Kituba (endonyms: , ) is a widely used lingua franca in Central Africa. It is a creole languagePidgins and Creoles: an introduction by Jacques Arends, Pieter Muysken, Norval Smith (page 17) based on Kikongo, a Bantu language. It is a national language in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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", and is used in the Republic's 1992 constitution. The latter (Kituba) means "way of speaking" and is used in the 2015 constitution.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo it is called Kikongo ya leta ("the state's Kikongo" or "Government Kikongo"), or Kikongo de l'État, shortened to Kileta. Confusingly, it is also called Kikongo, especially in areas that lack Kongo (Kikongo) speakers, namely the Kwango and Kwilu Provinces. The constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo lists "Kikongo" as one of the national languages. The Kikongo spoken alongside Lingala in urban centres is in fact Kituba.
There are also other historical names such as Kibula-matadi (literally "the stone-breaker's speech"), (literally "be not", "it isn't so"), Kikwango,, Bastard kikongo and Kizabave (literally "do not know"), but they have largely fallen out of use.
Geographic distribution
The majority of Kituba speakers live in the Democratic Republic of the 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 the 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 the Congo which is a strong Kituba-speaking area.2022 Annual Report, Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project, ECM, Hebron, IN
Although mutually intelligible, there are differences, mainly in vocabulary, between the eastern and western areas of The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and still more between the Kituba spoken there and that spoken in Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo).
Official status Kituba is a national language in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the 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 the Congo and in the Republic of Congo use Kituba as one of their main languages for evening news.Jack Berry et Thomas Albert Sebeok, Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, Mouton De Gruyter; Reprint 2017 ed. édition (1 avril 1971), .
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 1800s or earlier, necessitated by the inter-tribal needs of the Congolese themselves, and later, their relationship with slave traders. Then in the early 1900s, 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 1930s, 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.Dictionnaire Kituba-français-anglais, Harold W. Fehdereau, Ph.D., Editions LECO, Kinshasa,1969.pp.xxv-xxvi
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).2022 Annual Report, Every Child Ministries' Mwinda Project for the Congo
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.Dictionnaire Kikongo (ya Leta) Anglais-Francais, Harold W. Fehdereau, Ph.D., 1960, Editions LECO, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo, p.ixLa Bible en Kituba, 1982, 1990, La Société Biblique duCongo
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a translation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kituba.
On 27 June 2024 Google announced the addition of 110 languages, including Kituba and Kikongo, to Google Translate. However, it turns out that Google has only added Kituba and is also mistakenly calling it Kikongo.
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):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)Joaquim Mbachi, CAMINHOS DA GRAMÁTICA IBINDA, Cabinda (Angola), 2013 (In Portuguese)Robert Tinou, Abécédaire du kouilou zaab’ ku tub’ tchi vili, L’HARMATTAN, 2015 (In French)
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:
EnglishKikongo (Civili) Kikongo (Cibinda / Tchibinda)Kituba (or Kikongo ya leta) To Be or or KuvandaI am I ke (or I kele)NkeleMunu / 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
+KikongoKituba (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 workMunu / 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 Plosive plain prenasal. Fricative plain() prenasal. Approximant 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 ( or ) 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 PluralClass 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.