1 CLASSIFICATION
AND WHERE SPOKEN
Sango, the lingua franca related to Ngbandi of Adamawa Eastern, is spoken primarily
in the Central African Republic, where it is widespread. In addition, one finds
some limited usage in border areas of neighboring countries, especially Chad.
2 NUMBER OF SPEAKERS
Grimes (1996; citing UBS 1995) gives a figure of 4.9 million speakers. Earlier estimates ranged from one million (Voegelin and Voegelin 1977) and 1.5 million (Thomas 1981) to 1.8 million UBS (1982), including first- and second-language speakers.
3 DIALECT SURVEY
Samarin considers the relationship between Sango and Ngbandi to be analogous to that of African Pidgin English, while Thomas (1981) is content to say that Sango and Ngbandi are similar enough to be considered dialects.
4
USAGE
Sango is a national language of the Central African Republic and has great importance
as a commercial language on the Ubangi River throughout this area. Sango is
frequently broadcast on radio and television by Radio-Television Centrafricaine.
5
ORTHOGRAPHIC STATUS
Since January 28, 1984, the government of the Central African
Republic has codified by law the official orthography of Sango based on research
by l'Institut National d'Éducation de Formation and l'Institut de Linguistique
Appliquée, University of Bangui, Ministry of Education and Educational Reform
(Diki-Kidiri, personal communication, 1985). Current orthographic work by these
institutions involves elaborating an orthographic dictionary and developing
materials using the new official orthography.
6
SETS OF LEARNING MATERIALS
Because there are no divergent forms of the lingua franca,
one set of learning materials would be sufficient.
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