Bangala language

Bangala
Ngala
Native toDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo
RegionHaut-Uele District
Speakers(undated figure of "few")[1]
L2: 3.5 million (1991)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bxg
Glottologbang1353
C30A[3]

Bangala or Mɔnɔkɔ na bangála is a Bantu language spoken in the northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is also spoken in parts of South Sudan and some speakers are still found in the extreme western part of Uganda (e.g., Arua, Koboko). A sister language of Lingala, it is used as a lingua franca by people with different languages and rarely as a first language. In 1991 there were an estimated 3.5 million second-language speakers.[2] It is spoken to the east and northeast of the area where Lingala is spoken. In Lingala, Bangala translates to "People of Mongala". This means people living along the Mongala River. Across Bas-Uele Province, Bangala speakers have to a great extent adopted Lingala.

  1. ^ Bangala at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b Bangala language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  3. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online