Luba-Kasai, also known as Western Luba, ''Bena-Lulua, Cilubà/Tshilubà'', ''Luba-Lulua'' or ''Luva'', is a Bantu language ( Zone L) of

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...

and a

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the 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 ...

, alongside

Lingala Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree in ...

, Swahili, and Kikongo ya leta. An eastern dialect is spoken by the

Luba people The Luba people or Baluba are an ethno-linguistic group indigenous to the south-central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in Katanga, Kasai and Maniema. The Baluba Tribe ...

of the

East Kasai Region East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

and a western dialect by the

Lulua people Lulua may refer to: * ''Lulua'' (beetle), a genus of beetles in the subfamily Prioninae * Lulua River * Lulua District * Lulua Province (proposed) * Lulua Province (former) * Lulua Mosque The Lulua Mosque or al-Lu'lu'a Mosque ( ar, مسجد ...

of the

West Kasai Region Kasaï-Occidental ( French for "Western Kasai"; lua, Kasai Wa Mubuelu) was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Kasaï-Central and the Kasaï provinces. History ...

. The total number of speakers was estimated at 6.3 million in 1991. Within the Zone L Bantu languages, Luba-Kasai is one of a group of languages which form the "Luba" group, together with Kaonde (L40), Kete (L20), Kanyok, Luba-Katanga (KiLuba), Sanga, Zela and Bangubangu. The L20, L30 and L60 languages are also grouped as the

Luban languages The Luban languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken by the Lubas in the south of DRC Congo, established by Christine Ahmed (1995). They constitute half of Guthrie's Zone L. The languages, or clusters, along with their Guthrie identificat ...

within Zone L Bantu.

Geographic distribution and dialects

Tshiluba is chiefly spoken in a large area in the Kasaï Occidental and Kasaï Oriental provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, the differences in Tshiluba within the area are minor, consisting mostly of differences in tones and vocabulary, and speakers easily understand one another. Both dialects have subdialects. Additionally, there is also a pidginised variety of Tshiluba, especially in cities, where the everyday spoken Tshiluba is enriched with French words and even words from other languages, such as

or Swahili. Nevertheless, it is not a typical form of a pidgin since it is not common to everyone but changes its morphology and the quantity and degree to which words from other languages are used. Its form changes depending on who speaks it and varies from city to city and social class to social class. However, people generally speak the regular Tshiluba language in their daily lives, rather than pidgin. The failure of the language to be taught at school has resulted in the replacement of native words by French words for the most part. For instance, people speaking generally count in French, rather than Tshiluba. The situation of French and Tshiluba being used simultaneously made linguists mistakenly think that the language had been pidginised.

Vocabulary

Alphabet

Luba-Kasai uses the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...

, with the digraphs ''ng'', ''ny'' and ''sh'' but without the letters ''q'', ''r'' and ''x'':

Phonology

Tshiluba has a 5 vowel system with vowel length: The chart shows the consonants of Tshiluba. * /p/ may also have the sound � * If a /d/ is preceding an /i/, it may also be pronounced as an affricate sound ʒ

Sample text

According to The Rosetta Project, Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...

translates to: :''Bantu bonsu badi baledibwa badikadile ne badi ne makokeshi amwe. Badi ne lungenyi lwa bumuntu ne kondo ka moyo, badi ne bwa kwenzelangana malu mu buwetu.'' :"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." According t
Learn Tshiluba (Mofeko)
:''Mukayi wuani udi mu bujimi'' :"My wife is on the farm" :''Mulunda wanyi mujikija kalasa Uenda mu tshidimu tshishala'' :"My friend completed his/her studies last year"

References

Bibliography

*Stappers, Leo. ''Tonologische bijdrage tot de studie van het werkwoord in het tshiluba''. 1949. Mémoires (Institut royal colonial belge. Section des sciences morales et politiques). Collection in-8^o ; t. 18, fasc. 4. *de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice. ''Cilubà Phonetics: Proposals for a 'Corpus-Based Phonetics from Below' Approach''. 1999. Research Centre of African Languages and Literatures, University of Ghent. *DeClercq, P. ''Grammaire de la langue des bena-lulua.'' 1897. Polleunis et Ceuterick. *Muyunga, Yacioko Kasengulu. 1979. ''Lingala and Ciluba speech audiometry''. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaires du Zaïre pour l'Université Nationale du Zaïre (UNAZA). *Kabuta, Ngo. ''Loanwords in Cilubà.'' 2012. University of Ghent, Belgium. *Willems, Em. ''Het Tshiluba van Kasayi voor beginnelingen''. 1943. Sint Norbertus.

External links

* Tola Akindipe, Veronica Tshiama & Francisco Yamba
Largest online resource to learn Tshiluba (Mofeko)

Online Cilubà - French Dictionary

BBC News: Congo word "most untranslatable"

PanAfrican L10n page on Luba

Tshiluba Language and Alphabet (Omniglot)

Tshiluba: Kasai Language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luba language Luban languages Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo