Bangala language

Not to be confused with Bangla language, Mbangala language, or Ngala language.

Bangala
Ngala
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Haut-Uele District
Native speakers	unknown (undated figure of "few") 3.5 million L2 speakers (1991)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu (Zone C) Bangi–Ntomba (C.30) Bangi–Moi Bangi Lingala? Bangala
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bxg
Glottolog	bang1353
Guthrie code	C30A

Bangala is a Bantu language spoken in the northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in South Sudan, and the extreme western part of Uganda. A divergent form of Lingala, it is used as a lingua franca by people with different languages and rarely as a first language. The estimated number of speakers varies between 2 and 3.5 million. It is spoken to the east and northeast of the area where Lingala is spoken.

History

As Lingala spread west and south, its vocabulary was replaced more and more by tribal and regional languages, and it became more of an interlanguage (a language that is a mix of two or more languages) and was classified as a separate language - Bangala. The vocabulary varies, depending on the first language of the speakers.

Around the 1980s, with the popularity and increased availability of Lingala in modern music, young people in large villages and towns began adopting Lingala so much that their Bangala is becoming more of a dialect than a separate language.

Characteristics

In Bangala, the words for six and seven (motoba, sambo) are replaced with the Swahili words sita and saba. Many Lingala words are replaced by words in Swahili, Zande, other local languages, plus English (bilizi is derived from the English word bridge) and, of course, French.

The verb "be" is conjugated differently in Bangala. Below is a comparison with Lingala.

English	Lingala	Bangala
I am	nazali	nazi
you are (singular)	ozali	ozi
he/she is	azali	azi
it is	ezali	ezi
we are	tozali	tozi
you are (plural)	bozali	bozi
they are	bazali	bazi

The verb prefix ko-, meaning "to" in Lingala is instead ku, as it is in Swahili, so "to be" in Bangala is kusala, not kosala. Many other Bangala words have an /u/ sound where Lingala has an /o/ sound, such as bisu (not biso - "we") and mutu (not moto - "person").

External links

• Bangala Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• List of common words in Bangala
• List of common words in Lingala