Lingala

History

At the 19th century, the bobangi was the common language in the country Ngala, on the edges of the Congo river, since the mouth of the river Kasaï with that of the Ubangi, along this one to the mouth of the Ngiri. After 1880, the language was called bangala by the Westerners. It is in this area that was established the Bangala Station, which left room to the port of News-Antwerp, today Makanza, one of the first stations established on the river by the African International association of the State independent of Congo, halfway between Léopoldville (today Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (today Kisangani). These three stations were besides the first to accommodate beyond the Low-Congo a catholic mission as of 1899. In 1900, the name lingala was generally used to indicate the language. The name bangala is now that of another language more in the east, in the Orientale province.

The lingala is largely spread today, in Congo-Kinshasa (DRC) and in Congo-Brazzaville, where it became a regional language, largely used in the media, the army, official discourses, but also in the popular song. In addition to the French, it is one of the four national languages of Congo-Kinshasa, beside the Kikongo, of the Swahili and the Tchiluba. The lingala gradually supplanted the kikongo with Kinshasa, where this last was however the common language of origin.

The success and the expansion of the lingala during the second part of the XXe century, and in particular at the time of the Zaire, must in particular with the fact that it was largely promoted by Mobutu Sese Seko, native of the area lingalaphone. The lingala was in particular the principal language of the Zairean army.

Classification

The lingala belongs to the family of the Langues bantoues. The term indicated in the beginning the language of a Ethnie, but it indicated as of the end of the 19th century a Common language, near of a language called lobangi or bobangi , and is resulting from a mixture between several languages bantoues spoken by the inhabitants about the area of the river Congo, she thus generally considered as inter-ethnic language.

Classification of Guthrie: C.36d, group C.30
Classification of the SIL: C.40
Cut Bastin Classification//Mann: c.36

Geographical distribution

The lingala is spoken like native tongue in both Congo, the major part of the speakers being in Congo-Kinshasa. With its statute of common language, the lingala is also spoken in Angola and Central African Republic. Since the Congolese music is popular in central Africa, it is possible to hear words in lingala on the two sides of central Africa, of Kenya in Cameroun.

Official statute

The lingala has the vehicular statute of national language like the kitubà with the Congo-Brazzaville. With the Congo-Kinshasa, the lingala has a statute of national language at the side of the Kikongo, Kiswahili and Tchiluba. French is the official language in these two countries.

Dialects

The lingala has several dialects, recovering a linguistic territory broad and divided by administrative borders or long distances.

Bokamba and Bokamba divide the various dialects of lingala in the following way:

lingala standard, known as traditional or literary, or lingala of Makanza
lingala spoken, known as popular
lingala of Kinshasa
lingala of Brazzaville
mangala or bangala - regarded as language derived because often mutually inintelligible with the other dialects from lingala

Traditional Lingala

The traditional lingala is the variety used in several institutions of education and information as well at the national level as at the regional level. This alternative comes from the translations, of which one of the Bible, and the efforts of standardization of the Catholic church. The traditional lingala indicates other dialects by its number of vowels, seven vowels, by a vocalic Harmonie obligatory and by the use of all the grammatical suffixes.

Spoken Lingala

The lingala spoken is an alternative cash as many nominal prefixes than the traditional lingala, but less grammatical agreement between those and the other suffixes. The subject-verb agreement is maintained but tiny room to 10 classes, while the substantive-adjective agreement is simplified with 2 classes. The septs vowels are also used, but the vocalic harmony is not applied. Its development is mainly due to the various Protestant missions, of which a translation of the Bible. This alternative of the lingala is probably the form most spoken through the areas lingalaphones of both Congo, even in their capitals. It is the form of lingala more spoken in the life about the every day. Although this form is most widespread, the lingala traditional preserve the title of standard lingala. The two dialects are sometimes used in different contexts. For example the traditional lingala is used in the official meetings, certain media or the formal situations, but the spoken lingala is used in the abstract situations. A majority of the popular songs in lingala, between 60 and 65%, use the spoken lingala.

Lingala de Kinshasa

The lingala of Kinshasa is the dialect used with the daily newspaper with Kinshasa, often used in the entertainments on television or with the radio. This form of lingala comprises many loans of French and is sometimes regarded as a Creole but these loans can also be codic alternations made by bilingual people. For example:

- < U > likambo yangó ya sɔ̂lɔ́ tǒ lokúta? is

this history true or false?

- Oyébi yě bien!

You know it well!

- In any case , nasepélí míngi.

In any case, I delighted much.

- Vraiment nǎzokámwa!

I am really astonished!

Derived languages

The bangala, spoken more in the East of the territory about the lingala, is generally regarded as a language with whole share.

The frangala , a widespread form of lingala among the diaspora and in certain urban centres, strongly resembles a creole language with much of words of vocabulary of French, and is characterized by grammatical agreements limited to two or four nominal classes.

Writing

The lingala being more one oral language that a written language, its speakers use several written forms. The majority are not standardized. Because the whole of the speakers lingalaphones has a low rate of alphabetism in lingala, the popular orthography is very flexible and varies from one Congo to another - in Congo-Brazzaville, the rate of alphabetism in lingala as native tongue is between 10% and 30%, whereas that of French is higher. Enough often the orthography is influenced by the French orthography: with the double S, “S”, to transcribe; “or” for; I with dieresis, “have” for; E acute accent, “E” for; “E” for the sound, O acute accent, “ó” for and sometimes contrary to “O” for or; I or Y for. The same word can be found with as many orthographies as the regional pronunciations, for example: “nyonso”, “nyoso”, “nionso”, “nioso” are all of the popular orthographies of nyɔ́nsɔ .

In 1976, the Zairean Company of the linguists adopted a conventional written form for the Zairean languages, of which the lingala. This system is based on the African international Alphabet (AIA), an almost phonetic orthography, with the E open “ɛ” and O open “ɔ” to transcribe the vowels and, as well as a sporadic use of the accents to indicate the intonations. Unfortunately for this orthographical convention, there is no system of entry, neither keyboards nor typewriters, making it possible to use the letters ɛ and ɔ, and the accents. This convention standardized the use of the letters in the academic mediums, but leaves the intonations to goodwill people. The lack of standardization in the stressing is not an main issue thanks to the context of the words in the sentences and paragraphs.

The popular orthographies took a foot in advance on the conventional orthography because they can be typed on a French or English keyboard. Many books, of essays, the lingala translation of the Universal declaration of the rights of the person and more recently, the forums, the mailing lists and Internet sites, like Google in lingala, do not use the characters suitable for the lingala (ɛ and ɔ).

Alphabetical order

The alphabet lingala is organized in different ways according to the schools or the linguists.

Some use only the letters monograms, others fully recognize the digraphs and trigrams as a graphèmes with share.

According to the linguists of the CELTA, the digraphs have each one a specific order, for example: “mǐso” must be classified before “mba” because the digraph “mb” follows the letter “m”. The letters “R” and “H” are used for the borrowed words. The digraphs “mv”, “MF” are very rare.

The academic lingala has 39 letters, digraphs or trigrams.

Value of the graphèmes

The accents indicate tons them vowels to which they stick, the Acute accent indicates a high tone, the Circumflex accent indicates a variable tone going down and the accent antiflexe (circumflexe reversed) indicates a variable tone going up.

Mandombe writing

The lingala is also transcribed with the Mandombe instead of the Latin writing in the communities kimbanguist S.

Pronunciation

Vowels

In certain dialects or variations of the lingala, the vowels/ɛ/and/ɔ/are wired for sound with their closed forms and, generally under the influence of the languages of the speakers.

Consonants

In certain varieties of the lingala:

, and is Allophone S of //

Prénasalisation

The lingala contains several prenasalized occlusive consonants:

The occlusive consonants deaf prenasalized are often substituted by their equivalents not prenasalized - except in lingala traditional:

/ᵐp/ : or *: e.g.: mpɛmbɛ́ni is marked but sometimes
/ⁿt/: or *: e.g.: ntɔ́ngó is marked ⁿtɔ́ⁿgó but sometimes
/ᵑk/: however *: e.g.: nkanya is marked but sometimes
/ⁿs/: however *: e.g.: nyɔnsɔ is marked but sometimes

The occlusive consonants sound prenasalized,/ᵐb/,/ⁿd/,/ᵑɡ/,/ⁿz/do not vary in general.

Coarticulation

Perhaps the coarticulées consonants /ɡ͡b/,/ᵑɡ͡b/and /k ͡p/are rare and come from loans or contacts with the Sudanese languages. Those are marked like such in the dialects of the areas of origin of the lingala, but are often replaced by /g ʷ/,/ᵑɡʷ/and /k ʷ/in the other areas. For example the word engbunduka (train) is pronounced in Makanza and Kinshasa. This transformation is also found in the orthography. The difference in pronunciation is simply the closing of the lips: is pronounced with the initially closed lips while initially opened them.

The consonants /b ʷ/, /m ʷ/,/ᵐbʷ/,/ᵐfʷ/, /n ʷ/,/ⁿdʷ/,/ᵑgʷ/,/ᵑkʷ/,/ⁿsʷ/,/ⁿtʷ/,/ⁿzʷ/, /p ʷ/, /s ʷ/, /z ʷ/are the shapes of consonants pronounced with the initially round lips.

Phonology

Vocalic harmony

In lingala traditional, the words follow a Synharmonisme. The half-closed vowels /e/ and /o/ are not in words containers the half-open vowels/ɛ/and/ɔ/. For example: ndɔbɔ (hook of fishing) and ndobo (catch-mouse) exists but *ndɔbo and *ndobɔ does not exist. The vocalic harmony can also apply to the morphological prefixes; this one is not indicated in the academic orthography, the prefix does not change orthography.

When a nominal prefix, and infinitive, are attached to a word they are not generally subject to this rule, however the vocalic harmony is sometimes applied to the prefixes of common noun only in certain recent dialects of lingala. For example mokɔlɔ is pronounced in these dialects, but as in the standard lingala, komɔ́nɔ will remain marked.

The verbal suffixes are prone to this synharmonism, generally between /a/ and/ɛ/. For example, the suffix - ákí, becomes - ɛ́kí with the verb kokɛndɛ and ɔ́kí with the verb komɔ́nɔ :

Bakɛndɛ́kí wápi ? - are Oú parties?

Bamɔ́nɔ́kí níni ? - What did they look at?

The ending of infinitive undergoes also this vocalic harmony, but is not always obligatory. For example komɔ́nɔ and komɔ́na , or kokɛndɛ and kokɛnda all is used.

Prosody

In addition to the tonic accent, let us tons them high and normal, the lingala has dynamic accents, of duration and intensity, which are well marked and fall on the first syllable from the radical. When that there is more than two other syllables after this initial syllable of the radical, the penultimate syllable, the penultimate one, receives an additional accent.

For example:

sálá: * likambo: * bakopalanganisa:

Phonetic evolution

The lingala being a language having largely evolved/moved during last century, it presents many variations. In addition to its exposure to many other languages bantoues or European, the language evolves/moves still much at present.

Vowel shift

The spoken lingala with Kinshasa presents a Vowel shift of half-open vowels towards half-closed vowels, becomes, and becomes. Kinois will pronounce “mbɔ́tɛ” instead of a more traditional pronunciation.

Grammar

The grammar of the lingala varies according to the register of language used. The grammatical order is generally the same one between the various dialects but the agreements vary according to the dialect, or the sociolecte.

The traditional lingala is the variation with the most rules of grammatical agreements. These agreements relate to the class of the nouns and their adjectives or verbs of which they are the subjects, or of which they are the objects in constant language.

Classes

The system of common nouns lingala is based on a whole of nominal classes organized in pairs singular-plural, or marking invariable names of collective names or abstract names.

Mo-/ma (1-2)
Mo-/mi (3-4)
Li-/ma (5-6)
e-/bi- (7-8)
n-/n- or m-/m- (9-10)
lo-/n- (11-10)
bo-/ma- (14-6)

Class 6 my is used for much liquid or matter which do not have a form singular: mái, “water”, mafúta, “oil”, etc

The nominal prefix sticks to the common noun; the pronominal prefix sticks to the adjective granted with this one; the verbal prefix sticks to the verb; the infix pronominal one clings directly to the radical of the verb

molakisi molái yangó abíkí (CL1.instructor CL1.grand who CL1: to cure) This large instructor is cured.
bato bakúmisa Nkómbó ya Yɔ́ (CL2.personnes CL2.louer name of you) (That) your Name is rented (extracted the Our Father)

The traditional lingala has a complex system of prefixes. In general, in the lingala running, only the nominal prefixes are used according to the rules. The pronominal prefixes are simplified, as well as the verbal prefixes of the 3rd person simplified with “has” and “Ba” for the people or animated and “E” and “bi-” for the inanimate ones.

The current trend is to simplify the system of classes, much of traditional forms of plural are replaced by the use of the “Ba” of class 2. For example, much of terms indicating of the objects of the house belong to class 9 in the singular and 2 in the plural, for example: lutu > balutu “spoon”, mesa > bamesa “table”, sani > basani “plate”.

The infix pronominal ones are almost not used in agreement with the class in lingala spoken, put aside in certain areas of the province of Ecuador. They are used in the lingala known as traditional or literary.

Classes 9 and 10 have prefix nasal, which is in fact a prenasalisation of the consonant which follows it, and thus can be “m” or “N”, for example mbata and ntaba .

The pronominal prefixes E for the singular and Ba or I for the plural of not-animated are usually used in the place of those indicated in this table. Those presented in the table being once again limited to the traditional or literary lingala.

The infix one - mí-, to indicate the reflexive one, is used at the same time in the spoken lingala and the literary lingala.

The prefix KB is used for the infinitive of the verbs. The literary lingala, has an additional prefix for infinitive, No, which gets busy like circumstantial complement of goal. For example:

: Tokoya nosála mosála. - We will come to work.

Prefixes and infix

Verbal prefixes (subject)

the verbal prefix of the 3rd person inanimate is granted according to the class of the literary subject in lingala. In lingala spoken, the class of inanimate is quasi all the time ignored by simplification.

Infix verbal (object)

Only the infix reflexive one “- mí-” is used in lingala spoken. It is used independently of the person or the number.

In lingala literary:

- m or - N in agreement with the consonant which follows, for example: mb or Nd ; and - nz- in front of a Semivowel for example: yamba (to receive, accommodate), banzambí (they received me, they accommodated me)
the infix one is in agreement with the class of the word, to see the table of the classes.

In lingala spoken and literary:

Infix semantic

There are several infix semantic in lingala. Those make it possible to modify the direction of the verbs, and sometimes the mode or the time of conjugation. Those stick directly following the root of the verb, thus preceding the Désinence. For example the verb kokanga , “to seize, bind, close”, with the root - kanga ( - kang- and the ending - has ) and its reversive form is kokangola , “to untie, open”, with the kokangola root ( - kang- , reversive the - ol- and the ending - has ).

applicatif - el-
causative - is-
stand - passive year
- reversive amndt
- ol-/-w-
stand - Al
repetition, practice - ak-

Conjugation

The verbs lingala are combined by adding prefixes and suffixes to the root. Certain suffixes of time modify the tone of the prefixes of the verb, or the semantic suffixes attached to this one. In the tables which follow, the prefixes Na (1 sg.) or Ba (3 pl.), and the suffix - ak- (usual) carries sometimes the high tone following the inflection.

The lingala uses several modes: the indicative , the Imperative , the Subjunctive and the Infinitive .

In lingala traditional, semantic suffixes being attached to the verb, like - ak- in the tables, follows a vocalic Harmonie with the vowel of the root of the verb. For example for the verb kokɛndɛ: KB + kɛnd + ak + has → KB + kɛnd + ɛk + ɛ = kokɛndɛkɛ, marked /k ɔkɛndɛkɛ/. In lingala spoken, the form will remain /kok ɛndaka/.

Indicative mode

(1): shortening present in certain variations of the spoken lingala (lingala of Kinshasa or Brazzaville).

; With infix - the ak- usual:

Imperative mode

Subjunctive mode

Infinitive mode

Lexicon

Examples

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