Not to be confused with Kituba language (called Kikongo ya leta by its speakers), called Kikongo in the Constitution of Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For the genus of spiders, see Kikongo (spider).
Kongo
Kikongo
Native to
DR Congo (Kongo Central), Angola, Republic of the Congo, Gabon
Ethnicity
Kongo
Native speakers
(L1: 6.0 million cited 1982–2021)[1] L2: 5.0 million (2021)[1]
Language family
Niger–Congo?
Atlantic–Congo
Volta-Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantoid
Southern Bantoid
Bantu (Zone H)
Kongo-Yaka
Kongo languages (H.16)
Kongo
Writing system
Latin, Mandombe
Official status
Official language in
National language and unofficial language: Angola
Language codes
ISO 639-1
kg
ISO 639-2
kon
ISO 639-3
kon – inclusive code Individual codes: kng – Koongo ldi – Ladi, Laadi, Lari or Laari kwy – San Salvador Kongo (South) yom – Yombe
Glottolog
yomb1244 Yombe
Guthrie code
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
Person
muKongo, musi Kongo, muisi Kongo, mwisi Kongo, nKongo
People
baKongo, bisi Kongo, besi Kongo, esiKongo, aKongo
Language
kiKongo
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.
^ abcKongo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Koongo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Ladi, Laadi, Lari or Laari at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) San Salvador Kongo (South) at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Yombe at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
^Adam Hochschild (1998). King Leopold's Ghost. Houghton Mifflin. p. 11. ISBN 9780618001903.
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...
The Kongo people (Kongo: Bisi Kongo, EsiKongo, singular: Musi Kongo; also Bakongo, singular: Mukongo or M'kongo) are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined...
The Kongolanguages are a clade of Bantu languages, coded Zone H.10 in Guthrie's classification, that are spoken by the Bakongo: Beembe (Pangwa, Doondo...
Kongo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Kongo may refer to: Kingdom of KongoKongo cosmogram Kongolanguage or Kikongo, one of the Bantu languages Kongo...
The Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo; Portuguese: Reino do Congo) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day...
coordinates) GPX (primary coordinates) GPX (secondary coordinates) Kongo Central (Kongo: Kongo dia Kati), formerly Bas-Congo, is one of the 26 provinces of...
that it had already evolved at the time of the Kongo Kingdom as a simplified interdialectal trade language, which the European colonists subsequently took...
languages in the country. The Kongo are the largest ethnic group and form roughly half of the population. The most significant subgroups of the Kongo...
Fufu (or fufuo, foofoo, foufou /ˈfuˌfu/ foo-foo listen) is a pounded meal found in West African cuisine. It is a Twi word that originates from the Akans...
etymologies in the Kongolanguage, nzambi ("god") and zumbi ("fetish"). This root helps form the names of several deities, including the Kongo creator deity...
north was later a vassal of the Kingdom of Kongo. All of these states spoke Kikongo as a common language. Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the area...
"realistic" before the arrival of the Europeans in the nineteenth century; Kongo figures are more naturalistic in the coastal areas than inland. As Christians...
Vili (Civili) is one of the Zone H Bantu languages, grouped with the Kongo clade. The language has a few thousand native speakers in spread along the...
entity that inhabits it. In the sixteenth century, when the Kingdom of Kongo was converted to Christianity, ukisi (a substance having characteristics...
This is a list of the rulers of the Kingdom of Kongo known commonly as the Manikongos (KiKongo: Mwenekongo). Mwene (plural: Awene) in Kikongo meant a...
The Congo River (Kongo: Nzâdi Kôngo, Swahili: Mto Kongo, French: Fleuve Congo, Portuguese: Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest...
The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. Portuguese left several of...
noun for moon: lalin. However, the language also inherited many words of different origins, among them Wolof, Fon, Kongo, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Taino...
of Cameroon in the DRC and RotC, it is called in Lingala: kwanga; or in Kongo: kikwaga miondo, by the Duala people in Cameroon (more specifically, a version...
Funge or fúngi (Angola) or mfundi (Congo - DCR and the Congo Republic) is a traditional African swallow made of cassava flour whisked into boiling water...
actually referring to the Kituba language – which is known as Kikongo ya leta by its speakers – not the Kongolanguage proper. The confusion arose from...
Global Information
Angola
