Kongo language

Kongo, also called Kikongo, is a Bantu language and a tonal one. It is spoken by the Kongo people across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Angola. Today, most speakers live in Africa. Around seven million people speak it as their first language in those countries, and roughly five million more use it as a second language.

For centuries, many Africans taken captive and sold into slavery in the Americas spoke Kongo. As a result, creolized forms of the language appear in the ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Suriname. It also contributed to the Gullah language of the southeastern United States and is a major source of the Palenquero language in Colombia.

Before the Portuguese founded Angola in 1575, Kikongo was the language of the Kingdom of Kongo. The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 split the rest of that kingdom into three territories, which now form parts of the DRC, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.

Kikongo is the basis for the creole language Kituba, also called Kikongo ya Leta—meaning "Kikongo of the state administration." The Republic of the Congo’s constitution uses the name Kituba, while the DRC uses Kikongo (referring to Kikongo ya Leta). This is because Kikongo ya Leta is often mistakenly called Kikongo, when it is actually distinct from varieties like KiNtandu, KiManianga, or KiNdibu.

Kikongo and Kituba are spoken in several regions. In the south of the Republic of the Congo, Kikongo (including Yombe, Vili, Ladi, and Sundi) and Kituba are found in Kouilou, Niari, Bouenza, Lékoumou, south of Brazzaville, and Pointe-Noire, while Kikongo (Ladi, Kongo Boko) is spoken in Pool.

In the southwest of the DRC, Kikongo (Yombe, Ntandu, Ndibu, Manyanga) and Kikongo ya Leta are used in Kongo Central and part of Kinshasa, and Kikongo ya Leta alone in Kwilu, Kwango, Mai-Ndombe, and far west Kasaï. In northern Angola, Kikongo (Kisikongo, Zombo, Ibinda) is spoken in Cabinda, Uíge, Zaire, and northern Bengo and Cuanza Norte. In southwestern Gabon, Kikongo (Vili) is spoken in Nyanga and Ngounié.

The Atlantic slave trade carried many Kikongo speakers to the Americas, influencing creole languages there. In Brazil, it appears in Cupópia and Salto de Pirapora. In Colombia, it is a major source of Palenquero in San Basilio de Palenque. In Cuba, Habla Congo or Habla Bantu serves as a liturgical language for the Palo religion.

In Haiti, it influences Haitian Creole and the liturgical Langaj used in Vodou. In Suriname, it is part of Saramaccan, spoken in Boven Suriname, Brokopondo, and Paramaribo, as well as in French Guiana and the Netherlands. In the United States, it contributed to Gullah along the Gullah-Geechee Corridor and to Louisiana Creole.

People

Before the Berlin Conference, the people called themselves "Bisi Kongo" (plural) and "Mwisi Kongo" (singular). Today they are "Bakongo" (plural) and "Mukongo" (singular).

Writing

Kongo was the first Bantu language written in Latin script. Portuguese missionaries created a dictionary—the first for any Bantu language—and a catechism under Diogo Gomes, born in 1557 in Kongo to Portuguese parents and later a Jesuit priest.

No copy of that catechism survives. In 1624, Portuguese Jesuit Mateus Cardoso edited and published a Kongo translation of a Portuguese catechism by Marcos Jorge. The preface states that Kongo teachers from São Salvador (modern Mbanza Kongo) did the translation, likely with help from Félix do Espírito Santo, also a Kongo.

Around 1648, a dictionary of about 10,000 words was written for Capuchin missionaries, mainly by Manuel Robredo, a secular priest from Kongo who later became Capuchin Francisco de São Salvador. The back includes a two-page sermon in Kongo. In the 1780s, French Catholic missionaries to the Loango coast made additional dictionaries, and Bernardo da Canecattim published a word list in 1805. Baptist missionaries from Britain arrived in Kongo in 1879 and developed a modern orthography.

American missionary W. Holman Bentley published his Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language in 1887, crediting Nlemvo, an African, for assistance. Bentley described sorting and correcting 25,000 slips of paper with words and definitions. With João Lemvo’s help, he produced a complete Christian Bible in 1905. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Fiote.

Standardisation

Standardization of Kikongo came from the work of English, Swedish, and other missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries, along with Kongo linguists and evangelists like Ndo Nzuawu Nlemvo and Miguel NeKaka.

Linguistic classification

Linguistically, Kikongo belongs to the Bantu family. Malcolm Guthrie placed it in group H10, the Kongo languages, which also includes Bembe (H11). Ethnologue 16 counts Ndingi (H14) and Mboka (H15) as dialects of Kongo, though they may be separate languages. The more recent and precise classification by Bastin, Coupez, and Man (Tervuren) supersedes Guthrie’s for Kikongo.