Kituba language

Not to be confused with Kongo language.

Kituba (Kituba: Kituba, Kituba: Kikongo ya leta) is a widely used lingua franca in Central Africa. It is a creole language^[3] based on Kikongo, a Bantu language. It is a national language in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kituba
Kikongo ya leta
Monokutuba, Munukutuba, Kituba (mkw) Kikongo ya leta (ktu)
Speakers	L1: 13 million (2018–2022)[1] L2: 800,000
Language family	Kongo-based creole Kituba
Official status
Official language in	National language and unofficial language:  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Republic of the Congo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: mkw – Kituba (RC) ktu – Kituba (DRC)
Glottolog	kitu1246  DRC kitu1245  RC
Guthrie code	H10A,B[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Names

Kituba is known by many names among its speakers. In academic circles the language is called Kikongo-Kituba.

In the Republic of the Congo it is called Munukutuba, a phrase which means literally "I say",^[4] and is used in the Republic's 1992 constitution.^[5] The latter (Kituba) means "way of speaking"^[6]: 213 and is used in the 2015 constitution.^[7]

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo it is called Kikongo ya leta ("the state's Kikongo"^[4] or "Government Kikongo"^[8]), or Kikongo de L'état, shortened to Kileta.^[6]: 212 Confusingly, it is also called Kikongo, especially in areas that lack Kongo (Kikongo) speakers,^[8] namely the Kwango and Kwilu Provinces. The constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo lists "Kikongo" as one of the national languages.^[9][10] The Kikongo spoken alongisde Lingala in urban centres is in fact Kituba.^{[11][6]: 30}

There are also other historical names such as Kibula-matadi (literally "the stone-breaker's speech"),^{[4][6]: 212} (literally "be not", "it isn't so"),^{[4][6]: 213} Kikwango,^[6]: 215 and Kizabave^[12] (literally "do not know"), but they have largely fallen out of use.

Geographic distribution

Dialect map of Kikongo and Kituba. NB:^[13][14][15] Kisikongo (also called Kisansala by some authors) is the Kikongo spoken in Mbanza Kongo. Kisikongo is not the protolanguage of the Kongo language cluster.

The majority of Kituba speakers live in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is spoken as the primary lingua franca in the provinces of Kongo Central, Kwango and Kwilu and to a lesser extent in Kinshasa, Mai-Ndombe and Kasai.

Kituba is spoken in the southern of the Republic of Congo, in regions of Kouilou, Pointe-Noire, Niari, Bouenza, Lékoumou and in the capital Brazzaville. Lingala is more popular in the north.

Kituba is also spoken in the northern part of Angola, since modern nations cut across the lines of tribal areas and ancient kingdoms, and northern Angola borders the Kwango Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo which is a strong Kituba-speaking area.^[16]

Although mutually intelligible, there are differences, mainly in vocabulary, between the eastern and western areas of The Democratic Republic of Congo, and still more between the Kituba spoken there and that spoken in Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo).^[16]

Official status

Kituba is a national language in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In practice the term national language means that it is a language of regional administration, elementary education, and business.

A national language is also one that is used for public and mass communication. National public radios and televisions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Republic of Congo use Kituba as one of their main languages for evening news.^{[17][18][19][20][21]}

History

There are several theories on how Kituba came into being. One theory claims that it had already evolved at the time of the Kongo Kingdom as a simplified interdialectal trade language, which the European colonists subsequently took into use for regional administration. Another theory claims that a simplified trade language called Kifyoti was developed at the Portuguese coastal trading 18 post and it was later spread upstream by the Christian missionaries to the region between the Kwango and the Kasai rivers where it evolved further (hence the name Kikwango). Yet another theory emphasizes the construction of the Matadi-Kinshasa railroad at the end of the 1800s, which involved forced labour from West Africa, lower Congo, and the neighbouring Bandundu region. The workers had diverse linguistic backgrounds which gave birth to a grammatically simplified language.

Harold W. Fehdereau, a linguist and missionary, carried out a major linguistic survey of Kituba-speaking areas under the joint auspices of the American Bible Society and the American Mennonite Brethren Mission. He published his work in a Kituba-French-English dictionary in 1969. He traced the development of Kituba back to the 1800's or earlier, necessitated by the inter-tribal needs of the Congolese themselves, and later, their relationship with slave traders. Then in the early 1900's, the Belgian and French colonization of the area brought further need for a convenient language of communication with the Congolese. He admits that we do not have a very complete picture of the development of Kituba before the 1930's, when it came into wide use by Christian missionaries. He notes that many today have grown up knowing Kituba as their mother tongue, and at the same time, it has reached some complexity of grammar unusual to pidgin languages. He notes that there is an increasing tendency, particularly in the western Kituba-speaking region, to borrow words from French, adding Kituba prefixes and suffixes for everyday usage.^[22]

Regardless of the genesis, Kituba established itself in the large towns that were found during the colonial period between 1885 and 1960. Kituba is spoken as the primary language in the large Bakongo cities of Moanda, Boma, Matadi, Pointe-Noire, Dolisie, Nkayi, and Brazzaville and also in large non-Bakongo cities of Bandundu, Kikwit, and Ilebo. It is the main language spoken throughout the modern provinces of Kwango and Kasai. A dialect called 'Monokutuba' is spoken in Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo).^[23]

The first portions of the Bible were published in 1934, followed by the New Testament in 1950. A revision was published in 1957. The complete Bible was published in 1982, all by the Bible Society of Congo.^[24][25][26]

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a translation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kituba.^[27]

What is generally referred to as Kikongo actually refers to a cluster of related languages, rather than a single language.

— Koen Bostoen and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, In: Une archéologie des provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo, 2018

Differences between Kikongo and Kituba

Some examples of differences between Kikongo (Kisikongo, Kizombo, Kisolongo, Iwoyo, Kiyombe, Kisingombe, Kintandu, Kimanianga, Kindibu, Civili, Tsiladi (Lari), etc.) and Kituba (or Kikongo ya leta, Munukutuba, Monokutuba):^[28][29][30]

1. Conjugation: In Kikongo, the conjugation of a tense to different persons is done by changing verbal prefixes, unlike in Kituba:

Example: verb "to be" conjugated in the present in Kikongo and Kituba:

English	Kikongo (Civili)	Kikongo (Cibinda / Tchibinda)	Kituba (or Kikongo ya leta)
To Be		or	or Kuvanda
I am	I ke (or I kele)	Nkele	Munu / Mono Ke (or Kele)
You are	Ke (or Kele)	Kele	Nge Ke (or Kele)
He / She is	Ke (or Kele)	Kele	Yandi Ke (or Kele)
We are	Tu ke (or Tu kele)	Tukele	Beto Ke (or Kele)
You are	Lu ke (or Lu kele)	Lukele	Beno Ke (or Kele)
They are	Ba ke (or Ba kele)/ Be ke (or Be kele)	Bakele	Bau / Bo Ke (or Kele)

2. Negative form

Kikongo	Kituba (or Kikongo ya leta)
K'usumbidi KO / Kusumbidi KO : You did not buy	Yandi ke na nsoni VÉ : He / She has no shame
KA tusingasala KO : We will not work	Munu / Mu ke mona nge  VÉ : I cannot see you
Luzingu lu kéli KUVÉ tok’ luboti, si sènde vandi si kéli : Life is only made of roses, but also of thorns Etc.	Beto ke dia VÉ : We do not eat Yandi vuandaka kusala VÉ : He / She was not used to working Etc.

3. The way to say "My name is" is different :

My name is in Kikongo	My name is in Kituba (or Kikongo ya leta)
Nkumbu ame / Nkumbu ami / Nkumbu ani / Dizina diame (or zina diame) / Dizina diami (or zina diami) / Dizina diani (or zina diani) / Lizina liami, etc.	Zina na mono kele / Nkumbu ya mono kele / Nkumbu ya munu kele

4. Noun classes : noun prefixes are not completely the same (cf. the Kikongo and Kituba grammars)

Phonology

Vowels

Kituba has five vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/. They are very similar to the vowels of Spanish. Vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress. The vowels are pronounced as follows:

• /a/ is pronounced like the "a" in father
• /e/ is pronounced like the "e" in bed
• /i/ is pronounced like the "i" in ski or ring
• /o/ is pronounced like the first part of the "o" in home, or like a tenser version of "o" in "lot"
• /u/ is pronounced like the "oo" of fool

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar/ Dental		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal			m		n				ŋ
Plosive	plain	p	b	t	d			k	g
	prenasal.	ᵐp	ᵐb	ⁿt	ⁿd			ᵑk	ᵑg
Fricative	plain	f	v	s	z					(h)
	prenasal.	ᶬf	ᶬv	ⁿs	ⁿz
Approximant			w		l		j

Notes

• Word-initial voiceless prenasalized consonants are reduced to simple consonants in some dialects: and become and in Kituba of Pointe-Noire.
• Some dialects add stop to prenasalized alveolar fricatives: and become and ndzila.
• Alveolar fricatives may become postalveolar (ʃ or ʒ) before /i/.

Grammar

Pronouns

Kituba has subject and object pronouns. The object pronouns are used in place of subject pronouns when the subject is being emphasized.

	Singular		Plural
	Subject	Object	Subject	Object
1st person	mu	munu, mono	beto	beto
2nd person	nge	nge	beno	beno
3rd person	yá	yandi	ba	bau

I love you in kituba
Mu (or Munu, Mono) zola nge / Munu me zola nge / Mu me zola nge / Me zola nge / Mono (or Mu, Munu) ke zola nge

Nouns

Kituba has kept by and large the noun classes of ethnic Kikongo with some modifications. The classes 9 and 11 have in effect merged with the singular class with zero prefix, and their plural is formed with generic plural class prefix ba-.

Singular			Plural
Class	Prefix	Example	Class	Prefix	Example
0	–	mama ('mother)	2	ba-	bamama (mothers)
1	mu-	muntu (person)	2	ba-	bantu (people)
3	mu-	mulangi (bottle)	4	mi-	milangi (bottles)
5	di-	dinkondo (banana)	6	ma-	mankondo (bananas)
7	ki-	kima (thing)	8	bi-	bima (things)
9	n-/m-	nkosi (lion)	2+9	ba-n-	bankosi (lions)
11	lu-	ludimi (tongue)	2+11	ba-lu-	baludimi (tongues)
12	ka-	kakima (trifle)	13	tu-	tubima (trifles)
14	bu	bumbote (goodness)
15	ku-	kubanza (to think, thinking)

Verbs

Kituba has a well-developed verbal system involving grammatical tense and aspect. Most verb forms have long and short versions. The long forms are used in formal written communication whereas the short forms have developed for spoken communication.

The irregular conjugation of the verb or (to be) is presented in the table below. It is the only irregular verb in Kituba.

Tense	Long form	Short form	Example	Translation
Present and immediate future	kele	ke	Yau kele nkosi.	It is a lion.
Future	kele/ata kuv(u)anda	ke/ta v(u)anda	Mu ta vuanda tata.	I will be a father.
Present progressive	kele kuv(u)andaka	ke v(u)andaka	Nge ke vuandaka zoba.	You are being stupid.
Future progressive	ata kuv(u)andaka	ta v(u)andaka	Beno ta vuandaka ya kukuela.	You will be married.
Past	v(u)anda		Yandi vuanda kuna.	He was there.
Past progressive	v(u)andaka		Beto vuandaka banduku.	We used to be friends.
Past perfect	mene kuv(u)anda	me v(u)anda	Yandi me vuanda na Matadi.	He was in Matadi.
Past perfect progressive	mene kuv(u)andaka	me v(u)andaka	Yandi me vuandaka mulongi.	She has been a teacher.

All other verbs are conjugated with the help of auxiliary verbs. The conjugation of the verb (to do) is presented in the table below.

Tense	Long form	Short form	Example	Translation
Present and immediate future	kele kusala	ke sala	Yandi ke sala.	He works. / He will work.
Present progressive	kele kusalaka	ke salaka	Yandi ke salaka.	He is working.
Past	salaka	salaka	Yandi salaka.	He worked.
Immediate past	mene sala	me sala	Yandi me sala.	He has worked.
Immediate past progressive	mene salaka	me salaka	Yandi me salaka.	He has been working.
Past progressive	vuandaka kusala	va sala	Yandi vuandaka kusala.	He used to work.
Narrative	sala	sala
Future	ata sala	ta sala	Yandi ta sala.	He will work.
Future progressive	ata salaka	ta salaka	Yandi ta salaka.	He will be working.

Voice

The suffix indicating voice is adding after the verb root and before the suffix indicating tense.

The most common forms are "ila", indicating action to or toward someone, and "ana", indicating mutual or reciprocal action:

Kutanga "to read", Tangila "read to", Tangilaka "read to" (past)

Sadisa "to help", Sadisana "help one another", Sadisanaka "helped one another (past)^[31]

Dictionary

A Kituba-English-French dictionary compiled by linguist Harold W. Fehderau, Ph.D., was published in 1969. It is not widely available.^[32]

Lexicon

The bulk of Kituba words come from Kikongo. Other Bantu languages have influenced it as well, including Kiyaka, Kimbala, Kisongo, Kiyansi, Lingala, and Swahili. In addition, many words have been borrowed from French, Portuguese, and English.^[33] These include:

• sandúku (Swah. sanduku) "box", the Swahili word comes from Arabic صندوق (ṣandūq)
• matáta (Swah. matata) "trouble"
• letá (Fr. l'état) "state"
• kamiyó (Fr. camion) "truck"
• sodá/solodá (Fr. soldat) "soldier"
• masínu (Fr. machine) "machine"
• mísa (Port. missa) "mass"
• kilápi (Port. lápis) "pen"
• katekisimu (Eng. catechism)
• bóyi (Eng. houseboy)
• sapatu (Port. sapato) "shoe"
• mesa (Port. mesa) "table"
• dikopa (Port. copa) "cup"
• simisi (Fr. chemise) "shirt"

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights translates to:

Bantu nyonso, na mbutukulu kevwandaka na kimpwanza ya bawu, ngenda mpe baluve ya mutindu mosi. Mayela na mbanzulu ke na bawu, ni yawu yina bafwana kusalasana na bumpangi.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."^[27]

Literature

In 2018, a book (Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: Mbandu ya luzingu by Protais Yumbi) written in Kikongo ya Leta was nominated for the Grand Prix of Literary Associations.^[34][35] A hymnbook, Bankunga ya Kintwadi (Songs of Fellowship) was published in 1988 by the Mennonite Brethren Mission. It is widely used by numerous Protestant denominations.^[36] Almost a hundred Kituba-language books and articles have been published by Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project. These include articles on Christian education, Bible lessons for children and youth, teacher training, health, and a variety of other topics. These are available on-line and at bookstores and libraries within the Democratic Republic of Congo.^[37]

See also

• Habla Congo, in Cuba

References

1. Kituba (RC) at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
   Kituba (DRC) at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction by Jacques Arends, Pieter Muysken, Norval Smith (page 17)
4. "Kikongo-Kituba". Britannica. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
5. Maury, Jean-Pierre (ed.). "République du Congo: Constitution du 15 mars 1992". Digithèque matériaux juridiques et politiques (in French). Université de Perpignan. Article 3. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
6. Mufwene, Salikoko S. (2009). "Kituba, or Kikongo? What's in a name?" (PDF). In de Féral, Carole (ed.). Le nom des langues III: Le nom des langues en Afrique sub-saharienne: pratiques, dénominations, catégorisations. Naming Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa: Practices, Names, Categorisations. BCILL. Vol. 124. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters. ISBN 9789042922709. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
7. Maury, Jean-Pierre (ed.). "Congo: Constitution de 2015". Digithèque matériaux juridiques et politiques (in French). Université de Perpignan. Article 4. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
8. Swift, Lloyd Balderston; Zola, Emile W. A. (1963). Hodge, Carleton T. (ed.). Kituba: Basic Course. Foreign Service Institute Basic Course Series. Washington, D.C.: Foreign Service Institute. p. x. OCLC 877994.
9. "Constitution de la République Démocratique du Congo" (PDF). Journal Officiel de la République Démocratique du Congo (in French). Kinshasa. 2006-02-18. Article 1. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
10. "Constitution de la République Démocratique du Congo" (PDF). Journal Officiel de la République Démocratique du Congo (in French). Kinshasa. 2011-02-05. Article 1. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
11. Muzalia Kihangu, Godefroid (2011). Bundu Dia Kongo: une résurgence des messianismes et de l'alliances des Bakongo? (PhD). Ghent: Universiteit Gent. p. 30. hdl:1854/LU-4132125. Mais le Kikongo dont il est question ici est le Kituba ou munukutuba... érigé en langue nationale par les différentes constitutions de la R.D.C. [But the in question here is the or munukutuba... made into a national language by the various constitutions of the DRC.]
12. Reinecke, John E.; Tsuzaki, Stanley M.; et al. (1975). "Kituba (Lingua Franca Kikongo)". A Bibliography of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications. Vol. 14. University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 649–653. JSTOR 20006662. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
13. Jasper DE KIND , Sebastian DOM, Gilles-Maurice DE SCHRYVER et Koen BOSTOEN, Fronted-infinitive constructions in Kikongo (Bantu H16): verb focus, progressive aspect and future, KongoKing Research Group, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2013
14. Koen Bostoen et Inge Brinkman, The Kongo Kingdom: The Origins, Dynamics and Cosmopolitan Culture of an African Polity, Cambridge University Press, 2018
15. Raphaël Batsîkama Ba Mampuya Ma Ndâwla, L'ancien royaume du Congo et les Bakongo, séquences d'histoire populaire, L'harmattan, 2000
16. 2022 Annual Report, Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project, ECM, Hebron, IN
17. PY Esther; Thomas Bearth (1997). "Langues et education en Afrique noire" (PDF). The Educational Resources Information Center(Eric), Institut de Linguistique, Universite Neuchatel, Suisse (in French). p. 18. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
18. Jack Berry et Thomas Albert Sebeok, Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, Mouton De Gruyter; Reprint 2017 ed. édition (1 avril 1971), p. 525.
19. "RDC INFO DU 24/05/2012 EN KIKONGO (Correction: KIKONGO YA LETA)". TELE50 (in French). 2012. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
20. "INFO EN KIKONGO (Correction: KIKONGO YA LETA) – 21 MARS 2012". RTNC (in French). 2012. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
21. "JOURNAL EN LANGUE NATIONALE DU CONGO KITUBA 19 03 2014". MNTV (in French). 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
22. Dictionnaire Kituba-français-anglais, Harold W. Fehdereau, Ph.D.,Editions LECO, Kinshasa,1969.pp.xxv-xxvi
23. 2022 Annual Report, Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project for the Congo
24. Dictionnaire Kikongo (ya Leta) Anglais-Francais, Harold W. Fehdereau, Ph.D., 1960, Editions LECO, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo,p.ix
25. La Bible en Kituba, 1982, 1990, La Société Biblique duCongo
26. Matai 1 | NTK50 Bible | YouVersion.
27. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kituba (i.e. Kikongo ya Leta)". OHCHR. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
28. Luntadila Nlandu Inocente, Nominalisations en kìsìkongò (H16): Les substantifs predicatifs et les verbes-supports Vánga, Sála, Sá et Tá (faire), Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 2015 (In French)
29. Joaquim Mbachi, CAMINHOS DA GRAMÁTICA IBINDA, Cabinda (Angola), 2013 (In Portuguese)
30. Robert Tinou, Abécédaire du kouilou zaab’ ku tub’ tchi vili, L’HARMATTAN, 2015 (In French)
31. Harold W. Fehdereau, Ph.D., Dictionnaire Kikonga (ya Leta)-Anglais-Francais, (Kinshasa: Editions LECO, 1969) p. xxxvi
32. Harold W. Fehdereau, Ph.D., Dictionnaire Kikonga (ya Leta)-Anglais-Francais (Kinshasa: Editions LECO, 1969)
33. William Frawley, International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set, Oxford University Press, USA, 2003, p. 351
34. "Un Livre En Kikongo Parmi Les Nominés". 28 March 2019.
35. "Protais Yumbi, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela:Mbandu ya luzingu (1918–2013)". Nzoi (in French). 20 June 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
36. CFMZ, printed at CEDI, 1988
37. "92 Free Kituba language Bible teaching resources for you | Congo Mwinda Project". 30 January 2023.

Bibliography

• Diener, Ingolf; Maillart, Diana.(1970).Petit vocabulaire Francais-Anglais-Munukutuba. Pointe-Noire.
• Jean-Alexis Mfoutou, Parlons munukutuba : Congo-Brazzaville, République démocratique du Congo, Angola, Paris, Editions L'Harmattan, 2019, 426 pages.
• Jean-Alexis Mfoutou, Pour une histoire du munukutuba, langue bantoue, Paris, Editions L'Harmattan, 2019, 130 pages.
• Jean-Alexis Mfoutou, Grammaire et lexique munukutuba : Congo-Brazzaville, République Démocratique du Congo, Angola, L'Harmattan, 2009, 344 p. (ISBN 2296226736 et 9782296226739, présentation en ligne, lire en ligne).
• Khabirov, Valeri.(1990). Monokutuba. Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. "Soviet Encyclopedia". P. 309-310 (In Russian)
• Fehderau, H., 1966. The Origin and Development of Kituba. PhD dissertation, Cornell University.

External links

• Weblink
• Learn Kituba (Kikongo ya leta) on Learn101
• Learn Kituba (Kikongo ya leta) on ilanguages