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Kituba (, ) is a widely used
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
in
Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...
. It is a
creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...
based on Kikongo, a
Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
. It is a national language in
Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...
and
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
.


Names

Kituba is known by many names among its speakers. In academic circles the language is called ''Kikongo-Kituba''. In the
Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...
it is called ''Munukutuba'', a phrase which means literally "I say", and is used in the Republic's 1992 constitution. The latter (''Kituba'') means "way of speaking" and is used in the 2015 constitution. In the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
it is called ''Kikongo ya leta'' ("the state's Kikongo" or "Government Kikongo"), or Kikongo de l'État, shortened to ''Kileta''. Confusingly, it is also called ''Kikongo'', especially in areas that lack Kongo (Kikongo) speakers, namely the Kwango and Kwilu Provinces. The constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo lists "Kikongo" as one of the national languages. The Kikongo spoken alongside Lingala in urban centres is in fact Kituba. There are also other historical names such as ''Kibula-matadi'' (literally "the stone-breaker's speech"), (literally "be not", "it isn't so"), ''Kikwango'',, ''Bastard kikongo'' and ''Kizabave'' (literally "do not know"), but they have largely fallen out of use.


Geographic distribution

The majority of Kituba speakers live in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is spoken as the primary lingua franca in the provinces of
Kongo Central Kongo Central (), formerly Bas-Congo, is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Matadi. History At the time of independence, the area now encompassing Kongo Central was part of the greater province of ...
,
Kwango Kwango is a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of the 21 provinces created in the 2015 repartitioning. Kwango, Kwilu, and Mai-Ndombe provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Bandundu province. K ...
and Kwilu and to a lesser extent in
Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...
, Mai-Ndombe and Kasai. Kituba is spoken in the southern of the Republic of Congo, in regions of Kouilou, Pointe-Noire, Niari, Bouenza, Lékoumou and in the capital
Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
.
Lingala Lingala (or Ngala, Lingala: ) is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser de ...
is more popular in the north. Kituba is also spoken in the northern part of Angola, since modern nations cut across the lines of tribal areas and ancient kingdoms, and northern Angola borders the Kwango Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo which is a strong Kituba-speaking area.2022 Annual Report, Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project, ECM, Hebron, IN Although mutually intelligible, there are differences, mainly in vocabulary, between the eastern and western areas of The Democratic Republic of Congo, and still more between the Kituba spoken there and that spoken in Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo).


Official status

Kituba is a national language in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In practice the term ''national language'' means that it is a language of regional administration, elementary education, and business. A national language is also one that is used for public and mass communication. National public radios and televisions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Republic of Congo use Kituba as one of their main languages for evening news.


History

There are several theories on how Kituba came into being. One theory claims that it had already evolved at the time of the Kongo Kingdom as a simplified interdialectal trade language, which the European colonists subsequently took into use for regional administration. Another theory claims that a simplified trade language called Kifyoti was developed at the Portuguese coastal trading 18 post and it was later spread upstream by the Christian missionaries to the region between the Kwango and the Kasai rivers where it evolved further (hence the name Kikwango). Yet another theory emphasizes the construction of the Matadi-
Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...
railroad at the end of the 1800s, which involved forced labour from
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
, lower Congo, and the neighbouring Bandundu region. The workers had diverse linguistic backgrounds which gave birth to a grammatically simplified language. Harold W. Fehdereau, a linguist and missionary, carried out a major linguistic survey of Kituba-speaking areas under the joint auspices of the American Bible Society and the American Mennonite Brethren Mission. He published his work in a Kituba-French-English dictionary in 1969. He traced the development of Kituba back to the 1800s or earlier, necessitated by the inter-tribal needs of the Congolese themselves, and later, their relationship with slave traders. Then in the early 1900s, the Belgian and French colonization of the area brought further need for a convenient language of communication with the Congolese. He admits that we do not have a very complete picture of the development of Kituba before the 1930s, when it came into wide use by Christian missionaries. He notes that many today have grown up knowing Kituba as their mother tongue, and at the same time, it has reached some complexity of grammar unusual to pidgin languages. He notes that there is an increasing tendency, particularly in the western Kituba-speaking region, to borrow words from French, adding Kituba prefixes and suffixes for everyday usage. Regardless of the genesis, Kituba established itself in the large towns that were found during the colonial period between 1885 and 1960. Kituba is spoken as the primary language in the large Bakongo cities of
Moanda Moanda may refer to * Moanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo * Moanda, Gabon, a town in Gabon ** Moanda railway station, a train station in Moanda, Gabon ** Moanda Airport, an airport in Moand ...
, Boma, Matadi, Pointe-Noire, Dolisie, Nkayi, and
Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
and also in large non-Bakongo cities of Bandundu, Kikwit, and Ilebo. It is the main language spoken throughout the modern provinces of Kwango and Kasai. A dialect called 'Monokutuba' is spoken in Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo). The first portions of the Bible were published in 1934, followed by the New Testament in 1950. A revision was published in 1957. The complete Bible was published in 1982, all by the Bible Society of Congo. The
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...
has published a translation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kituba.


Differences between Kikongo and Kituba

Some examples of differences between Kikongo (Kisikongo, Kizombo, Kisolongo, Iwoyo, Kiyombe, Kisingombe, Kintandu, Kimanianga, Kindibu, Civili, Tsiladi (Lari), etc.) and Kituba (or Kikongo ya leta, Munukutuba, Monokutuba): 1. Conjugation: In Kikongo, the conjugation of a tense to different persons is done by changing verbal prefixes, unlike in Kituba: ''Example: verb "to be" conjugated in the present in Kikongo and Kituba'': ''2. Negative form'' ''3. The way to say "My name is" is different'' : ''4. Noun classes'' : noun prefixes are not completely the same (cf. the Kikongo and Kituba grammars)


Phonology


Vowels

Kituba has five vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/. They are very similar to the vowels of Spanish. Vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress. The vowels are pronounced as follows: * /a/ is pronounced like the "a" in father * /e/ is pronounced like the "e" in bed * /i/ is pronounced like the "i" in ski or ring * /o/ is pronounced like the first part of the "o" in home, or like a tenser version of "o" in "lot" * /u/ is pronounced like the "oo" of fool


Consonants

;Notes: * Word-initial voiceless prenasalized consonants are reduced to simple consonants in some dialects: and become and in Kituba of Pointe-Noire. * Some dialects add stop to prenasalized alveolar fricatives: and become and ''ndzila''. * Alveolar fricatives may become postalveolar ( or ) before /i/.


Grammar


Pronouns

Kituba has subject and object pronouns. The object pronouns are used in place of subject pronouns when the subject is being emphasized.


Nouns

Kituba has kept by and large the noun classes of ethnic Kikongo with some modifications. The classes 9 and 11 have in effect merged with the singular class with zero prefix, and their plural is formed with generic plural class prefix ''ba-''.


Verbs

Kituba has a well-developed verbal system involving
grammatical tense In grammar, tense is a grammatical category, category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their grammatical conjugation, conjugation patterns. The main tenses found ...
and aspect. Most verb forms have long and short versions. The long forms are used in formal written communication whereas the short forms have developed for spoken communication. The irregular conjugation of the verb or (to be) is presented in the table below. It is the only irregular verb in Kituba. All other verbs are conjugated with the help of auxiliary verbs. The conjugation of the verb (to do) is presented in the table below.


Voice

The suffix indicating
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...
is adding after the verb root and before the suffix indicating tense. The most common forms are "ila", indicating action to or toward someone, and "ana", indicating mutual or reciprocal action: Kutanga "to read", Tangila "read to", Tangilaka "read to" (past) Sadisa "to help", Sadisana "help one another", Sadisanaka "helped one another (past)


Dictionary

A Kituba-English-French dictionary compiled by linguist Harold W. Fehderau, Ph.D., was published in 1969. It is not widely available.


Lexicon

The bulk of Kituba words come from Kikongo. Other Bantu languages have influenced it as well, including Kiyaka, Kimbala, Kisongo, Kiyansi,
Lingala Lingala (or Ngala, Lingala: ) is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser de ...
, and Swahili. In addition, many words have been borrowed from French, Portuguese, and English. These include: * sandúku (Swah. sanduku) "box", the Swahili word comes from Arabic صندوق (ṣandūq) * matáta (Swah. matata) "trouble" * letá (Fr. ''l'état'') "state" * kamiyó (Fr. ''camion'') "truck" * sodá/solodá (Fr. ''soldat'') "soldier" * masínu (Fr. ''machine'') "machine" * mísa (Port. ''missa'') "mass" * kilápi (Port. ''lápis'') "pen" * katekisimu (Eng. ''catechism'') * bóyi (Eng. ''houseboy'') * sapatu (Port. ''sapato'') "shoe" * mesa (Port. ''mesa'') "table" * dikopa (Port. ''copa'') "cup" * simisi (Fr. ''chemise'') "shirt"


Sample text

Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...
translates to: :''Bantu nyonso, na mbutukulu kevwandaka na kimpwanza ya bawu, ngenda mpe baluve ya mutindu mosi. Mayela na mbanzulu ke na bawu, ni yawu yina bafwana kusalasana na bumpangi.'' :"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."


Literature

In 2018, a book (''Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: Mbandu ya luzingu'' by Protais Yumbi) written in Kikongo ya Leta was nominated for the Grand Prix of Literary Associations. A hymnbook, ''Bankunga ya Kintwadi'' (Songs of Fellowship) was published in 1988 by the Mennonite Brethren Mission. It is widely used by numerous Protestant denominations. Almost a hundred Kituba-language books and articles have been published by Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project. These include articles on Christian education, Bible lessons for children and youth, teacher training, health, and a variety of other topics. These are available on-line and at bookstores and libraries within the Democratic Republic of Congo.


See also

* Habla Congo, in Cuba


References


Bibliography

* Diener, Ingolf; Maillart, Diana.(1970).Petit vocabulaire Francais-Anglais-Munukutuba. Pointe-Noire. * Jean-Alexis Mfoutou, ''Parlons munukutuba : Congo-Brazzaville, République démocratique du Congo, Angola,'' Paris, Editions L'Harmattan, 2019, 426 pages. * Jean-Alexis Mfoutou, ''Pour une histoire du munukutuba, langue bantoue,'' Paris, Editions L'Harmattan, 2019, 130 pages. * Jean-Alexis Mfoutou, ''Grammaire et lexique munukutuba : Congo-Brazzaville, République Démocratique du Congo, Angola,'' L'Harmattan, 2009, 344 p. (ISBN 2296226736 et 9782296226739, présentation en ligne, lire en ligne). * Khabirov, Valeri.(1990). Monokutuba. Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. "Soviet Encyclopedia". P. 309-310 (In Russian) * Fehderau, H., 1966. ''The Origin and Development of Kituba''. PhD dissertation, Cornell University.


External links


Weblink

Learn Kituba (Kikongo ya leta) on Learn101

Learn Kituba (Kikongo ya leta) on ilanguages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kituba Language Languages of the Republic of the Congo Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Bantu-based pidgins and creoles Kongo language