The role of the Bobangi language in the development of Lingala

Authors

  • Ирина Николаевна Топорова Institute of Linguistics RAS, 1/12, Bolshoy Kislovskiy per., Moscow, 125009, Russian Federation

Abstract

The object of this message is the role of the Bobangi language in the development of Lingala, the language lingua franca, spoken in the two Congo Republics by the populations of 12 millions. In the case of Lingala the africanists consider some languages as its origins or basis. First of all there are Boloki, Bobangi, Mabale, Libinza and Iboko. Bobangi has been considered often by many bantuists as Lingala basis. But the discussion on the origins of lingala remains pure speculation as long as systematic comparative analyses does not put in evidence the analogies and the characteristic divergences between the lingala and its supposed “mother languages”. The aim of present article is to compare the vocabularies of these two languages and to note the differences and similarities between them. Our researches attest that the degree of similarities between these vocabularies is rather high (about 30%). This fact means that Bobangi could take part in the development of Lingala. Refs 11.

Keywords:

Bantu languages, lingua franca, development, Bobangi, vocabulary

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References

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Published

2015-06-15

How to Cite

Топорова, И. Н. (2015). The role of the Bobangi language in the development of Lingala. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, (2), 59–72. Retrieved from https://aasjournal.spbu.ru/article/view/1722

Issue

No. 2 (2015)

Section

Linguistics

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.