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

Lingala

A language of Democratic Republic of the Congo

ISO 639-3: lin

Population	2,040,000 in Democratic Republic of the Congo (2000). L2 speakers together with Bangala [bxg] in Democratic Republic of the Congo: 7,000,000 (1999 WA). Population total all countries: 2,141,300.
Region	Widespread in Bandundu, Equateur, and Orientale provinces, southeast Orientale. Also in Central African Republic, Congo.
Language map	Northern Democratic Republic of Congo
Alternate names	Ngala
Dialects	Similar to Lusengo [lse], Bangala. Lexical similarity: 33% with Bobangi [bni].
Classification	Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, C, Bangi-Ntomba (C.40), Lusengo
Language use	National language.
Language development	Dictionary. Bible: 1970–2000.
Writing system	Latin script.
Comments	SVO.

Also spoken in:

Congo

Language name	Lingala
Population	90,600 in Congo (2000).
Region	Mainly Brazzaville and north.
Alternate names	Ngala
Language use	National language.
Language development	Literacy rate in L1: 10%–30%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–75%.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BUELL, Dana, compiler. Available: 2012; Created: 2005-2012. Bibliography (mostly DRC, plus Central Africa and other topics).  

HARRISON, Annette, author. 2008. Directives in Lingala: participation and subjectivity in a Congolese women's church group.

LEITCH, Myles, author. 2005. "Aspects of multilingualism in the Lingala zone of Congo."  

PHILLIPS, John, author. 1992. Developing a sentence repetition test to study Lingala bilingualism.

Vernacular Publications

Lisolo ya kande: mokanda ya bayekoli. 2006.