Kongo language

Kongo
Kikongo
Native toDR Congo (Kongo Central), Angola, Republic of the Congo, Gabon
EthnicityKongo
Native speakers
(L1: 6.0 million cited 1982–2021)[1]
L2: 5.0 million (2021)[1]
Latin, Mandombe
Official status
Official language in
National language and unofficial language:
 Angola
Language codes
ISO 639-1kg
ISO 639-2kon
ISO 639-3kon – inclusive code
Individual codes:
kng – Koongo
ldi – Ladi, Laadi, Lari or Laari
kwy – San Salvador Kongo (South)
yom – Yombe
Glottologyomb1244  Yombe
H.14–16[2]
Map of the area where Kongo and Kituba are spoken, Kituba as a lingua franca. Kisikongo (also called Kisansala by some authors) is the Kikongo spoken in Mbanza Kongo.
The Kongo language
PersonmuKongo, musi Kongo, muisi Kongo, mwisi Kongo, nKongo
PeoplebaKongo, bisi Kongo, besi Kongo, esiKongo, aKongo
LanguagekiKongo

Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Angola. It is a tonal language. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kongo in the above-named countries. An estimated five million more speakers use it as a second language.[1]

Historically, it was spoken by many of those Africans who for centuries were taken captive, transported across the Atlantic, and sold as slaves in the Americas. For this reason, creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Suriname. It is also one of the sources of the Gullah language, which formed in the Low Country and Sea Islands of the United States Southeast.[3] The Palenquero creole in Colombia is also related to Kong creole.

  1. ^ a b c Kongo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
    Koongo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
    Ladi, Laadi, Lari or Laari at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
    San Salvador Kongo (South) at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
    Yombe at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ Adam Hochschild (1998). King Leopold's Ghost. Houghton Mifflin. p. 11. ISBN 9780618001903.