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.
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.
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).
A standardized orthography exists, although tone is not marked in any books.
One set of materials should be sufficient.
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