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Bwa

A language of Democratic Republic of the Congo

ISO 639-3: bww

Population	200,000 (1994 SIL).
Region	Orientale Province, Buta, Bambesa, Banalia, Aketi, and Bondo territories. Buta is center. Kiba is in Banalia Territory; Benge and Bati in Aketi and Bondo territories.
Language maps	Northern Democratic Republic of Congo Northern Democratic Republic of Congo
Alternate names	Boa, Boua, Bua, Kibua, Kibwa, Libenge, Libua, Libwali
Dialects	Leboa-Le, Yewu, Kiba, Benge, Bati (Baati). Lexical similarity: 90% with the Benge and Bati dialects, 80%–85% with Pagibete [pae], 60% to 80% with Kango [kty], 60%–65% with Ngelima [agh], 55%–60% with Lika [lik], 48% with Komo [kmw], 43% with Bali [bcp], 37% with Ngombe [ngc], 35% with Budza [bja], 30% with Lingala [lin].
Classification	Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, C, Ngombe (C.50)
Language development	Bible portions: 1938.
Writing system	Latin script.
Comments	Most people in Buta and Bambesa territories speak similar dialects. Clan names: Bangingita, Bagunzulu, Bokipa. Different from Bua [bub] of Chad. The Ngombe group is sometimes called Bantu C.40. Some noun classes have suffixes in addition to the usual prefixes.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BOONE, Douglas W.; OLSON, Kenneth S., authors. 1995. "Bua bloc survey report."

BOONE, Douglas W.; OLSON, Kenneth S., authors. 2004. "Bwa bloc survey report."  

WIT, Gert de, editor. 1995. Compendium of survey reports volume 3: other Bantu languages.