Lwalu language

Last updated
Lwalu
Lwalwa
Native to Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region Kasai-Occidental province
Native speakers
 (21,000 cited 1971) [1]
Dialects
  • Mbagani
  • Lwalwa
Language codes
ISO 639-3 lwa
Glottolog lwal1238 [2]
L.221 [3]

Lwalu, also known as Lwalwa, is a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its classification is uncertain: Nurse (2003), following Ahmed (1995), assigns all of Guthrie's L.20 languages to Luban, including Lwalu.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Country in Central Africa

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, the DRC, DROC, Congo-Kinshasa, East Congo, or simply the Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. It is sometimes anachronistically referred to by its former name of Zaire, which was its official name between 1971 and 1997. It is, by area, the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in all of Africa, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of over 78 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populated officially Francophone country, the fourth-most-populated country in Africa, and the 16th-most-populated country in the world. Currently, eastern DR Congo is the scene of ongoing military conflict in Kivu, since 2015.

The Luban languages are a group of Bantu languages established by Christine Ahmed (1995). They constitute half of Guthrie's Zone L. The languages, or clusters, along with their Guthrie identifications, are:

Maho (2009) lists L.22 Mbagani (which has no ISO code) as closely related. Mbagani is also called Binji, and has been confused in the literature with the Binji language. Ethnologue labels the area Maho assigns to Mbagani as Songe.

Binji is a Bantu language of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Maho (2009) states that it is close to Songe, which is otherwise isolated within the Luban languages established by Ahmed (1995).

<i>Ethnologue</i> database of worlds languages published on web and in print

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It was first issued in 1951, and is now published annually by SIL International, a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization. SIL's main purpose is to study, develop and document languages to promote literacy and for religious purposes.

Songe, also known as Songye, Kisonge, Lusonge, Yembe, and Northeast Luba, is a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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References

  1. ↑ Lwalu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Lwalu". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
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