Kongo language
Kongo or
Kikongo is the
Bantu language spoken by the
Bakongo people living in the tropical forests of
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo and
Angola. It was the base for
Kituba, a Bantu creole and
lingua franca throughout much of western central
Africa. It was spoken by many Africans from the region who were taken into slavery and sold to
the Americas. For this reason, while Kikongo still is spoken in
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo and
Angola, Creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of African derived religions in
Brazil,
Jamaica and
Cuba, and is one of the sources of the
Gullah peoples language. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kikongo, with perhaps two million more who use it as a
second language.
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Map of the area where Kikongo and Kituba as the lingua franca are spoken |
It is also the base for a
creole used throughout the region:
Kituba also called
Kikongo de L'état or
Kikongo ya Leta ("Kikongo of the state" in
French or Kikongo),
Kituba and
Monokituba (also
Munukituba). The constitution of the Republic of the Congo uses the name
Kitubà, and the one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo uses the term
Kikongo, even if Kituba is used in the administration.
* The
English word "goober", meaning
peanut, comes from the Kongo word "nguba".
* While the complete
Christian Bible was first published in Kikongo in
1905, Kikongo was the earliest
Bantu language which was committed to writing and had the earliest dictionary of any
Bantu language. A catechism was produced under the authority of Diogo Gomes, a Jesuit born in Kongo of European parents in 1557, but no version of it exists today. In 1624 Mateus Cardoso, another Jesuit edited and published a Kikongo translation of the Portuguese catechism of Marcos Jorge. The preface informs us that the translation was done by Kongo teachers from São Salvador (modern Mbanza Kongo) and was probably partially the work of Felix do Espirito Santo (also a Kongo). The dictionary was written in about 1648 for the use of Capuchin missionaries and the principal author was Manuel Robredo, a secular priest from Kongo (who became a Capuchin as Francisco de São Salvador). In the back of this dictionary is found a sermon of two pages written only in Kikongo. The dictionary has some 10,000 words.
*
Ethnologue entry for the Kongo language*
Kongo - English Dictionary
