1 CLASSIFICATION
AND WHERE SPOKEN
Lingala belongs to the Ngala Group of Bantu (Guthrie C36) and is spoken along
the Lomami, the Ubangi, and the Zaire rivers as far as Kinshasa in Zaire, as
well as up the Sangha River through Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African
Republic.
2 NUMBER OF SPEAKERS
UBS (1982) notes an exaggerated figure of 8.4 million speakers, the same figure that Grimes (1996) cites as including second language speakers. World Almanac (1998) estimates 8 million total speakers. Heine (1970), citing Roberts (1962), gives 1.2 million.
3 DIALECT SURVEY
No dialect survey has come to our attention as of this writing. There are many varieties of Lingala. Most materials are prepared in one of two styles, either in classical/literary Lingala or in popular Lingala. It is felt by many that the two varieties are not mutually intelligible.
4
USAGE
Lingala is primarily a lingua franca throughout the area described above. It
is also used in the Zairian army and in schools. Lingala is broadcast in Zaire
(La Voix du Zaïre and Radio Candip), in the Congo (La Voix de la Révolution),
and in Angola (Radio Nacional de Angola).
5
ORTHOGRAPHIC STATUS
A standardized orthography exists, although tone is not marked
in any books.
6
SETS OF LEARNING MATERIALS
One set of materials should be sufficient.
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