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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Democratic Republic of the Congo > Bila

Bila

A language of Democratic Republic of the Congo

ISO 639-3: bip

Population	40,000 (1993 SIL).
Region	Orientale Province, Ituri District, Irumu Territory.
Language map	Northern Democratic Republic of Congo
Alternate names	Ebila, Forest Bira, Kibila, Western Bila
Dialects	Bombi-Ngbanja, Nyaku. Lexical similarity: 94% between dialects. Closely related to other ‘Bira’ languages: lexical similarity 80% with Kaiku [kkq], 72% with Bhele [bhy], 70% with Komo [kmw], nearly 60% with Bera [brf] and Amba [rwm], 46% with Beeke [bkf], 45% with Bwa [bww], 40% with Lika [lik] and Bali [bcp], 26% with Mbo [zmw], 22% with Budu [buu] and Ndaka [ndk].
Classification	Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, D, Bira-Huku (D.30)
Language use	About 25% of men, 10%–15% of women have routine proficiency in Congo Swahili [swc], older adults have none.
Comments	Traditional religion, Christian, Muslim.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BOONE, Douglas W., author. 1995. "Bila survey report."  

KUTSCH LOJENGA, Constance, author. 2003. "Bila (D32)."

WIT, Gert de, editor. 1995. Compendium of survey reports volume 1: Bira-Huku group of Bantu.  

WIT-HASSELAAR, Alie de, author. 1995. "Bira - Huku wordlists."