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Lingala belongs to the Ngala Group of Bantu (Guthrie C36). (Webbook)
Ethnologue gives the classification as: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, C, Bangi-Ntomba (C.40), Lusengo
It is spoken along the Lomami, the Ubangi, and the Zaire rivers as far as Kinshasa in Dem. Rep. of the Congo, as well as up the Sangha River through Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic. (Webbook)
A map from Wikipedia showing distribution of native speakers (dark green) and other regions of use (light green):
According to Ethnologue: 2,037,929 in Democratic Republic of the Congo (2000 WCD). Second-language speakers together with Bangala in Democratic Republic of the Congo: 7,000,000 (1999 WA). ... 90,553 in Congo (2000 WCD)... Population total all countries: 2,139,202.
No dialect survey has come to our attention as of this writing. There are many varieties of Lingala. Most materials are prepared in one of two styles, either in classical/literary Lingala or in popular Lingala. It is felt by many that the two varieties are not mutually intelligible. (Webbook)
[Lingala is] close to Lusengo and Bangala. (Ethnologue)
Lingala is primarily a lingua franca throughout the area described above. (Webbook)
According to Omniglot, literacy in Lingala is very low.
A standardized orthography exists, although tone is not marked in any books. (Webbook)
This Latin-based orthography uses two extended characters (open-e and open-o). The orthography marked with tone (diacritics) is strongly recommended by the CELTA, it is used in some dictionnaries.
According to Omniglot "There is no standard spelling system..." (verify!)
Apparently the recent Mandombe script has been adapted for Lingala. It is not clear to what extent it may actually be used, however.
As reported by Hartell (1993):
a b d e ɛ f i k l m n ny ng o ɔ p s t u w y z
*per the presentation in Systèmes alphabétiques: http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/AfficheTableauOrtho2N.php?choixLangue=lingala
As reported in the Wikipedia article on Lingala:
a b c d e ɛ f g gb h i k l m mb mp n nd ng nk ns nt ny nz o ɔ p r s t u v w y z
See also:
Tokosepelaka míngi na botángi o kásá malúli ma báníngá baíké, bakosɛ́ngɛ te báléndisa bolakisi kóta ya Pútú o kelási ya baíndo. Yangó malámu míngi sɔ̂lɔ́. Kási bandeko ba bísó bâná bakobósanaka te malúli ma pámba pámba makomɔ́nisa moto lokóla mwána mokɛ́. Mwána sɔ́kɔ́ azalí na límpa sikáwa, ekomɔ́nɔ yě sukáli, akobwáka límpa pé akolela sukáli. Loléngé lɔ́kɔ́ sɔ́kɔ́ bakolakisa bísó lingála, kiswahíli, kikɔ́ngɔ́, tsiluba, b.n.b., toébi naíno malámu tɛ́, tokoíbwáka pé tokolela français, flamand, anglais. Wâná níni? Tokomɛmya kóta ya bísó tɛ́; tokoíbébisa bobébisi. Na yangó mindɛ́lɛ́ bakolomɔ́na bǒ bána bakɛ̂ ba bilúlélá pé bakosɛkɛ bísó.
Even though most Unicode fonts have the necessary characters, only a very few have the proper OpenType table definitions to places accents on base glyphs correctly, especially for the open e and the open o. Most fonts will simply misplace the acute, circumflex or caron accents ahead, behind or in case of captital, right in the character. Même si la majorité des polices de caractères Unicode contiennent les caractères lingala, très peu les affichent correctment. La plupart ne place pas les caractères diacritiques sur le e ouvert, le o ouvert, ou les majuscules.
The Liboke ya Congo project and then Éveil du Congo have localized AbiWord. Le projet Liboke ya Congo et ensuite Éveil du Congo ont localisé Abiword.
There are some translated strings on Ubuntu's Rosetta. Quelques chaînes ont été traduitent sur Rosetta.
Congo Chine Telecom (CCT), a company operating in Dem. Rep. of Congo has developed a localised package called "Kit A12+" for mobile phones including Lingala. See http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn/gate/big5/cg.china-embassy.org/fra/jmgx/t286576.htm .
An article by M. Diki-Kidiri, C. Mbodj, and A.B. Edema on computer terminology in Sängö, Wolof, and Lingala is available (en français) at http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/1997/v42/n1/003313ar.pdf
Éveil du Congo Asbl (EDUC) has developed a lexicon of ICT terms in Lingala: "Lexique informatique en lingála." For info, see http://www.educ-drc.org/conceptualisation/lexique.html (As of 2007-6-30, it is not yet on the EDUC website.)
Chanard, Christian (2006), Systèmes alphabétiques des langues africaines, LLACAN, CNRS, http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Lingala," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Lingala_root.html )
Hartell, Rhonda L., ed. (1993), The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and SIL. (The French edition, published the same year, is entitled Alphabets de Langues Africaines).
Leitch, Myles. 2005. "Aspects of Multilingualism in the Lingala Zone of Congo." (SIL Electronic Survey Reports) http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2005-010
Omniglot, "Lingala (lingála)," http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lingala.htm
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Lingala," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lin
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html
Wikipedia, "Lingala," http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingala
______, "Lingala language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingala_language
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