Kituba language


Kituba is a widely used lingua franca in Central Africa. It is a creole language based on Kikongo, a family of closely related Bantu languages. It is an official language in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is not entirely accurate to call Kituba a creole language as it lacks the distinction between superstrate and substrate influence that is typical of creole development.

Names

Kituba is known by many names among its speakers. In the Republic of Congo it is called Munukutuba or Kituba. The former is a grammatically incorrect phrase which means literally "I to speak". The latter means simply "speech". The name Kituba is used in the constitution of the Republic of Congo.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo it is called Kikongo ya leta, but it is often called in short Kikongo, especially out of the region of ethnic Bakongo people. The constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo lists Kikongo as one of the national languages. In fact, it refers to Kikongo ya leta, because a translation of the constitution itself is written in Kituba but no translation exists in Kikongo.
There are also other historical names such as Kibulamatadi, Kikwango, Ikeleve, and Kizabave but they have largely fallen out of use. In the academic circles the language is called Kikongo-Kituba.

Geographic distribution

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 the largest language of the Republic of Congo. It is spoken in the southern half of the country, in regions of Kouilou, Niari, Bouenza, Lékoumou, Pool and in the capital Brazzaville. Lingala is more popular in the north.
The status of Kituba in Angola is not known. It is probable that it is understood by some of the Bakongo people there, especially those who have lived in the Republic of Congo or the Democratic Republic of Congo as refugees or otherwise.

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 and elementary education.
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.

History

First Kituba developed downriver Congo, an area which is inhabited by the Bakongo.
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. 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.
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.
A translation of the New Testament in Kituba was completed and published in 2005.

Phonology

Vowels

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

Pronouns

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

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-.

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 kuvanda or kuvuanda is presented in the table below. It is the only irregular verb in Kituba.
TenseLong formShort formExampleTranslation
Present and immediate futurekelekeYau kele nkosi.It is a lion.
Futurekele/ata kuvandake/ta vandaMu ta vuanda tata.I will be a father.
Present progressivekele kuvandakake vandakaNge ke vuandaka zoba.You are being stupid.
Future progressiveata kuvandakata vandakaBeno ta vuandaka ya kukuela.You will be married.
PastvandaYandi vuanda kuna.He was there.
Past progressivevandakaBeto vuandaka banduku.We used to be friends.
Past perfectmene kuvandame vandaYandi me vuanda na Matadi.He was in Matadi.
Past perfect progressivemene kuvandakame vandakaYandi me vuandaka mulongi.She has been a teacher.

All other verbs are conjugated with the help of auxiliary verbs. The conjugation of the verb kusala is presented in the table below.
TenseLong formShort formExampleTranslation
Present and immediate futurekele kusalake salaYandi ke sala.He works. / He will work.
Present progressivekele kusalakake salakaYandi ke salaka.He is working.
PastsalakasalakaYandi salaka.He worked.
Immediate pastmene salame salaYandi me sala.He has worked.
Immediate past progressivemene salakame salakaYandi me salaka.He has been working.
Past progressivevuandaka kusalava salaYandi vuandaka kusala.He used to work.
Narrativesalasala--
Futureata salata salaYandi ta sala.He will work.
Future progressiveata salakata salakaYandi 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"
Sadisa "to help", Sadisana "help one another", Sadisanaka "helped one another

Dictionary

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

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. These include: