Lingala (lingála)

Lingala is a Bantu language spoken by about 10 million people mainly in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) and in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). There are also Lingala speakers in Angola and the Central African Republic.

Lingala contains numerous words borrowed from French, and has also been influenced by Portuguese, English and Dutch to some extent. There are a number of dialects of Lingala, the main ones being Standard Lingala, which is used in the media, education and relgious services; Spoken Lingala; Kinshasa Lingala, and Brazzaville Lingala.

Lingala was first written by missionary in about 1900. Today there are various ways to write Lingala, all of which use the Latin alphabet. There is no standard spelling system and literacy in Lingala is very low among Lingala speakers.

Lingala pronunciation

Lingala has four tones which are sometimes indicated in writing as follows:

no accent for default tone, the low tone
acute accent <á> for the high tone
circumflex accent <â> for descending tone
caron <ǎ> for ascending tone

Sample text

Bato nyonso na mbotama bazali nzomi pe bakokani na limemya pe makoki. Bazali na mayele pe base, geli kofanda na bondeko okati na bango.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Language courses for Lingala (en français)

Links

Information about the Lingala language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingala_language

Online Lingala lessons (in French)
http://perso.orange.fr/pascal.grouselle/

Other Niger-Congo languages

Akan, Bambara, Bemba, Chichewa, Duala, Ewe, Ewondo, Ga, Ganda, Herero, Igbo, Kirundi, Kpelle, Lingala, Mende, Shona, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Twi, Wolof, Xhosa, Yorùbá, Zulu

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet