Lega is a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

, or

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

, of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. There are two major varieties, Shabunda Lega and Mwenga Lega; Mwenga Lega, with about 10% of speakers, finds Shabunda difficult to understand. ''Kanu'' has been assigned a separate ISO code but is a dialect of Shabunda, and no more divergent than other dialects. Variant spellings of 'Lega' are ''Rega, Leka, Ileka, Kilega, Kirega.'' Shabunda is also known as ''Igonzabale'', and Mwenga as ''Shile'' or ''Ishile''. Gengele is reported to be a Shabunda-based creole. According to ''Ethnologue'', Bembe is part of the same dialect continuum. Nyindu is a dialect of Shi that has been heavily influenced by Lega.

References

Lega-Binja languages {{Bantu-lang-stub