Kituba

Kituba, Munukutuba ; kituba, munukutuba, munu kutuba, kikongo ya léta
Spoken in	Democratic Republic of the Congo , Republic of the Congo, and Angola
speaker	1 million in the Republic of the Congo, 4 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Linguistic ; classification	Creole languages Congo-based creole languages Kituba ;
Official status
Official language in	Republic of the Congo
Other official status in	Democratic Republic of Congo
Language codes
ISO 639 -1	-
ISO 639 -2	crp (other creole language)

Kituba , also known as Munukutuba , munu kutuba , kikonga ya léta or kikongo du gouvernement , is a Creole language in Central Africa and is mainly spoken in the Congo states ( Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo ; excluding Cabinda , formerly Portuguese Congo).

Kituba and Kikongo

See also under Kikongo .

Kituba is a simplification of the Kikongo . Kituba is sometimes spoken as a first language today.

history

From time immemorial, the speakers of the various Kikongo dialects used a greatly simplified form of their language in trade outside of their ancestral territory in order to be able to communicate across dialect borders and with trading partners further east. The result was a Kikongo pidgin , which spread upstream along the Congo and was brought further inland by the Europeans as colonization progressed. Trade, mission and colonization thus contributed to the spread of the Kituba. The spread was also favored by the significantly simpler grammar compared to the Kikongo and by the fact that the Congo (see also: Kingdom of the Congo ) had already communicated in this language with non-Kikongo speakers in this language before the colonization. Even today, Kituba is often seen as the language of colonization.

classification

Distribution of the Congo languages Kikongo and Kituba

Kituba is a creole language based on the Bantu language Kikongo. SIL distinguishes Kituba (Kituba in the Republic of the Congo) and kikongo ya léta (Kituba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) as two different languages. Various other reference works, however, only refer to them as regionally different forms of the same language. The United Nations has two translations of the Declaration of Human Rights , one for each Republic of the Congo. However, these differ only marginally.

status

The 2002 constitution of the Republic of the Congo first used the term “Kituba”, replacing the name “Munukutuba”, which had been used for the national language in earlier constitutions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Kikongo is the official language and is also used as an official language in the western provinces of Lower Congo and Kinshasa . However, it is not specified which dialect is meant. In most cases, the administration uses Kituba, here called "government" or "state Kikongo" ( kikongo ya léta ).

font

Since the script, as with other Bantu languages , was first introduced by the Europeans, the Latin alphabet is used for Kituba . The Mandombe script, developed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is also used, especially in Kimbanguist circles .

alphabet

A a	B b	D d	E e	F f	G g	I i	K k	L l	M m	Mb mb	Mf mf	Mp mp	Mv mv	N n	Nd nd
Ng ng	Nk nk	Nl nl	Ns ns	Nt nt	Nz nz	O o	P p	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	Y y	Z z

grammar

Classes

class	Nominal prefix	example	translation
1	mu-	muzombi	(the hunter
2	ba-	bazombi	(the hunters
3	mu-	mulangi	bottle
4th	mini	milangi	Bottles
5	di-	dinkondo	banana
6th	ma-	mankondo	Bananas
7th	ki-	kiti	chair
8th	bi-	biti	Chairs
9	n- / m-	nzo	House , houses
11	lu-	lusuki	poil
11a	n- / m-	nsuki	poils
12	ka-	kamwana	very small child
13	tu-	tubana	House , houses
14th	bu-	bunduki	gun
14a	ma-	manduki	Rifles
19th	fi- / kq-	fimasa	a little water
21st	ku-	kudya	eat

Web links

Congo-Brazzaville , Aménagement linguistique dans le monde.
Grammar kikongo ya leta, description (French)
Dictionary french - kikongo ya léta

Wikipedia on Kikongo