Mongo language

Not to be confused with Mongo language (Cameroon), Mongol language, or Daju Mongo language.

Mongo
Nkundu
Lomongo
Region	Democratic Republic of Congo
Ethnicity	Mongo people
Native speakers	(400,000 cited 1995) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone C) Bangi–Ntomba Mongo–Bolia Mongo–Nkunda (C.60) Mongo
Language codes
ISO 639-2	lol
ISO 639-3	lol – inclusive code Individual code: ymg  – Yamongeri
Glottolog	mong1338   Mongo bafo1235   Bafoto
Guthrie code	C.61,611; C.36H [2]

Mongo, also called Nkundo or Mongo-Nkundu (Lomongo, Lonkundu), is a Bantu language spoken by several of the Mongo peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mongo speakers reside in the north-west of the country over a large area inside the curve of the Congo River. Mongo is a tonal language.

Dialects

There are several dialects. Maho (2009) lists one of these, Bafoto (Batswa de l'Equateur), C.611, as a separate language. The others are: ^[2]

• Kutu (Bakutu), including Longombe
• Bokote, including Ngata
• Booli
• Bosaka
• Konda (Ekonda), including Bosanga-Ekonda
• Ekota
• Emoma
• Ikongo, including Lokalo-Lomela
• Iyembe
• Lionje, Nsongo, Ntomba
• Yamongo
• Mbole, including Nkengo, Yenge, Yongo, Bosanga-Mbole, Mangilongo, Lwankamba
• Nkole
• South Mongo, including Bolongo, Belo, Panga, Acitu
• Yailima
• Ngombe-Lomela, Longombe, Ngome à Múná

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	plain	p  b	t  d		k  ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐp ᵐb	ⁿt  ⁿd		ᵑk ᵑɡ
Affricate	plain		t͡s  d͡z
	prenasal		ⁿt͡s ⁿd͡z
Fricative	plain	f	s			h
	prenasal		ⁿs
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

• /d͡z/ can be heard as alveolar or dental [d̪͡z̪] and /t͡s/ can be alveolar or postalveolar [t͡ʃ], when before front vowels. ^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Oral literature

In 1921, Edward Algernon Ruskin, a Christian missionary at Bongandanga from 1891 until 1935 in what was then the Belgian Congo, ^[4] published Mongo Proverbs and Fables , with the Mongo text and an English translation. ^[5] As Ruskin explains in the foreword to the book, his goal was to train missionaries in the Mongo language. The book contains 405 Mongo proverbs. Here are some examples:

• "Ntambaka jit'a nkusa." ("You do not go hunting porcupines and collecting bark for making string at the same time.") (#88)
• "Nkema ntawaka ndesanya." ("A monkey is not killed by merely watching it.") (#172)
• "Ise aomaki njoku, beke bempate nko?" ("Your father killed an elephant, then where are your tusks?") (#219)
• "Tusake wese; wunyu botaka 'akata." ("Do not throw away a bone; a piece of lean meat has not yet fallen into your hands.") (#389)

There are also 21 Mongo fables in the book, including a story about Ulu, the trickster Tortoise. ^[6]

In an earlier booklet, Proverbs, Fables, Similes and Sayings of the Bamongo , published in 1897, Ruskin provides a word by word analysis of some Mongo proverbs, often accompanied by a brief fable. ^[7]

In 1909, Frederick Starr published a collection of 150 Nkundo (Mongo) proverbs with English translations, "Proverbs of Upper Congo," ^[8] which he selected from a 1904 publication, Bekolo bi' ampaka ba Nkundo. Bikolongo la nsako. Beki Bakola otakanyaka (Stories of the Elders of Nkundo: Adages and Proverbs Gathered by Bakola) by Bakola, also known as Ellsworth Farris, and Royal J. Dye, missionaries based near Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka). ^[9] Here are some of those proverbs:

• "Bobimbo nko lobya, nk'ome w'etuka." "The bobimbo bears no great flowers, but what large fruit it has (i.e. show is not always a sign of substance)." (#24)
• "Bocik'a nsoso: ng'omanga ntokumba, ifoyala lobi enkolonkoko." "Spare the chicken: if the wild-cat does not take it, it will become large (i.e. do not despise small things)." (#26)
• "Boseka nkoi, lokola nkingo." "The friendship of the leopard, a claw in your neck (i.e. like nursing a serpent)." (#64)
• "Bosai'omonkolo bondotaji mpota, beuma beyokoka l'alongo." "One finger gashed, all the fingers are covered with blood (i.e. if one suffers, all are involved)." (#66)

Starr is also the author of A Bibliography of Congo Languages. ^[10] For more recent bibliography, see A. J. de Rop's La littérature orale mongo, published in 1974. ^[11] For a comprehensive study of Mongo proverbs, see Hulstaert's Proverbes mongo, published in 1958, which contains over 2500 Mongo proverbs with accompanying French translations. ^[12]

References

1. Mongo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Yamongeri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. de Rop, Albert J. (1958). Grammaire du lomongo: phonologie et morphologie. Leuven & Léopoldville: Université Lovanium.
4. Elders at Bongandango, Congo, ca. 1920-1930 Calisphere. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
5. Ruskin, Edward Algernon (1921). Mongo Proverbs and Fables (available online at the Internet Archive).
6. "Ngila L'Ulu" in Ruskin, Edward Algernon (1921). Mongo Proverbs and Fables . pp. 82-86.
7. Ruskin, Edward Algernon (1897). Proverbs, Fables, Similes and Sayings of the Bamongo (available online at the Internet Archive).
8. Starr, Frederick (1909). "Proverbs of Upper Congo." Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences. 12: 176-196.
9. Farris, Ellsworth; Dye, Royal J. (1904). Bekolo bi' ampaka ba Nkundo. Bikolongo la nsako. Beki Bakola otakanyaka. Page images at Hathi Trust; U.S. access only.
10. Starr, Frederick (1908). A Bibliography of Congo Languages..
11. de Rop, A. J. (1974). La littérature orale mongo, synthèse et bibliographie. Bruxelles: Centre d'Etude et de Documentation Africaines.
12. Hulstaert, G. (1958). Proverbes mongo. Tervuren: Musée Royal du Congo Belge.

External links

• Mongo, Nkundo on PanAfril10n