore).

Tonal morphology

Tense morphemes carry tones.

• koma (kom^L-a : write) inflected gives
  • simple present ^L-a^L :

    nakoma na^L-kom^L-a^L (I write)

  • subjunctive ^H-a^L :

    nákoma na^H-kom^L-a^L (I would write)

  • present:

    nakomí na^L-kom^L-i^H (I have been writing)

• sepela (se^Lpel-a : enjoy) inflected gives
  • simple present ^L-a^L :

    osepela o^L-se^Lpel^L-a^L (you-SG enjoy)

  • subjunctive ^H-a^L :

    ósepéla o^H-se^Lpel^H-a^H (you-SG would enjoy)

  • present ^L-i^H:

    osepelí o^L-se^Lpel^L-i^H (you-SG have been enjoying)

Grammar

Main article: Lingala grammar

Noun class system

Like all Bantu languages, Lingala has a noun class system in which nouns are classified according to the prefixes they bear and according to the prefixes they trigger in sentences. The table below shows the noun classes of Lingala, ordered according to the numbering system that is widely used in descriptions of Bantu languages.

class	noun prefix	example	translation
1	mo-	mopési	servant
2	ba-	bapési	servants
3	mo-	mokíla	tail
4	mi-	mikíla	tails
5	li-	liloba	word
6	ma-	maloba	words
7	e-	elokó	jar, stone bottle
8	bi-	bilokó	jars, stone bottles
9	m-/n-	ntaba	goat
10	m-/n-	ntaba	goat (pl.)
9a	Ø	sánzá	moon
10a	Ø	sánzá	moon (pl.)
11	lo-	lolemo	tongue
14	bo-	bosoto	dirt

Individual classes pair up with each other to form singular/plural pairs, sometimes called 'genders'. There are seven genders in total. The singular classes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 take their plural forms from classes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, respectively. Additionally, many household items found in class 9 take a class 2 prefix (ba) in the plural: lutu > balutu 'spoon', mesa > bamesa 'table', sani > basani 'plate'. Words in class 11 usually take a class 10 plural. Most words from class 14 (abstract nouns) do not have a plural counterpart.

Class 9 and 10 have a nasal prefix, which assimilates to the following consonant. Thus, the prefix shows up as 'n' on words that start with t or d, e.g. ntaba 'goat', but as 'm' on words that start with b or p (e.g. mbisi 'fish'). There is also a prefixless class 9a and 10a, exemplified by sánzá > sánzá 'moon(s) or month(s)'. Possible ambiguities are solved by the context.

Noun class prefixes do not show up only on the noun itself, but serve as markers throughout the whole sentence. In the sentences below, the class prefixes are underlined. (There is a special verbal form 'a' of the prefix for class 1 nouns.)

• molakisi molai yango abiki (CL1.teacher CL1.tall that CL1:recovered) That tall teacher recovered
• bato bakúmisa Nkómbó ya Yɔ́ (CL2.people CL2.praise name of You) (Let) people praise Your name (a sentence from the Lord's Prayer)

Only to a certain extent, noun class allocation is semantically governed. Classes 1/2, as in all Bantu languages, mainly contain words for human beings; similarly, classes 9/10 contain many words for animals. In other classes, semantical regularities are mostly absent or are obscured by many exceptions.

Verb inflections and morphology

Verbal extensions

There are 4 morphemes modifying verbs. They are added to some verb root in the following order :

1. Reversive (-ol-)

   e.g.: kozinga to wrap and kozingola to develop

2. Causative (-is-)

   e.g. : koyéba to know and koyébisa to inform

3. Applicative (-el-)

   e.g. : kobíka to heal (self), to save (self) and kobíkela to heal (someone else), to save (someone)

4. Passive (-am-)

   e.g. : koboma to kill and kobomama to be killed

5. Reciprocal or stationary (-an-, sometimes -en-)

   e.g. : kokúta to find and kokútana to meet

Tense inflections

The first tone segment affects the subject part of the verb, the second tone segment attaches to the semantic morpheme attached to the root of the verb.

• present perfect (LH-í)
• simple present (LL-a)
• recurrent present (LL-aka)
• undefined recent past (LH-ákí)
• undefined distant past (LH-áká)
• future (L-ko-L-a)
• subjunctive (HL-a)

Writing system

Lingala is more a spoken language than a written language, and has several different writing systems. Most of those are ad hoc. Due to the low literacy of Lingala speakers in Lingala (in the Republic of the Congo literacy rate in Lingala as a first language is between 10% to 30%), its popular orthography is very flexible and varies from one Congo to the other. Some orthographies are heavily influenced by the French language orthography; including double S, ss, to transcribe [s] (in the Republic of the Congo); ou for [u] (in the Republic of the Congo); i with umlaut, aï, to transcribe [áí] or [aí]; e with acute accent, é, to transcribe [e]; e to transcribe [ɛ], o with acute accent, ó, to transcribe [ɔ] or sometimes [o] in opposition to o transcribing [o] or [ɔ]; i or y can both transcribe [j]. The allophones are also found as alternating forms in the popular orthography; sango is an alternative to nsango (information or news); nyonso, nyoso, nionso, nioso (every) are all transcriptions of nyɔ́nsɔ.

In 1976 the Société Zaïroise des Linguistes (Zairian Linguists Society) adopted a writing system for Lingala, using the open e (ɛ) and the open o (ɔ) to write the vowels [ɛ] and [ɔ], and sporadic usage of accents to mark tone. Also, the limitations of input methods prevents Lingala writers from easily using the ɛ and ɔ and the accents. For example, it is almost impossible to type Lingala according to that convention with a common English or French keyboard. The convention of 1976 reduced the alternative orthography of characters but did not enforce tone marking. The lack of consistent accentuation is lessened by the disambiguation due to context.

The popular orthographies seem to be a step ahead of any academic based orthography. Many Lingala books, papers, even the translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more recently, Internet forums, newsletters, and major websites, such as Google's Lingala, do not use Lingala specific characters (ɛ and ɔ). Tone marking is in most literary works.

Alphabet

The Lingala language has 35 letters and digraphs. The digrams each have a specific order in the alphabet, for example mza will be expected to be ordered before mba, because the digram mb follows the letter m. The letters r and h are rare but present in borrowed words. The accents indicate the tones :

• no accent for default tone, the low tone
• acute accent for the high tone
• circumflex for descending tone
• caron for ascending tone

		Variants	Example
a	A	á â ǎ	nyama, matáta, sâmbóle, libwǎ
b	B		bísó
c	C		ciluba
d	D		madɛ́su
e	E	é ê ě	komeka, mésa, kobênga
ɛ	Ɛ	ɛ́ ɛ̂ ɛ̌	lɛlɔ́, lɛ́ki, tɛ̂
f	F		lifúta
g	G		kogánga
gb	Gb		gbagba
h	H		bohlu (bohrium)
i	I	í î ǐ	wápi, zíko, tî, esǐ
k	K		kokoma
l	L		kolála
m	M		kokóma
mb	Mb		kolámba, mbwá, mbɛlí
mp	Mp		límpa
n	N		líno
nd	Nd		ndeko
ng	Ng		ndéngé
nk	Nk		nkámá
ns	Ns		nsɔ́mi
nt	Nt		ntaba
ny	Ny		nyama
nz	Nz		nzala
o	o	ó ô ǒ	moto, sóngóló, sékô
ɔ	Ɔ	ɔ́ ɔ̂ ɔ̌	sɔsɔ, yɔ́, sɔ̂lɔ, tɔ̌
p	p		pɛnɛpɛnɛ
r	R		malaríya
s	S		kopésa
t	T		tatá
u	U	ú	butú, koúma
v	V		kovánda
w	W		káwa
y	Y		koyéba
z	Z		kozala

Sample

Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer (Catholic version)

Tatá wa bísó, ozala o likoló,

bato bakúmisa Nkómbó ya Yɔ́,

bandima bokonzi bwa Yɔ́, mpo elingo Yɔ́,

basálá yangó o nsé,

lokóla bakosalaka o likoló

Pésa bísó lɛlɔ́ biléi bya mokɔlɔ na mokɔlɔ,

límbisa mabé ma bísó,

lokóla bísó tokolimbisaka baníngá.

Sálisa bísó tondima masɛ́nginyá tê,

mpe bíkisa bísó o mabé.

Na yɔ́ bokonzi,

nguyá na nkembo,

o bileko o binso sékô.

Amen.

The Lord's Prayer (Protestant version used in Ubangi-Mongala region)

Tatá na bísó na likoló,

nkómbó na yɔ́ ezala mosanto,

bokonzi na yɔ́ eya,

mokano na yɔ́ esalama na nsé

lokola na likoló.

Pésa bísó kwanga ekokí lɛlɔ́.

Límbisa bísó nyongo na bísó,

pelamoko elimbisi bísó bango nyongo na bango.

Kamba bísó kati na komekama tê,

kasi bíkisa bísó na mabé.

Mpo ete na yɔ́ ezalí bokonzi,

na nguyá, na nkembo,

lobiko na lobiko.

Amen.

See also

• Wiktionary Lingala Swadesh List

Bibliography

• Van Everbroeck, René C.I.C.M. (1985) Lingala – Malóba ma lokóta/Dictionnaire. Editions l'Epiphanie. B.P. 724 LIMETE (Kinshasa).
• Edama, Atibakwa Baboya (1994) Dictionnaire bangála–français–lingála. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique SÉPIA.
• Etsio, Edouard (2003) Parlons lingala / Tobola lingala. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7475-3931-8
• Bokamba, Eyamba George et Bokamba, Molingo Virginie. Tósolola Na Lingála: Let's Speak Lingala (Let's Speak Series). National African Language Resource Center (May 30, 2005) ISBN 0-9679587-5-X
• Guthrie, Malcolm & Carrington, John F. (1988) Lingala: grammar and dictionary: English-Lingala, Lingala-English. London: Baptist Missionary Society.
• Meeuwis, Michael (1998) Lingala. (Languages of the world vol. 261). München: LINCOM Europa. ISBN 3-89586-595-8
• Meeuwis, Michael (2010) A Grammatical Overview of Lingála. (Lincom Studies in African Linguistics vol. 81). München: LINCOM Europa. ISBN 9783862880232.
• Samarin, William J. (1990) 'The origins of Kituba and Lingala', Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 12, 47-77.
• Bwantsa-Kafungu, J'apprends le lingala tout seul en trois mois'. Centre de recherche pédagogique, Centre Linguistique Théorique et Appliquée, Kinshasa 1982.
• Weeks, John H. (Jan/Jun 1909). "Anthropological Notes on the Bangala of the Upper Congo River" (– ^{Scholar search}). The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 39: 97–136. doi:10.2307/2843286. JSTOR 03073114. weeks1909. ^{[dead link][dead link]}

References

1. ^ #Reference-weeks1909
2. ^ Le grand Dzo : nouveau dictionnaire illustré lingala-français / Adolphe Dzokanga. – 3e éd. Bonneuil sur Marne : A. Dzokanga, 1995
3. ^ [Lingala – Malóba ma lokóta/Dictionnaire. René Van Everbroeck C.I.C.M. Editions l'Epiphanie. B.P. 724 LIMETE (Kinshasa)]

External links

• (French) Initiation to Lingala
• Rosetta Project – Lingala
• Lingala Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• UCLA Language Profiles : Lingala
• Google in Lingala
• Ethnologue report on Lingala (previous version)
• Inflections: Problems
• Small Collection of Lingala Online resources
• Parallel French-Lingala-English texts
• PanAfriL10n page on Lingala
• Maneno (African blogging platform) in Lingala
• Basic Lingala language course (book + audio files) USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI)