Bila, or Forest Bira, is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The t ...
spoken in the
Mambasa Territory of the
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. It is also spoken by the
Mbuti
The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages.
Subgroups
Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the old ...
Pygmies who live in that area. Pygmy groups to the west include the
Kango and Sua (Batchua).
[''L'Apare est un ruisseau, affluent de l'Ituri en région des Bantous Babali. La route qui relie Bafwasende à Bomili traverse le village, où réside ce groupe de Pygmées devenus sédentaires. Dans la documentation de l'expédition de 1929 et de 1935, ils étaient désignés sous le nom de Basua ageBabali aux Bango ''wa mugwase'' (ou Pygmées de forêt). Après l'expédition de 1949–50, l'auteur préfère substituer à ces deux appellations, données par les Babali, leurs propres noms : les Pygmées de forêt désignent ceux de village du nom de Balioli (=Belueli) (sing. Dioy) et vice-versa ceux-ci désignent les Pygmées de forêt du nom de Bango (sing. Mwango).''] Other Mbuti speak
Central Sudanic languages
Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria and ...
. The Kango and Sua speak distinct dialects (southern and northern), but not enough to impair
mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as ...
with their farming Bila patrons.
Maho (2009) lists Ibutu (Mbuttu, D.313) as a distinct language.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
References
*Serge BAHUCHET, 2006. "Languages of the African Rainforest « Pygmy » Hunter-Gatherers: Language Shifts without Cultural Admixture
In ''Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective''. Leipzig.
*Kutsch Lojenga, Constance. 2003. Bila (D32). In Nurse, Derek and Philippson, Gérard (eds.), The Bantu languages, 450-474. London & New York: Routledge.
Biran languages
African Pygmies
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
{{DRCongo-stub